The article analyzes Surzhyk (in its Kyiv variant) is as a unique phenomenon which is characteristic for the Ukrainian language situation and has a lasting history. The authors pay particular attention to the consideration and linguistic description of the most characteristic features of Surzhyk, basing on a brief review of the coexistence of different language codes in Central and South-East Ukraine. To analyze this phenomenon the authors employed the comedy «Chasing two rabbits» (which is precedent for the Ukrainian and Russian culture) by the Ukrainian writer M. P. Staritsky where the characters’ speech abounds in the examples of the Russian-Ukrainian language mix. The article also considers the problems of interlingual convergence of the closely-related languages and the influence of one language on the other in terms of phonetics, morphology, lexicology and stylistics. This is conditioned not only by some linguistic reasons but also by extra linguistic (mostly by the status and prestige value of one or another language code.