Language Policy in the Soviet Union

Chapter 1: Introduction

Former USSR 1917-1991

• Deliberate use of language policy to further political goals

• Two contradictory trends:– National languages were manipulated to

create a sense of identity among individual groups of people

– Strong promotion of Russian as single national language

Dimensions of USSR

• 8,649,490 square miles (1/6 of dry land on Earth)

• 286,000,000 people in 1991 (over 50% Russian, 81% Russian speakers)

• 130 ethnic groups

• Approximately 200 languages

• 15 Republics, each organized around a major nationality

Language hierarchy created by USSR

• 1st tier: Russian, sole official language of administrative, educational and legal practice

• 2nd tier: titular languages with official status within their Republic

• 3rd tier: languages with written forms and some gov’t support but no official status

• 4th tier (bottom): languages without official support

1. Organization of the Soviet State

• Republics can be grouped as:– Baltics (Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian)– Caucasus (Armenian, Azerbaijan, Georgian)– Central Asia (Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik Turkmen,

Uzbek)– Slavic + Moldova (Russian, Belorussian,

Ukrainian, Moldovan)– Russian Far East (Siberia)

1. Organization of the Soviet State, cont’d.

• Republics did not follow strict ethno-linguistic boundaries, but had political purposes

• Some Republics designed to create new identities or destroy old ones

• Central Asia was pan-Turkic, pan-Islamic, distinction Uzbek vs. Kyrgyz is new

• Old clan associations of Siberia were suppressed in favor of larger nationality

1. Organization of the Soviet State, cont’d. 1939 census

• The three largest ethnic groups are all Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian) = 78%

• Next largest segment of population is Turkic languages (Uzbek, Tatar, Kazakh)

• Remaining languages of top ten ethnic groups are titular languages of the Caucasus (Azerbaijani, Georgian, Armenian)

1. Organization of the Soviet State, cont’d. since 1939

• Birth rates (high for Turkic, esp Uzbek, low for Slavic), genocide, WWII -- all these factors shifted population

• New top ten list is: Russian, Ukrainian, Belorusan, Kazakh, Tatar, Azerbaijani, Armenian, Tajik, Georgian

2. Linguistic map of USSR

• Language families:– Indo-European– Altaic (Mongolian, Tungusic, Turkic)– Uralic (Finno-Ugric, Samoyedic)– Caucasian– Paleosiberian (families and isolates based on

location: Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Eskimo-Aleut, Ket, Nivkh, Yukagir)

– Isolates

2. Linguistic map of USSR

• Indo-European– Over 80% of USSR had an I-E language as

native language– Baltic – both living Baltic languages in USSR– Entire East Slavic subfamily, plus Poles and

other West Slavs in Lithuanian & Ukrainian SSRs

2. Linguistic map of USSR

• Indo-European– All four subgroups of Indo-Iranian

represented:• North-West Iranian (Kurdi, Talysh, Beludji)• South-West Iranian (Tajiki, Farsi, Tat)• North-East Iranian (Osetin, Yagnobi)• South-East Iranian (Rushani, Bartongi, Oroshor,

Shugni, Yazgulya, Ishkashimi, Wakhi)

– Largest is Tajiki, with over 4M in 1989 in USSR

2. Linguistic map of USSR

• Altaic – composition of this family is controversial due to

internal complexities, migrations of speakers, lack of clear ethnonyms, language contact

– Altaic languages: agglutinating, vowel harmony, grammatical number & case, but NO gender, SOV

– Three major branches in USSR:• Turkic (Uzbek, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Tatar)• Mongolian• Tungusic

2. Linguistic map of USSR

• Turkic– Most Turkic languages (except Turkish) spoken in

USSR, over 50M speakers in 1989– Turkic language continuum from Azerbaijan SSR in W

to S regions of Tajik SSR, and from S of Tajik SSR N to the Chuvash SSR – in this area, language is mutually comprehensible

– More distinct Turkic languages: Chuvash, Yakut, Dolgan, Gagauz (Moldavian SSR), Urum (Georgian SSR)

2. Linguistic map of USSR

• Mongolian – Only 2 Mongolian languages (Buriat, Kalmyk)

spoken in USSR– Classical Mongolian served as literary

language for most Mongolian languages– Vowel harmony, vowel length, human vs. non-

human (in pl)– Case before possessive affix (opposite order

from Turkic)

2. Linguistic map of USSR

• Tungus (these languages spoken in Siberia and China, related to Manchu)– Evenki (30K), Even, Negidal; Orok (only 190),

Oroch, Nanai, Udihe, Ulch – all groups are small, traditionally nomads,

dialectal fragmentation– Agglutination, vowel harmony, lack of gender,

contact with Russian & Turkic

2. Linguistic map of USSR

• Uralic: Finno-Ugric & Samoyedic

• Vowel harmony, lots of cases, agglutination, lack of gender– Finno-Ugric:

• 32 languages (includes Finnish & Hungarian), all spoken in USSR

– Ugric (Siberia): Khanty/Ostyak, Mansi/Vogul – Finno-Permic: Komi-Permyak, Komi-Zyrian (Komi

ASSR), Urdmut (NE of Moscow); Old Permic recorded by Stephen of Perm 14th c

2. Linguistic map of USSR

• More Finno-Ugric:– Finno-Cheremisic

• Cheremisic (2 languages)– High Mari, Low Mari

• Finno-Mordvinic– Baltic-Finnic (Estonian), Balto-Finnic (Finnish), Lappic

(Saami)

2. Linguistic map of USSR

• Samoyedic (all are indigenous to Siberia):– Northern: Enets, Nenets, Nganasan – Southern: Selkup

Very small numbers of speakers, ranging from only 200 up to 35K

Vowel harmony, agglutination, sg/du/pl

Caucasian

• North Caucasian vs. South Caucasian (Kartvelian) may not be related to each other

• South Caucasian: – Georgian, Svan, Laz, Mingrelian

• North Caucasian:– Northwest (Abkhaz-Adyghe)– Northeast (Nakh-Daghestanian)– (see diagram of all the languages)

Caucasian

• Caucasian languages are famous for:– Long consonant clusters (Georgian)– Large phonemic inventory (Ubykh)– Ergativity– Postpositional– SOV and SVO

Paleosiberian

• Languages that are relatively isolated and not related to each other

• Tend to be ergative and agglutinating and to express grammar with prefixes, and to lack gender

• Eskimo-Aleut covers Siberia, Canada, Greenland, Alaska

• Chukchi -- different pronunciations of consonants depending on gender of speaker

• Gilyak -- consonant alternations conditioned syntactically and 5 degrees of near/farness in demonstratives

3. Ethnic composition of USSR

• No republic was monolingual• Language was seen by Soviet state as key trait in

identifying ethnicity, and this fact was manipulated both by official policy and by individuals reporting census data

• The majority of non-Russians declared their heritage language to be their native language, only 15% (1989) declared Russian as their native language

• Over half of non-Russians speak Russian, total of 75% of USSR spoke Russian

4. Analyzing the USSR

• Language policy was careful & deliberate, for vast numbers of unrelated languages

• Goals were not transparent, sometimes contradictory, and always secretive

• Promotion of Russian accelerated over time, suppression of other languages, squelching of nationalist movements

4. Analyzing the USSR: data

• Soviet census data– Very politicized: 1926, 1937, 1939, 1959, 1970, 1979,

1989– Number of nationalities recognized varied– “Native language” interpreted as language of childhood– 2nd Language ability self-reported– “From the time of the first All-Union Census, ethnic

identity was constructed by the Soviets, not by the people.”

• Soviet laws & legislation• Soviet statistics

4. Analyzing the USSR: names, ethnonyms, and spelling

• The naming of languages and ethnic groups in USSR was politicized

• Before formation of USSR, many minority languages and ethnic groups did not have names, and ethnic groups were created by Soviet policy, along with Russified names

• Lots of confusion…

4. Analyzing the USSR: conclusion

• Complex interactions of many ethnic groups and local vs. state-level politics meant that policies were not very uniformly implemented

• For example, all languages (few exceptions) were required to use Cyrillic by late 1930s, but this was variously implemented…