Abstract
In the field of Russian linguistics, history, and jurisprudence, the Russian language is widely regarded as a political instrument and, to some extent, reflects the development and influence of contemporary language policy of the Russian language in the Soviet Union. This study aims to examine the process, characteristics, influencing psychological and sociological factors, and consequences of Russian language policy in the early Soviet Union (1917-1930s). Thematic analysis and discourse strategy analysis methods were employed to achieve this goal. The results indicate that a well-thought-out language policy necessitates the establishment of language legislation and a precise legal definition of the status and use of different languages. The absence of language legislation can be a major drawback of language policy. While the Soviet Constitution and other relevant political documents broadly define the status and use of Russian and other languages, there is no specific language legislation regulating the use of each language. Analysis of word frequency statistics demonstrates that the key concepts of Stalinist policy differed compared to the time of Lenin’s rule, resulting in a lack of effective legal force and strong mechanisms for controlling language policy practices. As the functional advantages of the Russian language become increasingly evident, some ethnic minorities tend to lean towards studying and using it, leading to the emergence of many bilingual and even trilingual individuals. Other minorities with small or underdeveloped populations turn to the Russian language, which is the most widely spoken language. These findings contribute to the theoretical and practical knowledge base for research in the fields of linguistics, linguistic culturology, history, psycholinguistics, and political science. Subsequent research can focus on current aspects of the country’s language policy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.
References
Abduramanova, D., & Rasulmetova, S. (2020). Understanding the relationship of language culture and society. Academic Research in Educational Sciences, 3, 1262–1265.
Alpatov, V. M. (2000). 150 languages and politics. 1917–2000. Sociolinguistic problems of the USSR and the post-soviet space. K RAFT + IV RAN.
Anderson, B. A., & Silver, B. D. (2019). Some factors in the linguistic and ethnic russification of soviet nationalities: Is everyone becoming Russian? In L. Hajda, & M. Beissinger (Eds.), The nationalities factor in soviet politics and society (pp. 95–130). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429313004-5
Arefiev, A. L. (2020). The functioning of the Russian language in the world: Problems and ways to solve them. Education and Science in Russia: Status and Development Potential, 5, 83–138. https://doi.org/10.19181/obrnaukru.2020.5
Ballinger, S., Brouillard, M., Ahooja, A., Kircher, R., Polka, L., & Byers-Heinlein, K. (2022). Intersections of official and family language policy in Quebec. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 43(7), 614–628. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/bjxm8
Bonvillain, N. (2019). Language, culture, and communication: The meaning of messages. Rowman & Littlefield.
Čábelková, I., Smutka, L., Rotterova, S., Zhytna, O., Kluger, V., & Mareš, D. (2022). The sustainability of international trade: The impact of ongoing military conflicts, infrastructure, common language, and economic wellbeing in post-soviet region. Sustainability, 14(17), 10840. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141710840
De Francis, J. (2019). Colonialism and language policy in Viet Nam. De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110802405
Du, J., Li, F. T., Ge, Y., & Zhang, J. (2023). Separation events in Mandarin, Russian and Korean: A crosslinguistic event-categorization study. Review of Cognitive Linguistics, in press. https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00143.du
Elo, M., Kothari, T., & Ivanova-Gongne, M. (2022). Language diversity–multi-ethnic migrant and diaspora resources for international business and entrepreneurship. In M. Latukha (Ed.), Diversity in action (pp. 123–150). Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-226-420221008
Forker, D. (2021). The late success of soviet language policy: The integration of Russian verbs in languages of the former Soviet Union. International Journal of Bilingualism, 25(1), 240–271. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006920947168
Fowler, R., Hodge, B., Kress, G., & Trew, T. (2018). Language and control. Routledge.
Gorlizki, Y., & Khlevniuk, O. (2020). Substate dictatorship: Networks, loyalty, and institutional change in the Soviet Union. Yale University Press.
Grenoble, L. A., & Forker, D. (2021). Language Contact in the Territory of the Former Soviet Union. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Horne, B. D., Rice, N. M., Luther, C. A., Ruck, D. J., Borycz, J., Allard, S. L., Fitzgerald, M., Manaev, O., Prins, B. C., Taylor, M., & Bentley, R. A. (2023). Generational effects of culture and digital media in former Soviet Republics. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10(1), 172. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01670-6
Ishkhanyan, B., Boye, K., & Mogensen, J. (2019). The meeting point: Where language production and working memory share resources. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 48, 61–79. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-018-9589-0
Kadochnikov, D. V. (2019). Goals and objectives of language policy and problems of socio-economic development of Russia. Terra Economicus, 17(1), 96–111.
Kraeva, I., & Guermanova, N. (2020). Language policy of the Russian Federation: Searching for balance among 150 languages. European Journal of Language Policy, 12(2), 135–162. https://doi.org/10.3828/ejlp.2020.8
Kraevskaia, N., & Taylor, N. A. (2022). Moscow’s outreach to Hanoi: Artistic ties between the Soviet Union and Vietnam. Art History, 45(5), 952–973. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8365.12688
Krouglov, A. (2022). Language planning and policies in Russia through a historical perspective. Current Issues in Language Planning, 23(4), 412–434. https://doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2021.2005384
Kvietok Dueñas, F. (2020). Maarja Siiner, Francis M. Hult and Tanja Kupisch (Eds.): Language Policy and Language Acquisition Planning. Lang Policy, 19, 319–321. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-019-09532-1
Lewis, E. G. (2019). Multilingualism in the Soviet Union. De Gruyter.
Lovett, J. (2023). The fate of the nation: Population politics in a changing Soviet Union (1964–1991). Nationalities Papers, 51(4), 888–907. https://doi.org/10.1017/nps.2022.27
Manakov, A. (2021). Russian as a native language in the post-soviet space in comparison with the results of the 1989 census. Pskov Journal of Regional Studies, 46, 79–98. https://doi.org/10.37490/s221979310013894-6
Marzluf, P., & Saruul-Erdene, M. (2019). Mongolia. Language education policy. In A. Kirkpatrick, & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia (pp. 137–150). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315666235-10
Mikhalchenko, V. Y. (Ed.). (2018). Sociolinistics as a scientific discipline in the past, present and future. In E. Vistesen (Ed.), Conference Proceedings Linguistic Unity and Linguistic Diversity in a Multiethnic State International Conference (No. 18-012-20091) (pp. 13–23). Moscow.
Mustajoki, A., Protassova, E., & Yelenevskaya, M. (2019). The soft power of the Russian language: Pluricentricity, politics and policies. Routledge.
Paquette, I. (2021). Language and Cultural Identity in Post-Soviet Frozen Conflicts. Doctoral dissertation. Norfolk: Old Dominion University.
Park, G. (2023). Shifting language orientations: Impact of state-mandated assessments on dual language educators’ language ideologies. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, in press, https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2023.2168513
Reagan, T. (2019). Language planning and language policy in Kazakhstan. In A. Kirkpatrick, & A. J. Liddicoat (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia. Routledge (pp. 442–451). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315666235-31
Rubin, J., & Jernudd, B. (2019). Can Language be planned? Sociolinguistic Theory for developing nations. University of Hawaii Press.
Sacks, M. P. (2019). Foreword to part two: Social change and soviet public opinion. In A. H. Miller, W. M. Reisinger, & V. Hesli (Eds.), Public Opinion and Regime Change (pp. 51–55). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429303470-4
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
Terlikbayeva, N., & Menlibekova, G. (2021). The dynamics of language shift in Kazakhstan. Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, 3(2), 12–22. https://doi.org/10.32996/jeltal.2021.3.2.2
Thompson, T. L. (2019). Ideology and policy: The political uses of doctrine in the Soviet Union. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429044830
Vorobyeva, T., Bel, A., & Voeikova, M. (2023). Grammatical gender agreement in production: The case of heritage Russian. International Journal of Bilingualism, in press, https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069231155333
Wodak, R. (2009). The discourse of politics in action. Palgrave Macmillan.
Zalambani, M., & Lelli, I. (2021). Literary translation as an instrument of censorship in soviet Russia: The institutionalization of the soviet translator. In C. Rundle (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of translation history (pp. 485–504). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315640129-34
Zamyatin, K. Y. (2021). The formation of language policy in Russia’s republics: Ideologies, interests, institutions. Sociolinguistics, 2(6), 61–127. https://doi.org/10.37892/2713-2951-2021-2-6-61-128
Zhang, H., & Cai, S. (2021). Putonghua vs. minority languages: Distribution of language laws, regulations, and documents in mainland China. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 44(14), 2574–2594. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1828598
Zhuang, Y. (2022). Changes and new challenges: The development of Russian historical studies in China since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Canadian-American Slavic Studies, 56(2), 231–246. https://doi.org/10.30965/22102396-05602009
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Mikhailovich Alpatov; Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and the Academy of Philology Vida Yuzhovna Mikhaltchenko for their help in this study.
Funding
The research was supported by the main project of the National Language Commission of China: “Language Planning in Regional and Area Studies” (No: ZDI145-23), and the Research Startup Fund project of Hainan University, China: “Language Policy of the Russian Language in the Early Years of the Soviet Union” (No: kyqd(sk)2324).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The research has no conflict of interest.
Ethical Statement
This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.
Informed Consent
This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Ayixiren, J., Zhao, R. Common Language Development in Multilingual Contexts: A Study of Russian Language Policy in the Early Years of the Soviet Union. J Psycholinguist Res 53, 2 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-024-10053-0
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-024-10053-0