A Review of Literature on the Language Policy of Imperial Russia and the Modern Linguistic Situation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2019.3.416Keywords:
language policy, Russia between the 19th and early 20th centuries; bilingualism, monolingualism, language building, cyrillisation, language of interethnic communicationAbstract
This article traces Russian nationality and language policies from 1800 to the early 20th century based on historical, historiographic, sociological, and sociolinguistic sources. The 1822 Charter on the Governance of Indigenous Peoples (concerning the peoples of Siberia) was indicative of Russian national policies in general. It ordained that ethnicities be self-governed and that official routines, school education and church services be in native languages. However, following the Polish uprisings of 1830–1831 and 1863, the empire began to tighten its grip on its western regions. Polish was banned from schools and publications outside the Kingdom of Poland, while Ukrainophilia was repressed; alternatively, Lithuanian and Belarusian were advanced and Russian schools introduced. Basically, the policies of Russia reveal a pattern of dynamic fluctuations, dependent on domestic political conditions and the international situation – liberal in calm and prosperous times, repressive in times of external/internal threats. By and large, Russia governed so as to preserve the diversity of its national provinces. In the 20th century, it quite logically resulted in the principle of democratic centralism in the nationality policy of the USSR, the autonomy of Soviet national republics united in a single centralised multinational state. The Russian Federation largely inherited its current nationality policy from imperial and Soviet models.
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Sudakova, N. Ya. (1972). Iz istorii metodiki prepodavaniya russkogo yazyka v nerusskoi shkole [From the History of the Methodology of Teaching the Russian Language in a Non-Russian School]. Makhachkala, Daguchpedgiz. 248 p.
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Ustav ob upravlenii inorodtsev [Charter on the Governance of Indigenous Peoples]. (1977). In Bol’shaya Sovetskaya entsiklopediya v 30 t. 3th Ed. Moscow, Sovetskaya entsiklopediya. Vol. 27, p. 126.
Vakhtin, N. B., Golovko, E. V. (2004). Sotsiolingvistika i sotsiologiya yazyka [Sociolinguistics and Sociology of Language]. St Petersburg, Gumanitarnaya akademiya. 388 p.
Vdovin, A. I. (2013). Russkie v XX veke. Tragedii i triumfy velikogo naroda [Russians in the 20th Century. The Tragedies and Triumphs of the Great Nation]. Moscow, Veche. 624 p.
Yazyki narodov SSSR [Languages of the Peoples of the USSR]. (1990). In Yartseva, V. N. (Ed.). Lingvisticheskii entsiklopedicheskii slovar’. Moscow, Sovetskaya entsiklopediya, pp. 613–615.
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Zekokh, U. S. (2001). Sistema skloneniya adygeiskogo yazyka [Adyghe Language Declension System]. 2nd Ed., add. Maikop, Adygeiskoe respublikanskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo. 204 p.
Alpatov, V. M. (2000). 150 yazykov i politika : 1917–1997. Sotsiolingvisticheskie problemy SSSR i postsovetskogo prostranstva [150 Languages and Politics : 1917–2000. Sociolinguistic Problems of the USSR and Post-Soviet Space]. Moscow, Kraft, Institut vostokovedeniya RAN. 224 p.
Anisimov, V. I. (1911, 2012). Nadely [Allotments]. In Dzhivelegov, A. K. et al. (Eds.). Velikaya reforma 19 fevralya 1861–1911. Russkoe obshchestvo i krest’yanskii vopros v proshlom i nastoyashchem v 6 t. Moscow : Tipografiya Tovarishchestva I. D. Sytina. Vol. 6, pp. 76–103.
Azerbaidzhanskaya SSR [Azerbaijan SSR]. (1969). In Bol’shaya Sovetskaya entsiklopediya v 30 t. 3th Ed. Moscow, Sovetskaya entsiklopediya. Vol. 1, p. 269.
Azerbaijan (N. d.). In Encyclopædia Britannica [website]. URL: https://www.britannica.com/place/Azerbaijan/Cultural-life (mode of access: 25.12.2018).
Belikov, V. I., Krysin, L. P. (2001). Sotsiolingvistika [Sociolinguistics]. Moscow, Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi gumanitarnyi universitet. 315 p.
Dickens, M. (1988). Soviet Language Policy in Central Asia. In Internet Archive [website]. URL: http://www.oxuscom.com/lang-policy.htm (mode of access: 15.05.2019).
Gigin, V. F. (2005). Oklevetannyi, no ne zabytyi (Ocherk o M. N. Murav’eve-Vilenskom) [Slandered but not Forgotten (Essay on M. N. Muravyov-Vilensky)]. In Neman. Iss. 6, pp. 127–139.
Hult, F. (2003). English on the Streets of Sweden : An Ecolinguistic View of Two Cities and a Language Policy. In Working Papers in Educational Linguistics. Vol. 19. No. 1, pp. 43–63.
Ilyin, I. A. (1993). Sobranie sochinenii [Collected Works] : in 10 vols. / Comp.: Yu. T. Lisitsa. Moscow : Russkaya kniga. Vol. VI. 576 p.
Isaev, M. I. (1979). Yazykovoe stroitel’stvo v SSSR [Linguistic Construction in the USSR]. Moscow, Nauka. 350 p.
Іstorіya ukraїns’koї movi [History of the Ukrainian Language]. (2004). In Ukraїns’ka mova. Entsiklopedіya. Kyiv, Ukraїns’ka entsiklopediya, pp. 235–239.
Katkov, M. N. (2002). Slaby ne sily nashi, a slaby nashi mneniya. Neobkhodimo podavit’ vosstanie [Weak is not Our Power, Our Opinions are Weak. Need to Put down the Rebellion]. In Katkov, M. N. Imperskoe slovo. Moscow, Zhurnal “Moscow”, pp. 112–117.
Komi ASSR [Komi ASSR]. (1973). In Bol’shaya Sovetskaya entsiklopediya v 30 t. 3th Ed. Moscow, Sovetskaya entsiklopediya. Vol. 12, p. 505.
Levin, I. (1930). Materialy k politike tsarizma v oblasti pis’mennosti “inorodtsev” [Materials for the Policy of Tsarism in Writing of “Foreigners”]. In Kul’tura i pis’mennost’ Vostoka. Book 6. Baku, Gostipografiya “Krasnyi Vostok”, pp. 3–19.
Naumova, N. I. (Ed.). (1997). Natsional’naya politika v Rossii: istoriya i sovremennost’ [National Policy of Russia: History and Modernity]. Moscow, Russkii mir. 680 p.
Prinyat zakon ob izuchenii rodnykh yazykov [A Law Passed on the Study of Native Languages]. (N. d.). In Gosudarstvennaya Duma Federal’nogo sobraniya Rossiyskoi Federatsii [website]. URL: http://duma.gov.ru/news/27720/ (mode of access: 05.12.2018).
Richter, D. I. (1900). Materialy po voprosu o zemel’nom nadele byvshikh pomeshchich’ikh krest’yan i servitutakh v yugo- i severo-zapadnykh guberniyakh Rossii [Materials on Land Allotment of Former Serfs and Easement in South and North-Western Provinces of Russia]. In Vestnik finansov, promyshlennosti i torgovli. No. 39, pp. 589–591.
Sheiko, V. M., Tishevskaya, L. G. (2006). Istoriya ukrainskoi kul’tury. Uchebnoe posobie [History of Ukrainian Culture. Study Guide]. Kiev, Kondor. 264 p.
Stepanov, V. V. (2010). Podderzhka yazykovogo raznoobraziya v Rossiiskoi Federatsii [Support of the Linguistic Diversity in the Russian Federation]. In Etnograficheskoe obozrenie. No. 4, pp. 101–115.
Struve, N. (1960). The Russian Orthodox Church and Mission. In History’s Lessons for Tomorrow’s Mission : Milestones in the History. Geneva, World’s Student Christian Federation, pp. 105–118.
Sudakova, N. Ya. (1972). Iz istorii metodiki prepodavaniya russkogo yazyka v nerusskoi shkole [From the History of the Methodology of Teaching the Russian Language in a Non-Russian School]. Makhachkala, Daguchpedgiz. 248 p.
Tikhomirov, L. A. (1897). Varshava i Vil’no v 1863 godu [Warsaw and Vilna in 1863]. Moscow, S. n. 44 p.
Tuksaitova, R. (2016). Russkii yazyk v mul’tikul’turnom prostranstve Kazakhstana: gosudarstvennaya politika i obshchestvennye nastroeniya [The Russian Language in the Multicultural Space of Kazakhstan : State Policy and Public Mood]. In Quaestio Rossica. Vol. 4. No. 4, pp. 94–106. DOI 10.15826/qr.2016.4.193.
Ubryatova, E. I. (Ed.). (1982). Grammatika sovremennogo yakutskogo literaturnogo yazyka v 2 t. [Grammar of the Modern Yakut Literary Language. 2 Vols.]. Moscow, Nauka. Vol. 1. Fonetika i morfologiya. 496 p.
Ukrainofil’stvo [Ukrainophilia]. (1902). In Malyi entsiklopedicheskii slovar’ Brokgauza i Efrona v 4 t. [Brockhaus and Efron Small Encyclopaedic Dictionary. 4 Vols.]. (1907–1909). St Petersburg, Izdatel’stvo Brokgauza i Efrona. Vol. 4, pp. 635–638.
Ustav ob upravlenii inorodtsev [Charter on the Governance of Indigenous Peoples]. (1977). In Bol’shaya Sovetskaya entsiklopediya v 30 t. 3th Ed. Moscow, Sovetskaya entsiklopediya. Vol. 27, p. 126.
Vakhtin, N. B., Golovko, E. V. (2004). Sotsiolingvistika i sotsiologiya yazyka [Sociolinguistics and Sociology of Language]. St Petersburg, Gumanitarnaya akademiya. 388 p.
Vdovin, A. I. (2013). Russkie v XX veke. Tragedii i triumfy velikogo naroda [Russians in the 20th Century. The Tragedies and Triumphs of the Great Nation]. Moscow, Veche. 624 p.
Yazyki narodov SSSR [Languages of the Peoples of the USSR]. (1990). In Yartseva, V. N. (Ed.). Lingvisticheskii entsiklopedicheskii slovar’. Moscow, Sovetskaya entsiklopediya, pp. 613–615.
Zamyatin, K. (2012). The Education Reform in Russia and Its Impact on Teaching of the Minority Languages : An Effect of Nation-Building? In Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe. Vol. 11. No. 1, pp. 17–47.
Zekokh, U. S. (2001). Sistema skloneniya adygeiskogo yazyka [Adyghe Language Declension System]. 2nd Ed., add. Maikop, Adygeiskoe respublikanskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo. 204 p.
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2019-09-27
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Shelestyuk, E. (2019). A Review of Literature on the Language Policy of Imperial Russia and the Modern Linguistic Situation. Quaestio Rossica, 7(3), 939–954. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2019.3.416
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