Europe, Headlines, Human Rights

RUSSIA: The Language of Influence Weakens

Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW, Sep 16 2009 (IPS) - Nearly all of the former Soviet republics have adopted native languages that were suppressed during the communist era at the expense of Russian. This is affecting Russia’s influence over the commonwealth of independent states.

For more than seven decades, the Russian language spanned all 15 Soviet republics with a combined population that had grown to 270 million. Russia is still looking for recognition of its language in these republics.

Russia’s effort stems from the fact the authorities still view it as an instrument by which they can exert control in the Soviet region, says Aleksandr Lytvynenko from the Kiev-based Razumkov Centre, a non- government think tank researching public policy.

“This relates especially to Ukraine and Belarus, whose population in Russia is considered an integral part of the united Russian people,” Lytvynenko told IPS from Kiev. “The strengthening of the position of the Russian language and culture in these states becomes more important, and also in the Baltic states and central Asia.” Russian is widely spoken in many parts of the former Soviet republics, but is not officially recognised as state language.

Some analysts think that the Russian language cannot be used as an instrument for exerting influence, even though it has a role to play.

“During the period of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) it was absolutely a necessity which, in my opinion, remains today,” Bahodirkhon Anvarhojayevich Eliboyev from the Independent Human Rights Defenders in Fergana, Uzbekistan, told IPS. “Russian language was and remains the language of inter-ethnic communication. However, during that period, there was suppression of other language cultures, which has taken a heavy toll on society.”

He said the Baltics states Estonia, Latvia and Lituania have joined the European Union (EU), and “for these republics there is no benefit in speaking Russian; they need a language which Europeans speak.”

Ara Sanjian from the Armenian Research Centre at the University of Michigan says that in Armenia and in many of the republics there are now few Russian language television programmes, and as a rule they are shown with subtitles in native languages.

In the south Caucasus, Sanjian said, (where the number of Russians is small compared, say, to Kazakhstan), use of the native language “is a by-product of growing national consciousness and pride. Russia is definitely seen as using economic pressure and energy resources to maintain its grip. I am certain it will also use language if it believes it can be used as a tool to achieve the same aim.”

In July, Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmon proposed banning the use of Russian in public institutions and official documents. He said the move would promote the development of Tajik, and bolster patriotism. The Baltic states banned the use of Russian soon after the Soviet collapse.

Language has been a contentious issue in relations between Russia and Ukraine, where some political groups have opposed the ‘Russification’ of the country. Russian dominates in the east, the Crimea and the capital. Many in the former Soviet republic never learnt Ukrainian.

Use of Russian has been restricted in many republics despite Russian government efforts at preserving the language. Last year Russia earmarked 16 million dollars for promoting Russian and to support an estimated 30 million ethnic Russians living abroad, mostly in former Soviet states.

Russian is the official state language in Belarus, and has official or semi- official status in some ex-Soviet republics such as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, says Alexander Chepurin, head of relations with the Russian diaspora at the Foreign Ministry.

Russian officials say ‘de-Russification’ policies and the forcible adoption of native languages in education, media, judicial and administrative institutions is creating cultural gaps in the former Soviet space.

Several international human rights organisations have called on the former Soviet republics to make Russian a second official language, but most governments have not changed their policies.

“No one disputes efforts by a state to reinforce the state language, but it is also well known that such actions must not harm the language rights of national minorities, especially when a country’s population is nationally heterogeneous,” the Russian foreign affairs ministry says in an official statement.