Language Policy in the Soviet Union Chapter 2 An Overview of Soviet Language Policy The Early Soviet Years In 1917 between 70 and 100 of population of various republics was illiterate Vast numbers of different languages and cultures precluded simply sending out teachers First was necessary to target which languages would be developed The Early Soviet Years cont d Lenin claimed to believe that all minorities should be treated equally but that nationalism is incompatible with Marxism Lenin s goal is unification of all people via assimilation not diversity But nationalism was useful when it could be used to advance the proletarian cause if people would support the revolution because they believed they would have the right to selfdetermination they were led down that path The Early Soviet Years cont d The right of every ethnic group to use their own language was a founding principle as seen in Article 121 of 1936 Constitution Early Bolsheviks were mostly Jewish urban elite and had a hard time communicating beyond their group even speakers of Russian dialects could not comprehend them And then there were all the other languages spoken mostly by even less educated peoples The Early Soviet Years cont d As a result Bolsheviks needed a language to communicate with the people but did not want to cede power to them Overtly inclusive language policies were used to Russify native languages by imposing Russian orthography lexicon grammatical patterns The Early Soviet Years cont d Due to political infighting Narkomnats People s Comissariat of the Nationalities failed to secure education in native languages instead Narkompros PC for Enlightenment created educational programs that promoted the domination of Russian Constructing Nationalities Soviet state undertook to classify citizens by nationality and this often entailed constructing nationalities since many people identified themselves according to language or religion the criteria of tsarist censuses not ethnic group Ethnographers in European Russia focused on language but those in Central Asia focused on physical characteristics while Central Asians were themselves focused on religion Constructing Nationalities cont d In 1927 ethnographers suggested 172 nationalities but Soviet state wanted a shorter list of major nationalities The idea was to gradually integrate them into a larger Soviet nationality Problem with selecting a term natsional nost implied some consciousness of culture and history but narodnost did not The Nationalities Question In 1930s Soviet government developed a theory of nationalities to include a class component with an explicit hierarchical organization Claimed a unidirectional development from more primitive backward to an official nationality with its own territory language culture and economy The Nationalities Question cont d Natsia nation natsional nost nationality developed group narodnost ethnic group underdeveloped group narod folk ethnic group a nation is a group of people linked to a governmental nation with a designated territory Every nation is a nationality but not every nationality is a nation Every nation and nationality could be an ethnic group but not every ethnic group is a nationality or nation National in Form Socialist in Content Lenin viewed nationalities as being on the path toward the development of the Soviet state and for him the content of the message was more important than the form language This would be accomplished by convergence and fusion of peoples the ethnic groups would just naturally coalesce to form a single Sovietskii narod Stalin and the Nation State From 1927 to 1953 Stalin defined Soviet policy A nation is a historically evolved stable community of people based upon the common possession of four principal attributes namely a common language a common territory a common economic life and a common psychological make up manifesting itself in common specific features of national culture A nation need not have its own separate national state Stalin the Nation State cont d Stalin defined a nation as A stable community of people with Common territory Common language Common economic life Common psychological make up This definition decided who could or could not be a nation in the USSR Nativization korenizaciia Education in indigenous languages Practical goal was to educate indigenous peoples and get them into the workforce Political goal was to reconcile them with Soviet rule This went well in Georgia Armenia slowly in Central Asia Siberia Nativization korenizaciia cont d Problems Lack of trained teachers and materials those who were sent to Leningrad for training didn t return Low education levels many educated people were bourgeoisie Some languages were unwritten and teachers gave up and taught in Russian Nativization korenizaciia cont d Nativization abandoned in late 1920s Russian promoted as best means to Soviet society Stalin shifts focus from national autonomies to centralized gov t economy in 1930s labels nationalism dangerous Nativization korenizaciia cont d Outcomes Essential link between language and ethnicity language as main criterion for nationhood Officially recognized language provided recognition as an ethnic group In order to be officially recognized a language had to be written which led to the creation of dozens of literary languages into which Soviet political information was translated The Literacy Campaign Likbez likvidaciia bezgramotnosti At time of Revolution only 19 languages had a written form Lack of clear linguistic boundaries Basic research to identify and codify languages was a priority The Literacy Campaign Likbez likvidaciia bezgramotnosti ABCD Hierarchy developed by Party in 1920s to rank nationalities all defined by language other factors are size orthography territory A Small bilingual nationalities lacking written language territorially scattered All education in Russian B Small medium monolingual nationalities lacking written form territorially compact Primary education and propaganda in native language secondary higher education in Russian The Literacy Campaign Likbez likvidaciia bezgramotnosti C Medium large monolingual nationalities with written form in compact territory All education in native language but Russian compulsory from 3rd grade on D Developed nations with written form All education in native language but Russian compulsory from 3rd grade on Literacy went from 24 in 1897 to 51 in 1926 to 81 in 1939 to 99 7 in 1979 Standardization