SOURCE. Yana Strel'tsova, "Problema russkogo iazyka i obrazovaniia
v rossiiskikh diasporakh v novom zarubezh'e" [The Problem of the Russian
Language and Education in the Russian Diasporas in the New Abroad], pp.
86-98 in Moskovskii Tsentr Karnegi [Moscow Carnegie Center], Iazyk i etnicheskii
konflikt [Language and Ethnic Conflict] (Moscow: Gendal'f, 2001).
The general trend has been a steady decline in Russian-language education
at all levels. In the USSR in 1989 the proportion of school pupils receiving
instruction in Russian was 39 percent. In 1996 the proportion for the post-Soviet
region as a whole was down to 29 percent. Russian-language instruction
is expected to stabilize around 15 percent within a few years, by which
time it will be restricted in most states to ethnic Russians. Likely exceptions
are Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, the constitutions of which give
Russian equal status as a state language with the language of the indigenous
nationality. (1)
Many Russian-language teachers have lost their jobs or left for Russia.
At the same time there is a shortage of indigenous-language teachers and
textbooks (although Moldovan schools receive all their books from Romania
without payment). Declining standards, especially in the humanities, make
it difficult for Russian graduates of schools in the NIS to study in higher
education institutions in Russia.
The Russian government has sought to remedy this situation by negotiating
inter-state agreements to establish Russian-language institutions of middle
and higher education in the other post-Soviet states:
-
In 1993 the Kyrgyz-Russian (Slavic) University was opened in Bishkek under
joint control. A similar Tajik-Russian (Slavic) University was opened in
Dushanbe in 1996, and a Russian-Armenian University in Yerevan in 1998.
Analogous institutions are planned for Georgia and Moldova.
-
In 1994 a Baltic-Russian Institute was opened in Riga (Latvia), with a
branch in Tallinn (Estonia). Estonia also has a private Russian-language
university and a Russian-language grammar school (gimnazia) in Tallinn.
-
In 1995 a branch of Omsk State University was opened in Tashkent (Uzbekistan)
and a branch of Moscow State University in Baku (Azerbaijan).
-
It is planned to establish a Russian-Turkmen technical college in Ashkhabad.
However, the impact of these institutions depends on what funds the Russian
government allocates to them. This factor explains why, for example, 70
percent of students at the Tajik-Russian (Slavic) University are Russian-speaking
but most of the students at the Kyrgyz-Russian (Slavic) University are
Kyrgyz.
Russian-language education in some countries may be preserved by granting
the Russian minority cultural autonomy. As an example the author mentions
Latvia, the first state in the former USSR to create an extra-territorial
self-governing structure for its Russian minority, which is represented
in governmental bodies and has responsibility for culture, language, education,
and religion. (2)
Language is the most common problem confronting ethnic Russians seeking
entry to higher education in the NIS, but it is not the only problem. In
some states it is not even the main problem. For example, in higher education
institutions in Kazakhstan ethnic Russians make up only some 10 percent
of the student body despite a formal provision for the equal division of
student cohorts into Kazakh-language and Russian-language teaching groups.
Not only all students in the Kazakh-language groups but also 80 percent
of students in the Russian-language groups are ethnic Kazakhs. Thus the
Russian-language groups cater primarily to the large population of urban
Russian-speaking Kazakhs. The problem here is not language but direct ethnic
discrimination.
NOTES
(1) Russian has had equal status in Belarus since 1994,
in Kazakhstan since 1995, and in Kyrgyzstan since May 2000.
(2) Such extra-territorial autonomy has the advantage
of not being perceived as a threat to the territorial integrity of the
state. In any case, territorial autonomy for Russians in Latvia is not
feasible because (in contrast to Estonia) they are not concentrated in
particular areas of the country. For a discussion of analogous extra-territorial
cultural autonomies for ethnic minorities in Russia see RAS No. 8 item
6.