Non-Russians Aren’t Using Opportunities Russian Law Gives Them to Defend Their Languages, Kazakh Scholar Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 11 – Yerzhan Bateshov, a Kazakh scholar who came to the Middle Volga to help republics there with their Internet sites, says that neither non-Russian officials nor non-Russian parents are using the opportunities that Russian law provides them with to defend and even advance their languages.

            The instructor at Nur Sultan’s Kazakh Agro-Technical Unversity says that “according to the legislation of the Russian Federation, websites of state organs of the republics should be offered in all state languages of those republics. But this requirement often isn’t fulfilled in the regions, and consequently, the law is being violated by officials themselves.”

            Bateshov says that he has raised this issue with the heads of all the national republics in the region “except Tatarstan where all the rules are observed” and “also with the governors of the autonomous districts of the Russian Federation.” Even where the regional governments follow the law, local governments typically don’t (idelreal.org/a/31175492.html).

            “For the preservation of language, people must consider the opportunity of opening national groups in existing Russian-language pre-school institutions in the districts and cities of the republics,” the Kazakh scholar says. The same thing needs to be done in primary schools. And “existing Russian laws allow this to be done.”

            Tragically, “parents or the legal representatives of children rarely use this right.” And they can claim it by writing a letter to the director! Everyone must remember, Bateshov says, that “a language will be preserved if it is in demand.” But if those who speak it don’t make such demands, especially when the law allows, they can’t expect it to survive.