https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7682-1145
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ABSTRACT
The article aims to provide a historical overview of language planning and policy in Russia and to establish and analyse the overarching approaches in status, acquisition, and corpus planning. The provided examples and analysis of various stages reinforce the argument that the development of language policy and planning was consistent with the endeavours of political elites to centralise power and adjust the agency use of languages for their political ends. Our data showed that the State has played the key role in the development of the rhetoric either in order to frame language selection or to generate the perception of high or low prestige languages. We argue that the Russian language has always been central for ruling elites. They have supported the development of Russian throughout history while limiting the use and functioning of other national, regional, or minority languages through promoting bilingualism or other approaches generating mass loyalty. Recent changes which diminish the role of minority languages may lead to further deterioration of their status, acquisition, and corpus planning.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 An organized massacre in Russia: orig. and esp. applied to those directed against the Jews. https://www.oed.com/oed2/00182490.
2 Morphological changes dealt with archaic forms that had been used in writing but not in spoken language, e.g., archaic forms of the accusative (animate) and genitive singular of masculine and neuter adjectives.
3 In most cases, the formation of new lexical means was ideologically motivated, e.g., instead of князь ‘prince,’ сударь ‘sir,’ господин ‘mister’ and госпожа ‘missus’ a new greeting form товарищ ‘comrade’ became the most popular form of address, политбюро ‘politburo’ (it was created as a Bolshevik party leading organ), продразверстка ‘the policy compulsory grain requisitioning’ (1918–1921), etc.
4 Resolution № 835 of People’s Commissariat of Education On Schools of National Minorities. 31.10.1918. http://istmat.info/node/31674.
5 Also known as Sakha, Saqa or Saxa.
6 From Russian meaning ‘taking roots.’
8 The People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. The functions of the Cheka and then OGPU (the secret police organisation) were transferred to the NKVD in 1934.
9 The Headquarters of Camps and Places of Detention (GULag), which was the government agency in charge of the Soviet forced-labour camp-system.
11 Petro Shelest was the First Secretary of the Communist party in the Ukrainian SSR (1963–1972).
12 The official name of the republic was the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic or RSFSR (1917 – 1991).
13 Also known as Circassian.
14 Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR On Measures for Further Improvement of the Study and Teaching of the Russian Language in the Union Republics. Pravda, 1978, 13 October.
15 Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR On Measures for Further Improvement of Russian Language Teaching in National Schools of the Republic. Pravda, 1978, 16 October.
16 For example, the deportation of Crimean Tatars and Chechens in 1944; the Virgin Lands Campaign in 1950s and early 1960s, and the growing population of cities and industrial projects in 1970s and 1980s.
17 The policy of glasnost’, ‘openness and transparency’ was introduced by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachov in the mid-1980s and promoted open discussion of various political and social issues.
18 Perestroika ‘restructuring’ is the policy launched by Mikhail Gorbachov and referred to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system.
19 According to World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples https://minorityrights.org/country/russian-federation/.
20 Federal Law № 1807-I On Languages of the Peoples of RSFSR of 25th October 1991. https://cis-legislation.com/document.fwx?rgn=1466.
21 The language situation in the Russian Federation is rather complex since, apart from the Russian language which is the state language for the entire country, there are 35 state and 14 official languages in the constituent republics (Korotich & Mandrikova, Citation2017, pp. 17–19). Since the aim of the current article is to analyse the overarching tendencies in the language policy and planning in the Russian Federation, the term ‘minority languages’ will be used unless in some specific cases, when there is a need to specify the actual status of the language.
22 Federal Law N 74-ФЗ On National Cultural Autonomy of 17th June 1996. https://cis-legislation.com/document.fwx?rgn=1431.
23 Fourth Opinion on the Russian Federation adopted on 20 February 2018. Retrieved June 24, 2019, from https://rm.coe.int/4th-advisory-committee-opinion-on-the-russian-federation-english-langu/1680908982.
24 For example, in Yakutia (Republic of Sakha), there are two official languages – Russian and Sakha – and several local official languages, like Evenki, Even, Yukaghir and Chukotkan, which could be used locally in administration; however, most court proceedings and major events are conducted in Russian. Non-Russian languages are used in education, mostly at primary level.
25 Vladimir Putin held a meeting of the Council on Inter-ethnic Relations in Yoshkar-Ola, Pervyi Kanal. Retrieved July 20, 2017, from https://www.1tv.ru/news/2017-07-20/329185-vladimir_putin_v_yoshkar_ole_provel_zasedanie_soveta_po_mezhnatsionalnym_otnosheniyam.
26 Leader Of Russia’s Komi Region Suspends Cancellation Of Mandatory Komi-Language Classes, RadioLiberty. Retrieved November 15, 2017,from https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-komi-mandatory-classes-suspended-gaplikov/28855623.html
27 PACE, ‘Situation of Finno-Ugric and Samoyed Peoples', 26 October 2006, Doc. 11087. Retrieved October 3, 2021, from https://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/X2H-Xref-ViewHTML.asp?FileID=11601&lang=EN.
28 Every student needs to pass the Unified State Exam after graduation from school in order to get into a university or a professional college. ‘Use in Russian language’ is a compulsory element of the Exam, and students are required to get a minimum number of points. See for more details: https://www.russiaeducation.info/tests/unified-state-exam-in-russia.html.
29 See Gosudarstvennaia Yazykovaia Politika Rossiiskoj Federatsii: Sostoianie i Perspektivy. Materialy ‘kruglogo stola’ 23 noiabria 2013 goda [State Language Policy of the Russian Federation: The Current Situation and Prospects. Proceedings of the ‘roundtable’ of 23rd November 2013] http://duma.gov.ru/media/files/o9KmVfuAA5WyAkfax71mDNY5cxzTyFpx.pdf.
31 Resolution of the Conference Languages of the peoples of Russia during the year of languages of indigenous peoples: problems, challenges, hopes, 25 May 2019, Moscow. Retrieved June 24 2019, from https://vk.com/@-165422661-rezoluciya-konferencii-yazyki-narodov-rossii-v-god-yazykov.
32 See more examples in Dunn (Citation1999); Krouglov (Citation1999, Citation2008); Pavlenko (Citation2013), Yastrebova (Citation2008).
33 Examples provided in this paragraph were taken from online edition of daily newspaper Kommersant. Retrieved June 24, 2019, from https://www.kommersant.ru/finance.
34 Nivkh or Gilyak language belongs to Amuric family of languages spoken by the Nivkh people in Outer Manchuria. Nivkh is often included into the group of Paleo-Siberian or Paleo-Asiatic languages. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Paleo-Siberian-languages.
35 The Sakha language is ‘vulnerable’ according to the UNESCO classification. http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/index.php.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Alex Krouglov
Alex Krouglov is an Associate Professor at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London whose research focuses on the issues of language planning and language policy primarily in Ukraine, Russia, and other countries of Eastern Europe. His research interests also include translation and interpreting. As a Leading Researcher in the field of Higher Education at Rezekne Academy of Technologies in Latvia, he has analysed various issues related to the modernisation of Higher Education, organisation of research and quality assurance.