RUSSIAN LANGUAGE STILL NEEDS PROTECTION
Alexei Peskov
Moscow News
June 19 2008
Russia
The Russian language has encountered serious problems in recent
times both in the former Soviet republics and in the Russian
Federation. People are using less literary Russian in their everyday
communication, the influence of foreign languages is growing and
obscene language is spreading. These were the subjects that were
discussed at a roundtable conference that took place on June 17 in
the RIA Novosti news agency headquarters.
This round table meeting was held as part of the Session of the
Forum of the youth elites of the CIS countries, which is a public
and educational project by the Center for Political Conjuncture
of Russia within the framework of a grant from the President of
Russia. Representatives of 10 CIS countries took part. The tasks of
the Forum are the development of the intellectual interaction and an
establishment of links between youth from the post-Soviet states,
as well as civic diplomacy in relations between Russia and the
neighboring states.
Speaking at the press-conference, the Director General of TSIRKON
research group Igor Zadorin, said that research reveals differences
in terms of the dispersal and the number of people who know
Russian. According to him, there are countries in the CIS where an
overwhelming majority of the population said that they know Russian
either fluently or use it as the second native language, and there are
such states where less than one third of the population said that they
know Russian fluently, and first of all these are the Trans-Caucasian
republics and Lithuania.
"The same situation can be observed in the former Soviet republics,
in terms of knowledge of the Russian language by younger children,"
he said. "And it must be that people at work communicate in Russian
more and more seldom than at home. This is related to some legal and
juridical restrictions on the use of the Russian language at work. And
there are countries in which this distinction is considerable and
significant. Such countries are Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia. Questions
were also asked by us how often people watch TV in Russian, read
newspapers or books. And the research also revealed that in the
Trans-Caucasus and in the Baltic countries a consumption of information
in the Russian language lags behind other CIS states. And we also
observed the following picture. If in Tajikistan and in Armenia the
usage of the Russian language is not widely developed, the demand and
requirement are obviously on the rise. More and more people in these
countries want to learn or to improve the knowledge of the Russian
language and to use it. Such demand is also significant in Kyrgyzstan
where an overwhelming majority of those polled said Russian teaching
should be expanded.
"The matter is that very many guest workers from these countries
temporarily live and work in Russia. And these are economic reasons
which can give an explanation of such a demand. And most of those
polled expressed desire and hope to increase the level of knowledge
of the Russian language."
He then continued that there are countries in which, according to his
assessment, the current state of the Russian language is acceptable,
and the practice of its usage is extensive. "Such countries, first
of all, are Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. And there are countries
where the Russian language has actually already left the information
space, its current usage has been lowered and the demand in the
Russian language is inconsiderable. And its current state is accepted
as satisfactory by most of citizens of these countries. These are,
first of all, the Trans-Caucasian republics, Georgia and Azerbaijan,
and the Baltic states, such as Estonian and Lithuania. Also among
the countries where the demand in learning Russian is significant
is Moldova. In fact, up to one third of men, citizens of Moldova,
are constantly absent because they work abroad, and one half of
those absent work in Russia." He then emphasized the significance of
the economic aspect of learning of the Russian language. Of course,
according to Zadorin, the importance of the cultural factor should not
be diminished but the economic factor is so far in the first place,
it is now dominating. He said that more educational programs should
be conducted in this respect in the CIS countries, especially in
those in which the demand in learning the language is so considerable.
Political figure Alexei Mitrofanov said that quite recently the
Center for World Strategies had been formed in Russia by the Just
Russia party. "One of its important tasks is the popularization of
the Russian language. We shall also help our countrymen who find
themselves in a difficult and complicated situation abroad, including
those who had been imprisoned or simply abandoned. The matter is
that on the territory of some CIS states armed conflicts continue,
and many Russian citizens simply cannot leave these regions. And the
time has come to settle these problems and to help these people."
It was also emphasized at the news conference that many people in
distant countries are eager to learn Russian. For instance, this
phenomenon can be observed in China. Young Chinese now know Russian
worse that the Chinese people of the older generation but they are
eager to learn and to master the language. And many Chinese even
remember and know Russian songs by heart and melodies even better
than members of the Russian delegations who visit China.
The total number of people who know or learn Russian abroad is 300
million.
The roundtable participants noted that the Russian language is
gradually gaining popularity both in the post-Soviet space and in
other countries and expressed the hope that many nations would soon
understand the need to learn it.
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