Analysis of the Ideas about the Russian language in the All-Russian Identity: Expert Discourse

Abstract

The article analyzes the meanings given by experts to the Russian language in the all-Russian identity based on the materials of in-depth and expert interviews and focus groups. The experts were humanities scientists, university and school teachers, journalists, public and ethnic activists from Moscow, Kazan, Ufa, Nalchik and some other Russian cities. The analysis of the discourses of these translators of the meanings of Russian identity is important for creating a picture of the meanings of the national language of Russians disseminated and supported by them, since they participate in the formation of mass consciousness and can set the directions of perception of Russian identity in the circles covered by their influence. The key sets of ideas about the Russian language in the Russian identity are associated with the following interpretations of it. Russian language is considered by universalist discourses as the cultural code of Russians, often associating it with the literary-centricity of all-Russian and Russian ethnic culture. Such discourses note the importance of its functionality and influence, and also regard it as the language of Russian everyday life and the life of the state, in which school education plays an essential role, thus “cementing” society. In the discourses of experts in the republics, other facets of the perception of the Russian language are also important. First of all, it is considered as a “language of interethnic (interethnic) communication”, which is the result of the influence of Soviet national policy, established terminology, in particular, in the understanding of the nation, most often in the ethnic sense and the opposition of Russian and native languages. In the historical context, it can be considered as an intermediary language, an instrument of familiarization with world culture. Ethnocentric discourses often emphasize the role of the Russian language as the language of the state and/or the language of the dominant people, including actively contrasting it with native languages and emphasizing the damage to them. The interpretation of the Russian language as the national language of Russians, its positive perception as an all-Russian integrator in such discourses are complicated.