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Formation of the State Territory of the Former USSR and Circulation of Russian Language Nowadays

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Abstract—

The article examines the current state of the space of the Russian language as a result of the relationship between various ethnocultural communities. The research area is limited to so-called “post-Soviet” countries. However, the time intervals encompassed by the study vary depending on the length of time these countries or parts of them have remained within a single state. The study verifies the hypothesis of a relationship between the duration that countries or regions remain within a single state and the degree of change in their language space. Regions of the post-Soviet space were combined into groups depending on how long they remained in a single state. A modern assessment of the state of the Russian language space is given for 2010. As a result of the study, the hypothesis is confirmed only as a general trend and therefore attention is paid to regions falling outside this pattern. In particular, within Russia, Kaliningrad Oblast and the southern Far Eastern regions are territories that have relatively recently become part of a single state, characterized by a high degree of language assimilation by the Russian ethnic group. In republics of Chuvashia, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Kalmykia, Dagestan, Ingushetia, and Chechnya, conversely, despite the duration they have remained within Russia, the smallest degree of transformation of the language space influenced by the Russian ethnic group is observed.

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Notes

  1. The authors of present paper attempted to identify the general trends of the ethnic transformation in all post-Soviet countries in (Manakov and Danilkina, 2021).

  2. http://pop-stat.mashke.org/. Accessed August 14, 2020.

  3. https://www.belstat.gov.by/informatsiya-dlya-respondenta/ perepis-naseleniya/perepis-naseleniya-2009-goda/statisticheskie-publikatsii/statisticheskie-byulleteni/index. Accessed August 14, 2020.

  4. https://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/perepis2010/croc/Documents/Vol4/pub-04-09.pdf. Accessed August 14, 2020.

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Funding

The research is supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project no. 20-05-00369 (“Transformation of the Ethnocultural Space of Post-Soviet States: Factors, Trends, Prospects”).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pskov State University, 180000, Pskov, Russia

    A. G. Manakov & N. V. Danilkina

  2. Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, 236016, Kaliningrad, Russia

    A. G. Manakov

Authors
  1. A. G. Manakov
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  2. N. V. Danilkina
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Correspondence to A. G. Manakov or N. V. Danilkina.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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The article was updated by the authors in 2021 for publication in Regional Research of Russia.

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Manakov, A.G., Danilkina, N.V. Formation of the State Territory of the Former USSR and Circulation of Russian Language Nowadays. Reg. Res. Russ. 11, 212–219 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S207997052102009X

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