Language & Nationalism

in Europe

Chapter 12: Coming to terms with the past: Language & nationalism in

Russia and its neighbors

Overview

• Discussion limited to:– Ukraine, Belarus, Russian

Federation (European part only) = East Slavs

– Moldova (ties to Romania)

– Estonia (ties to Finland)

– Latvia, Lithuania (historically tied to Poland & parts of Ukraine) = Balts

Russian influence in the region

• Russia, as a major Orthodox power since 15th c, has influenced Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, and Romanians

• All of the states discussed in this chapter were provinces of the Romanov empire until 1917, and then parts of the former Soviet Union

• Large numbers of Russians settled in all of these states, esp. since WWII

Jews and Germans in the region

• All states in the region have small minorities of Jews

• 1648-1654 100K Jews massacred in Ukraine• Persecution of Jews (pogroms) continued up

through WWII• Huge numbers of Jews emigrated• Germans invited to settle in Russian empire under

Catherine the Great, persecuted in WWII, many emigrated in 1980s

The East Slavs• 989 Kievan Rus and

conversion to Christianity • 1240 State collapsed, center of

literacy moved to Novgorod, then capital moved to Moscow under Ivan the Terrible

• Rulers became protectors of Orthodoxy after fall of Constantinople in 1453

The East Slavs, cont’d.

• Old Church Slavonic, with South Slavic features, functioned as the literary language until 18th c

• Alphabetic divide between Orthodoxy with OCS and Cyrillic alphabet vs. Latin church & alphabet

Expansion of Russian Empire

• 17th-19th c Romanovs expand to East, incorporate Siberia

• 18th c Southward expansion to Black Sea• 1703 Founding of St. Petersburg by Peter the Great

(multinational center)• 1721 Russian conquest of Baltic region (previously

in German hands)• 1762-95 Acquisition of Ukraine, Belarus, part of

Poland• 1861 Emancipation of serfs

Russification policies

• From Catherine the Great through the Romanovs, all Russian rulers enforced Russification (Russian in schools, administration, etc.) in all acquired territories

• Russian becomes lingua franca of the area

Russification policies, cont’d.

• Soviet Period: Originally there was some commitment to self-determination for the various nationalities, but then Stalin reintroduced the idea that language was one of the constitutive elements of nationhood

• Russian chauvinism prevailed and most languages suffered serious decline in Soviet period

• 1991 Disintegration of Soviet Union

Post-Soviet states & their languages

• Belarus, Ukraine, & Russia are all E Slavic, use Cyrillic and show OCS influence

• 1755 Lomonosov codified modern Russian• 19th c Ukrainian codified• 1906-14 Belarusian codified• Some ideologues (Solzhenistyn, Rutskoi)

have suggested unification of the three E Slavic countries

Post-Soviet states & their languages, cont’d.

• Russian Federation is extremely linguistically diverse

• Ukraine 73% Ukrainian, 22% Russian

• Belarus 78% Belarusian, 13% Russian, but Belarus was intensively Russified and most Belarusians are more comfortable with Russian than with Belarusian

Post-Soviet states & their languages, cont’d.

• Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania– Estonian is close to

Finnish, most are Lutheran

– Lithuanian & Latvian are close to each other, but Lithuania is Catholic, Latvia is Protestant

Post-Soviet states & their languages, cont’d.

– Estonia 64% Estonian, 30% Russian; fluency in Estonian required for citizenship

– Latvia 54% Latvian, 33% Russian; the number of Russians who can apply for citizenship is limited numerically every year

– Lithuania 81% Lithuanian; less strict citizenship policies

Post-Soviet states & their languages, cont’d.

• Moldova– Romance

language related to Romanian

– Turkish & Yiddish minorities

Post-Soviet states & their languages, cont’d.

– 1859 Romania discarded Cyrillic & switched to Latin, but Moldova kept Cyrillic

– Soviet Union encouraged distinction between Moldovan & Romanian

– 65% Moldovan, 13% Russian, 14% Ukrainian, 4% Gagauz (Turkish), 2% Bulgarian

– 1988-9 switch to Latin alphabet & recognition of identity with Romanian

Post-Soviet states & their languages, cont’d.

• Ukraine -- particularly complex, many dialects are very close to Russian, many people are bilingual, close ties also to Polish

• Ukraine was breadbasket of Russia/Soviet Union• Ukrainian often identified as “Little Russian” or

“South Russian”• Multiple loyalties are the norm, Ukrainian

nationalism is “a minority faith”

Concluding notes

• Economies have declined in post-Soviet era, creating potential for trouble that could be exploited by nationalists. With some terrible exceptions (Chechnya), much violence has been avoided