[lg policy] Russian sector of Azerbaijani mindset

Thu Dec 21 19:41:28 UTC 2017

Russian sector of Azerbaijani mindset
14 Dec in 21:37 Alexandra Nagiba, exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
[image: Russian sector of Azerbaijani mindset]
<http://vestnikkavkaza.net/upload2/2017-12-14/15132745465a32bcb2dea811.79705694.jpg>

*This week the ‘Ambassadors of the Russian language' -  international
volunteer program, whose participants introduce the Russian language,
culture, and literature to foreign students - visited Azerbaijan. Despite
the fact that it is hard to compare the Republic of Azerbaijan with anyone
in terms of use the Russian language, its interests are actively included
in the agenda of the humanitarian cooperation between Russia and
Azerbaijan.*

One of the most striking episodes of the Russian-Azerbaijani language
friendship's history was Lermontov's banishment to the Caucasus, which
turned out to be rather a mercy than a punishment. He wrote: "... if I did
not have a grandmother, then, I would rather stay here. Since I left
Russia, I was traveling constantly, first by post stages, then on bicycles
and horseback. I traveled all the way from Kizlyar to Taman, crossed the
mountains, was in Shusha, Guba, Shamakhi, Kakheti, dressed in the
Circassian clothes, carried a gun on my shoulders, slept in the open field,
fell asleep, when jackals were shouting, ate pita, drank Kakhetian wine.''

In Tiflis, *Lermontov* met with Azerbaijani scientist and poet *Mirza
Fatali Akhundov*, who spoke Russian well. He taught Decembrist writer
Alexander Bestuzhev (Marlinsky), poet Yakov Polonsky and others the
Azerbaijani language. Lermontov also began to learn the Azerbaijani
language. Akhundov was the author of the "Eastern poem on the death of
Pushkin" and read it to Lermontov. Russian and Azerbaijani poets wrote
about Pushkin in different words but with the same feelings, and this
brought them closer. In fact, Lermontov was banished to the Caucasus
precisely for the poem he wrote - Death of the Poet - dedicated to the
death of Pushkin.

The Russian Empire in the Caucasus had a huge cultural impact. This trend
continued in the following years. In the early 1920s, 214,700 people lived
in Baku, and the largest ethnic group was the Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians,
and Byelorussians), 35.5% of them were living in Baku.

Today, the number of Russian schools and universities in Azerbaijan is even
greater than in the Soviet period. For Russia, this situation is especially
valuable in the context of the closure of Russian schools in the Baltic
States and the ban on the study of the Russian language in Ukraine. There
are 358 schools with a Russian sector in the Republic of Azerbaijan and 18
schools, where studies are conducted exclusively in Russian. This summer,
the Minister of Education, Mikail Jabbarov, instructed to continue the
implementation of the project ‘Intensive learning of the Russian language'
by signing an appropriate order. Currently, approximately 90,000
schoolchildren are studying in Russian. Another 450 thousand students learn
Russian as a foreign language.

Baku Slavic University, a branch of the Moscow M.V. Lomonosov State
University, is considered one of the most prestigious higher educational
institutions of Azerbaijan. In 2015, a branch of the I.M. Sechenov First
Moscow State Medical University was opened in Baku. Annually, more than 400
Azerbaijani citizens enter the university.

The Russian Drama Theater is popular in Baku. The performances in Russian
are also staged in the Young Spectator's Theater, puppet theater, and
musical theater. Films in Russian are constantly shown in cinemas. Literary
associations of writers and poets writing in Russian have been working for
many years. Certain conditions have been created for the development of the
Russian culture and realization of the creative potential of the Russian
and Russian-speaking population of the republic.

Azerbaijan's national leader Heydar Aliyev and his successor, President
Ilham Aliyev, played a huge role in preserving the Russian language as the
language of interethnic communication in the country. "The Russian language
has been bringing together the nations and nationalities of the Soviet
Union for a long time," Heydar Aliyev said. ‘'Without replacing or forcing
out other languages, it enriched them and opened the world's broadest
horizons to the peoples of our country."

There are a lot of Russian news agencies in the country. This indicates the
openness of the language policy of Azerbaijan. Such a thoughtful state
policy has helped to strengthen the Russian-Azerbaijani ties, conditioned
by a mutual desire to maximize the benefits of bilateral relations.

The interest of the Russian side is evidenced by the implementation of the
federal target program entitled ‘'Russian language''. Prior to it, the
education in the Russian sector was controlled solely by the government of
Azerbaijan. Eventually, Russia recognized the need to support the Russian
diaspora abroad for the development and maintenance of the status of the
Russian language in the post-Soviet space. This is not the only reason -
Azerbaijan remains an important and profitable political and economic
partner for Russia. The readiness of the Russian government to allocate
funds from the federal budget to finance the spread of the Russian language
abroad underlines understanding of the need for these actions to increase
Russia's prestige on the global arena.

Noteworthy, the Russian language in Azerbaijan is much more popular than in
other South Caucasian republics. Probably, this is due to the fact that
Azerbaijan perceives the Russian language as a part of the mindset. The
same can not be said about other countries in the region, where young
people gradually stop speaking Russian. Perhaps this is due to the fact
that these states do not consider Russia as a long-term partner, steadily
continuing the ‘derussification', started after the collapse of the Soviet
Union.

Today, the Russian community in Azerbaijan is the most numerous in the
South Caucasus, Russian is de-facto the second language in the country.
Such a policy promotes the formation of individuals with a tolerant
consciousness, sense of ethnic pluralism, freely orienting themselves in a
multicultural and polyconfessional environment.

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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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