A conference on "language management" policies.

[Natalia Pylypiuk]

1) In a message sent by  Kevin Hannan <GMC0633 at aol.com>, Jan Piotrowicki wrote:

>I myself witnessed an embarrasing moment at my own university, which followed
>the lecture of a visiting Ukrainian scholar.  Our "distinguished Slavists"
>hooted and hollered following the exit of the Ukrainian speaker, who had dared
>to criticize Russocentrism and the role of the Russian language in Ukraine.

2) In his response to Alina Israeli, Uladzimir Katkouski
<e-mail: KatkouskiV at praguemail.rferl.org> made the following comment:

> In Belarus during
>the Stalin's times the authrities fought against nationalism and one of their
>attacks was aimed at the language: the 1933 decree introduced the new rules
>of spelling that made Belarusan a lot closer to Russian.

***

I would like to know at which university occurred the incident described by
Mr. Piotrowicki?

Let me point out that the case of (pardon the euphemism) "language
management" in Belarus' under Stalin was not an isolated case.  In Ukraine
similar policies were formulated by P. Postyshev, V. Balickii and
L.Kaganovich whose credentials as linguists (historical or otherwise)
remain to be established.  In the seventies and eighties the institutes of
linguistics throughout the USSR diligently continued such "managerial"
work.  If their actual effect had not been so tragic, some of the articles
published by these august bodies could be considered entertaining.

It appears that a conference devoted to the comparative study of "language
management" policies throughout the USSR, including non-Slavic republics /
linguistic communities, may yield interesting results.  To the best of my
knowledge, these questions -- thus far -- have been studied in isolation.

SEELANhivtsi  interested in the activities of Postyshev, Balickii and
Kaganovich between 1933-1941 may wish to consult *The Ukrainian Language in
the First Half of the Twentieth Century (1900-1941)* by the dean of
Ukrainian linguistics, George Y. Shevelov (Columbia University, emeritus).


Vitaiu!
Natalia Pylypiuk

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Natalia Pylypiuk, Associate Professor,
Department of Modern Languages & Cultural Studies:
                                  Germanic, Romance and Slavic
200 Arts Building,  University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB T6G 2E6
Canada

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office phone & voice mail:     (403)  492 - 3498
departmental fax:                      (403)  492 - 9106

e-mail address:                       natalia.pylypiuk at ualberta.ca

www.ualberta.ca/~uklanlit/Homepage.html

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