Moscow’s New Language Policy Document Drops All References to Problems of Non-Russian Languages Contained in 2021 Draft

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 1 – In 2021, the Moscow Institute of Linguistics prepared a draft concept paper on the Russian government’s language policy. That text contained discussions of the problems facing the country’s non-Russian languages. But the approved version released two weeks ago has dropped all such references, sparking criticism by non-Russian activists.

            These changes are one of the clearest signs of just how far in the direction of Russianization and Russification the Putin regime has moved over the last several years and of the fears many non-Russians have that many of their languages are slated for destruction however much Russian officials insist otherwise.

            (The new text itself is available at nevarono.spb.ru/file/Чалганская/РАЗНОЕ_2023-2024/РАСПОРЯЖЕНИЕ_ПРАВИТЕЛЬСТВА_ОБ_УТВЕРЖДЕНИИ_КОНЦЕПЦИИ_ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЙ_ЯЗЫКОВОЙ_ПОЛИТИКИ.pdf. The criticism this policy paper has attracted is surveyed at idelreal.org/a/russkiy-yazyk-stavitsya-vyshe-po-ierarhii-o-novoy-kontseptsii-rossiyskoy-yazykovoy-politiki/33012696.html.)

            Varvara Korkina, a specialist on the indigenous peoples of the North and the Far East denounces this change and says pointedly that the situation for many of the nations she follows is increasingly break given that there is now no indication that the center will do anything to help them preserve their languages (t.me/arctidaio/245).

            Valera Ilinov, the founding editor of Komi Daily, agrees and says that the new document makes it crystal clear that for Putin and his regime, “the Russian language has been elevated to a status higher than all the rest” and that unless the republics resist, something they are not doing yet, the future of their languages will deteriorate further.

            And Daavar Dorzhin, an Oyrat-Kalmyk activist, while insisting that the new document simply reinforces current trends rather than changing the overall direction of Moscow’s language policy, suggests that it will open the way for even more Russianizing and Russifying policies in the republics.

            According to the activist, “Russian language policy for many years does not consider the preservation of indigenous languages as a primary goal and fails to implement even the modest guarantees it appears to offer to those who speak them.” Instead, “everything good that happens” in this language sphere “is possible thanks to private initiatives.”

            But “today,” Dorzhin continues, “when the Russian government persecutes them for ‘extremism,’ ‘separatism,’ and anti-war views, it is hard to believe in positive changes no matter how many declarations Moscow makes about ‘a multinational people … A real turning point will occur only when the regions gain independence.”