<div dir="ltr"><div>It shouldn't be assumed that Soviet language policy, with its recognition of language rights for</div>
<div>small linguistic minorities as well as larger ones, was instituted out of the goodness of Lenin's (or Stalin's ) heart. Here's what I said about this in a forthcoming paper:</div>
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<div>"<br></div>
<p class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">1. Early policy involved developing various languages that did not have literary traditions, or had not been used for 'modern' purposes, and using them for mass schooling, communications, public and professional life. The covert goal was to sovietize the population. This was particularly true during the NEP, the New Economic Plan (1917-28).</font></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">2. From 1938 on, the policy became one of universalizing the knowledge of Russian. With this came forced cyrillicization of former roman or Arabic scripts. Covertly this is a policy of 'russification' but overtly it was used to glorify and unify, and prepare for the impending war with Germany.</font></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.75in; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>'[T]he logical ground of Bolshevik policy towards nationalities after the Revolution—the <i>korenizatsiia<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=js&name=js&ver=L0TusViboKI&am=X_E4pcT3fCGN2LIggw#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[1]</span></b></span></span></span></a> </i>constituted a formula according to which those nations whose collective rights had been denied and repressed during the Tsarist period should have access to the free exercise of these rights within the general framework of the building of socialism in order to reach by themselves the conclusion that national sovereignty was not by itself a solution to all the national, cultural, social, political and economic problems of development. The final goal was therefore<b> the merger of all nations into a single socialist community</b>, once all national cultures had had the opportunity to bloom during the period of construction of socialism. All this was stressed by Stalin at the 16th Congress of the CPSU (b) in 1930. (Leprętre 2003; emphasis mine, hfs)</font></font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=js&name=js&ver=L0TusViboKI&am=X_E4pcT3fCGN2LIggw#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"> The term <i>korenizatsiia</i> meant the 'taking root' of language, the 'indigenization' which would allow a bourgeois society to form. Marxist ideology held that this had to happen, and that it then had to be repudiated after it was realized what an impediment it was. But subcultures could not go from the 'feudal' stage (where they were subservient to some other group) to the socialist stage without going through the bourgeois stage.</span></p>
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<div>and further:</div>
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<div>"<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">So early Soviet language policy allowed the development of individual linguistic groups, which were supposed to pass through the stage of bourgeois development ('bourgeois nationalism') only to then realize the futility of the bourgeois nationalist stage, and finally throw it all off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Citizenship did not require any particular language adherence or knowledge, at first. But gradually it became clear that Russian was going to be important for citizens of the Soviet Union.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And Russian was indeed the language that was made available to all, since Russian had the 'personal' right status that the other languages lacked, and because Russian was the 'Big Brother' language from which other languages were supposed to borrow, especially terminology (for science and technology) that they lacked."</span></div>
<div><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></span> </div>
<div><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">So language rights for linguistic minorities was a temporary phrase, which all groups had to pass through, after which they would reject this "bourgeois nationalism" and then merge their</span></div>
<div><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">language with some other (guess which one?)</span></div>
<div><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></span> </div>
<div><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Soviet policy, after Stalin, was covertly assimilationist, and involved covert and overt russification; Russian was the lingua franca of the Soviet Union, so it's no surprise that the South Ossetians and Abkhazians (as well as other linguistic minorities in Georgia) knew Russian, and didn't (and still don't) know Georgian.</span></div>
<div><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></span> </div>
<div><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">My paper on this subject is available on the web at:</span></div>
<div><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/public/3Views4.doc">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/public/3Views4.doc</a></span></div>
<div><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></span> </div>
<div><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">See also: </span></div>
<p class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.5in; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">Leprętre, Marc. (2002) 'Language Policies in the Soviet Successor States: a brief Assessment<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>on Language, Linguistic Rights and National Identity.' <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Papeles del Este</i>, No. 3.</font></font></span></p>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.5in; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></font></span> </div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.5in; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">I think it should also be noted that before the USSR set a "standard" for nationalities policy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a similar policy (as Joshua Fishman</font></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.5in; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">has pointed out.) </font></span></div>
<p class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.5in; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">Hal Schiffman</font></font></span></p>
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 7:44 PM, Ronald Kephart <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rkephart@unf.edu">rkephart@unf.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<div class="Ih2E3d">On 10/7/08 2:07 PM, "Harold Schiffman" <<a href="mailto:hfsclpp@gmail.com">hfsclpp@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><br>> First of all, the USSR was the first country on Earth to set a standard for a<br>
> nationalities policy. The policy called for linguistic and cultural autonomy<br>> for all USSR nationalities.<br><br></div>I studied Russian in the late 1960s and I remember learning about this. As I<br>recall, Russian was taught to everyone, but actual education, especially at<br>
the primary level, was carried out in the local languages. When I traveled<br>to Europe in the summer of 1968 I managed to communicate with people from<br>Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia using Russian, which they had all<br>
studied. The response I usually got was something like "nobody would expect<br>you to study Czech, but at least you have the gumption to study a Salvic<br>language; good for you!"<br><br>Ron<br><br></blockquote>
</div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br>Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br>Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br>
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