RUSSIFICATION

Russification: translation

Unofficially and officially, Russification (rusifikatsiia) of the country’sethnic minoritieshas been a part of Russian rule for centuries. Russification is the forced adoption of theRussian language, mores, dress, religious beliefs,culture, and/or civilization. The concept can be distinguished from the more neutral “Russianization,” which implies a passive or voluntary embrace of Russianness. Under the tsars, cultural and linguistic Russification ofOrthodoxSlavs (includingUkrainiansand Belarusians) and Finno-Ugric peoples (such as theMordvins,Mari,Karelians, andUdmurts) existed side-by-side with forced conversions ofshamanist indigenous peoples of the northandMuslim Tatars,Bashkirs, andCaucasiannations.

After the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922, official policies ofkorenizatsiia(rooting or indigenization) were imposed to prevent so-called Great Russian nationalism from eradicating local cultures.Joseph Stalinchose the Russian culture as the model for the creation of the common Soviet culture, which was imposed on all Sovietnational minorities.The establishededucationaland politicobureaucratic structure of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) naturally led to the dominance of Russian as the “language of interethnic communication,” a trend that was only increased with theKhrushchev-era policy ofsblizheniie(drawing together) of ethnic groups and cultures. Fluency in Russian, with all its accompanying cultural effects, became the norm for nearly all peoples of theRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republicand the urban areas of the other 14union republics. Theorized in the 24th Congress of theCommunist Party of the Soviet Unionin 1971, the end result of such phenomena was the evolution of a unique Sovietnarod(people), comprised of multiple ethnic backgrounds but unified in language and culture.

Withperestroikaand then thedissolution of the Soviet Union, the titular nations of the non-Russian republics, as well as the various ethnic minorities of Russia, moved to reverse decades and even centuries of Russification through support of locallanguages, cultural practices, andreligions. While theBaltic Stateshave effectively extirpated the effects of post–World War II Russification, use of Russian in daily life remains a fact among economic and political elites across much ofCentral Asiamore than 15 years after independence. InBelarusandUkraine, novel hybrid languages—TrasiankaandSurzhyk, respectively—have evolved as a response to intense Russification and the relative similarities of the indigenous languages to Russian. Dialectal differences also function as political markers of cultural and linguistic difference between traditionally Russian and non-Russian communities. However, census data in both countries show a steady reversal of Russianization since 1991 as more citizens reject “Russian” as their ethnic identity as time goes by. Within the Russian Federation, the results have also been mixed. Groups like theTatars,Sakha, and certain peoples of theNorth Caucasusare enjoying linguistic, cultural, and religious revivals, while the autochthonous peoples of theFar NorthandRussian Far Eastand traditionally Orthodox peoples of theVolga-Ural regioncontinue to exhibit the effects of Russification.