Following Protests from Tatarstan and North Caucasus, Moscow Retreats from Plan to Stop Calling Languages of Non-Russians ‘Native’

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 22 – The non-Russian peoples of the Russian Federation got a rare victory in their conflict with Moscow over how they are be treated. Following protests from Tatarstan and the North Caucasus republics, Moscow has dropped plans to stop calling their languages “native” and instead to call them with the nebulous term “languages of the peoples of Russia.”

            The conflict arose when Yelena Yampolskaya, cultural affairs advisor to Putin, insisted that calling the non-Russian languages “native” is impermissible because “if Russian isn’t native, then Russia is not the motherland.” But non-Russians were outraged by the idea that they would be forced to call their native languages something else.

            The Tatars of the Middle Volga were the most vocal in their dissent, and their anger rose to their republic’s State Council which demanded that that Moscow not make this change. They were supported by many non-Russians in the North Caucasus who planned a petition drive but dropped that initiative after Moscow backed down following Kazan’s dissent.

            On this back and forth, see realnoevremya.ru/news/345198-deputaty-ot-rt-dobilis-u-minprosvescheniya-sohraneniya-nazvaniya-rodnogo-yazyka, business-gazeta.ru/article/671860, tatar-inform.ru/news/rodnoi-on-odin-ne-vybiraetsya-ne-menyaetsya-pocemu-eksperty-protiv-izmenenii-fgos-5991367, echofm.online/stories/v-tatarstane-razgoraetsya-konflikt-s-moskvoj-iz-za-novogo-obrazovatelnogo-standarta-dlya-shkolnikov, tatar-inform.ru/news/rodnoi-on-odin-ne-vybiraetsya-ne-menyaetsya-pocemu-eksperty-protiv-izmenenii-fgos-5991367 and zapravakbr.ru/index.php/30-uncategorised/1985-valerij-khatazhukov-blagodarya-printsipialnoj-i-posledovatelnoj-pozitsii-deputatov-respubliki-tatarstan-proekt-minprosveshcheniya-rf-ne-proshel.

            Despite victory in this battle, many non-Russians fear that Moscow still plans to win the war by pursuing a campaign of “total Russification” despite making this concession. On their views, see idelreal.org/a/tsel-totalnaya-rusifikatsiya-moskva-sokraschaet-chasy-prepodavaniya-rodnyh-yazykov-teper-s-dvuh-do-odnogo/33480638.html.

            They are likely right, but there are three reasons why this victory matters. First, those taking part in the protest against Moscow’s proposal argued that the center shouldn’t be making decisions about them without their participation, a view that ever more people in the federal subjects share.

            Second, defeating this Moscow policy position became possible when one republic was prepared to take a principled and consistent stand and then gained support elsewhere, leading the center to conclude that this battle over nomenclature was one not worth fighting as long as it could do what it wanted on the ground as it were.

            And third, there is one group that may benefit more from this non-Russian victory than any other. That is the Circassians who want their diaspora population to be allowed to return as compatriots who speak Circassian, a native language of several republics in the North Caucasus but not Russia and will use this nomenclature victory to press their case.