In New Threat to Non-Russians, Moscow Wants to Stop Calling Their Languages ‘Native’

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 11 – The Russian government has come up with draft legislation it hopes to push through quietly that will require schools to stop calling the languages non-Russians speak “native” and instead refer to them only as “languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation,” a change that many fear will lead to the further downgrading of both languages and peoples.

            The ministry which oversees public education made this proposed change in April (regulation.gov.ru/Regulation/Npa/PublicView?npaID=156568); and Tatarstan’s Milliard.Tatar portal documented opposition to it among parents, officials, and experts (milliard.tatar/news/ty-kak-nerodnoi-eksperty-trebuyut-obsuzdeniya-pravok-v-zakon-o-yazykax-narodov-rossii-7640).

            The opponents believe that if non-Russian languages, in contrast to Russian, are no longer called “native,” then it will be easier for officials to argue that they aren’t essential and can be dispensed with in schools, continuing a trend that Putin has been promoting for almost a decade and reiterated his support in a speech on May 5.

            In his remarks at that time, the Kremlin leader said that schoolchildren in the Russian Federation are currently overburdened with courses and that some should be eliminated. Not surprisingly, many non-Russians believe that the change in nomenclature for non-Russian languages will put them on the chopping block.

            Their fears were heightened when Putin said at that time that “Russian should be the native language for all” residents of the Russian Federation. Experts from around the country and some members of the Duma have spoken out against this change because it will almost certainly have the effect of reducing the amount of education in non-Russian languages.

            And many of them further believe that cutting back even further on the study of these languages which Putin has made voluntary already will strike at the non-Russian national identities themselves, leading to massive Russianization and Russification and the further homogenization of the population.