Abstract
This article traces the evolution of the debate on the balancing of federal and regional competences in regulating the use of minority languages in Russia’s education system. Taking into account relevant law and judicial practice, as well as developments in center-periphery relations since 2017, the article argues that the federal center has been increasingly depriving Russia’s republics of the ability to self-regulate in the education sphere – particularly over the question as to whether they may require the compulsory study of republican languages (recognized as co-official with Russian) in schools located within their administrative borders. These processes can be located in the context of the centralization of the education system and a corresponding reduction of multilingualism in Russia’s schools. This can, in turn, be seen as part of an underlying drive to promote national unity through uniformity, through the dilution of the country’s linguistic and cultural diversity and a concurrent emphasis on the primacy of the Russian language. The article further argues that the Russian education system’s centralization has been ongoing: while it has intensified since 2017, the trajectory of the jurisprudence shows an earlier movement towards a concern for ‘unity’ that anticipated it.
Highlights
Linguistic policy in the Russian Federation’s education system, relating to the teaching of languages recognized as official at the level of its republics, has long been a subject of debate
Taking into account relevant law and judicial practice, as well as developments in center-periphery relations since 2017, the article argues that the federal center has been increasingly depriving Russia’s republics of the ability to self-regulate in the education sphere – over the question as to whether they may require the compulsory study of republican languages in schools located within their administrative borders
This position contradicts principles found in a series of judgments by the Russian higher courts, which have held the compulsory study of republican languages compatible with federal legislation.[3]
Summary
34 languages of [the] peoples of Russia are the state languages of the republics in the Russian Federation and can be used in these constituent entities on a par with the Russian language. A Study of State Languages in Russia’s Finno-Ugric Republics (Uralica Helsingiensia, Helsinki, 2014); Konstantin Zamyatin, “The Education Reform in Russia review of central and east european law 45 (202D0ow)n5lo9ad-e9d1from Brill.com11/02/2021 12:30:38PM in Russia’s education system has been found to be insufficient to assure intergenerational transmission.[25] In particular, the fact that teaching in minority languages is scarce after primary school is problematic: as the acfc has stressed, in order to develop minority-language skills “there must be continuity in access to teaching and learning of and in minority languages at all levels of the education system, from pre-school to higher education.”26 [italics added]. See acfc Thematic Commentary No 3 “The Language Rights of Persons belonging to National Minorities under the Framework Convention”, May 2012, para
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