Central Asian Elites Continue to Use Russian on the Internet while Central Asian Peoples Increasingly Use Their Native Languages, Bugin Info Reports

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 4 – Prior to acquiring independence in 1991, Moscow promoted the spread of the use of Russian among Central Asians; and officials in those countries still claim high rates of Russian-language knowledge there. But a closer look suggests the use of Russian is declining with elites and masses making very different choices.

            That is the conclusion of a detailed investigation by the Bugin Info portal into the languages peoples of the five Central Asian countries use when they turn to the Internet which an ever increasing fraction in all five of them are now doing (bugin.info/detail/issledovanie-russkii-iazy/ru).

            According to the study, there is already “a clear watershed” as far as the language used on the Internet between the population as a whole and more elite groups. Most people in Central Asia turn to the internet for entertainment and use their national languages; most elite groups who seek analytic pieces continue to use Russian.

            The authors of the study conclude that over the next decade, the number of people in the population of the Central Asian countries who will use Russian when they turn to the Internet will continue to fall but that those elite groups who need analysis will still use Russian. That finding provides an important corrective to claims about very high Russian language use there.

            And the authors of the study write that “Russian has already ceased to be the universal language of the region but it has not yet become alien.” Instead, “it slowly but confidently being transformed into the language of the professional class, the older generations, and members of diaspora groups.”