On Ideology, Language, and Identity: Language Politics in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Lithuania

Abstract

The paper illuminates links between state politics and language politics in Lithuania during different historical periods: (a) the thaw period, (b) the stagnation period, (c) the liberalization periods of Soviet socialism, and (d) the two post-Soviet decades characterized by both nationalism and liberalization. Based on analysis of the texts by leading Lithuanian linguists published in the main language and culture journals during the period of 1960–2010, the paper argues that the concept of a good, proper language is a purely political idea, produced for the sake of governance by both the Soviet authorities as well as the pro-nationalist governments. The nationalist version of a “good language” is sanitized from foreign effects; the socialist version is sanitized from bourgeois remnants and capitalist influence. In both cases, the proper language is assigned a moral value, but the ideological construct masks inequalities of power. During the post-Soviet years, due to democratization, liberalization, and growing diversity, the idea of one “good, proper language” forfeited its social significance; it remained purely a linguistic ideal. With the development of multiple language cultures and subcultures, it stands increasingly as a metaphor for the totalitarian Soviet period for its omnipresent uniformity and homogeneity.