The Language Policies of the Soviet Union

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The Language Policies of the Soviet Union

• Levi Turner
• April 12, 2006
• Ling075

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(No Transcript)
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Soviet Languages

• Nearly 200 distinct languages representing 5
  language genetic families
• Indo-European (80 claim an IE language (as of
  1992))
• Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Kurdi, Farsi, and
  Tajiki
• Uralic
• Finnish, Hungarian, Saami, and Permic
• Altaic
• Uzbek and Tatar
• Caucasian
• Georgian and Chechen
• Paleosiberian
• Not genetically related, isolated to Siberia
• Itelmen, Ket, and Tundra

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Early Soviet Language Policy

• Need for literacy
• Orthographic reform
• Struggle for equality among ethnic groups
• Natsional'nost' (nationality)
• Russian language influence
• Marrism

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Later Soviet Language Policy

• Khrushchev
• Russian as the national language ? Linguistic as
  well as national unity
• Thesis 19 (1959)
• Native language education no longer compulsory
• Russification
• From "right" to "opportunity"
• Perestroika

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Soviet Attitudes on the issue of language

• Russian monolinguals vs. Bilingual Non-Russian
  speakers
• 1959 54.7 population's mother tongue was
  Russian
• Non-Russian bilingualism 42.6
• Ethnic Russian bilingualism 3.1
• Favoritism, even among the elite

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"And you are lynching Negroes"

• Russian "? ? ??? ?????? ???????", Czech "A u
  vás lyncují Cernochy" (Literally, "Why do you
  beat the Blacks?"))

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Volga Germans

• 17th century origins in Russia
• Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
  (1924)
• population 2/3 German
• 1941 Deportations after the German invasion of
  Russia
• 1957 Returns?
• Treatment in their new home

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Volga Germans
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Crimean Tatars

• History and connection with Islam
• WWII and State Defense Committee Decree No.
  5859ss
• 1967 Decree absolving guilt
• Return to Crimea?

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Crimean Tatars
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Sources

• Comrie, Bernard. (1981) The Languages of the
  Soviet Union. Cambridge University Press.
• Conquest, Robert. The Nation Killers.
• Grenoble, Lenore. (2003) Language Policy in the
  Soviet Union.
• Nekrich, Aleksandr. (1978) The Punished Peoples
  The deportation and fate of Soviet minorities at
  the end of the Second World War. WW Norton
  Company.

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Sources (2)

• Ornstein, Jacob. Soviet Language Policy
  Continuity and Change in Ethnic Minorities in the
  Soviet Union ed. Erich Goldhagen
• Soviet State Defense Committee Decree No. 5859ss
• Wikipedia Crimean Tatars, Expulsion of Germans
  After WWII, Involuntary Settlements in the Soviet
  Union, Population Transfer in the Soviet Union,
  and Volga Germans.