Putin’s Policies Freeing Those Named to Head Non-Russian Republics from Learning Titular Languages

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 8 – Five years ago, Vladimir Putin declared that no one should be forced to study a language (other than Russian, of course), a declaration that led to the adoption of Russian laws that eliminated the requirement that all school children in non-Russian republics within the current borders of the Russian Federation study the titular nationalities.

            That has sent the numbers of children studying these languages plummeting both because Russians are generally not doing so any longer and non-Russians are not doing so in order to spend more time on other subjects, choices that many see as a threat to the survival of these nations (milliard.tatar/news/glava-udmurtii-ya-cestno-otvecu-ya-ne-vyucil-udmurtskii-yazyk-2530).

            Putin’s policy, however, is already having a broader and deleterious effect. Until he announced it, most leaders of the non-Russian republics even if they were ethnic Russians and appointed by Moscow at least suggested that they were learning the language of the republic they are the heads of.

            Now, apparently, regional heads appear to feel no such responsibility, a change that casts yet another dark shadow on the future of non-Russian languages. After all, if the head of a non-Russian republic doesn’t feel any obligation to know the language of the republic, why should anyone else?

            This shift has come to light in a statement by Aleksandr Brechalov, head of Udmurtia since 2017. He acknowledged he hasn’t learned Udmurt and doesn’t intend to. Brechalov says he gave up on the idea of ever doing so after hearing about two Udmurts who were arguing about how to pronounce the same word (milliard.tatar/news/glava-udmurtii-ya-cestno-otvecu-ya-ne-vyucil-udmurtskii-yazyk-2530).

            One of the governor’s aides, a Russian who does know Udmurt, told his boss that there was no need for him to learn the language. He could do everything required with Russian alone, a position undoubtedly in line with that of the Kremlin but hardly one that every Udmurt or other non-Russian supports.