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CHAPTER 15 Paradoxes of Political and Linguistic Russification One of the paradoxes of the Belarusian national development is related to the language issue. The numerical data testifying to the language Russi- fication of the Belarusian cultural life do not cause any doubt that the Belarusian national culture and language are in a critical position. Russification is a historically lengthy process in Belarus, with its roots going back to the Russian empire. At that time it was aimed at a complete elimination of Belarusianness and transformation of Belarusian lands into western Russian ones, and the Belarusians were considered as a regional group of the great Russian nation (conception of the so-called Zapadnorusizm –Western Russism). Under the Soviet rule Russification had a different character. As Yekadumau writes, “In relation to the Soviet era, it would be more accurate to speak about Sovietization—the formation of a specific Soviet culture, which the Russian language served, than Russi- fication.”1 Nevertheless, the promotion of sovietness by means of the Russian language had led to a high level of linguistic Russification of the Belarusian public and cultural life. The policy of Russification, officially introduced under Stalin, had an impressive effect: by the mid-1970s not a single Belarusian-language school remained in the republic’s ninety-five cities. In 1984 only some 5 percent of journals in circulation were published in Belarusian. Only about one-third of the population spoke Belarusian in their daily life, and these were concentrated among rural inhabitants.2 During perestroika, numerous efforts were made to return the Belarusian language into public and cultural life, including political decisions and shifts in cultural life. Finally, perestroika in Belarus brought about possibilities to restrict Russification. In June 1989 the Fratsishak Skaryna Society of the Belarusian language3 was founded in Minsk. It was a time of intense public discussions in 1 Andrei Yekadumau, “The Russian Factor in the Development of Belarusian Culture,” in Belarus-Russia Integration, ed. V. Bulgakau (Minsk–Warsaw: Analytical group Minsk, 2003), 186–87. 2 Marples, Belarus. A Denationalized Nation, 50. 3 Tavarystva Belaruskai movy imia Fratsishka Skaryny, http://tbm.org.by. newspapers, journals, and the electronic media, which raised the level of popular awareness of the language issue in cultural life. The Belarusian language appeared in educational institutions, on television and the radio —all this was taking shape of a common process of “the return to everything Belarusian.” In January 1990 the Supreme Soviet adopted the law “On languages in the BSSR.” In September 1990 the Belarusian government sanctioned a national program on the development of the Belarusian language and the languages of other nationalities in the BSSR, thereby ratifying a decree that established Belarusian as the state language of the Republic.4 In 1992 Deputy Minister of Education Vasil Strazhau announced that the language to be in all pedagogical schools would be Belarusian and 55 percent of first graders would be taught in Belarusian. Notably, he forecast that in ten years the entire Belarusian system of education would shift to the Belarusian language. These plans, however, were reversed after the 1994 political climate change. Developments in Belarus after Lukashenka’s coming to power made it a unique Soviet republic where political independence led to a step toward further Russification. While during the Soviet rule Russification was an instrument of Sovietization of cultural and public life, this time “the policy of the Belarusian authorities after 1991–1995 was directed not so much at Russification as at the de-Belarussification, fighting against the national self-awareness of the Belarusians as a factor that threatens the stability of the Lukashenka regime.”5 Russification was not a purpose in itself, it was simply a means to attain a definite political task. This time Russian returned not as a language of intercultural communication in the expanses of the Soviet State (the Russification logic in the Soviet times), but as a language of the independent Belarusian state. This was immediately reflected in the change of educational and cultural policy. The number of first graders being taught in Belarusian declined from 58.6 percent in 1994 to 4.8 in 1998, in Minsk alone. No higher education institution in Belarus taught in the Belarusian language. By 2001 most big cities had no schools where the language of instruction was Belarusian.The best situation was in Minsk—twelve Belarusian-language schools operated in the city.6 A similar picture of...

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