Politics of the Russian Language beyond Russia ed. by Christian Noack

Abstract

Reviewed by: Politics of the Russian Language beyond Russia ed. by Christian Noack Anna Vozna (bio) Christian Noack (Ed.), Politics of the Russian Language beyond Russia (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021). 264 pp. ISBN: 978-1-47-446379-9. The debate on characteristics of the identities of Russian speakers and the implications of continuing the debate is ongoing. For instance, in Ukraine, where the identities of Russian speakers are arguably most contested in the contemporary Russian-speaking world due to the ongoing conflict with Russia, opinions regarding the nature and implications of being a Russophone vary. Thus, some scholars see Russian speakers from an essentialist perspective and argue that speaking Russian in Ukraine correlates strongly with exposure to media from the Russian Federation and, consequently, with a tendency to hold "pro-Russian" rather than "pro-Ukrainian" positions in the Ukrainian–Russian conflict.1 They identify the Russian Federation as the center of the Russian-speaking world, which continues to exert its political interests via multiethnic speakers of Russian beyond Russia. Meanwhile, other Ukrainianists argue that although many Ukrainians are Russophones, they no longer see a direct connection between the Russian language and the Russian Federation. Marco Puleri, for instance, argues that Russophone Ukrainian writers now use Russian to explore inherently Ukrainian themes and experiences and, in doing so, disconnect from the Russian literary canon, thus rejecting its authority.2 Accordingly, the Russian Federation is no longer viewed as an undisputable center of the Russian-speaking world and Russian-language and Russophone identities are becoming pluricentric. The volume edited by Christian Noack develops the latter perspective. Its contributors aim to depict pluricintricity of the Russian language from the bottom up by analyzing how the ideology of the Russian language originating from the Russian Federation is perceived in the former republics of the Soviet Union and in Russophone communities in Europe. The volume's nine chapters explore these perceptions in post-Soviet countries such as Moldova, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus as well as in Ireland and Germany. The book also elucidates the institutional [End Page 334] structures through which the Russian Federation exerts its soft power, including the Russkii Mir Foundation and Rossotrudnichestvo, agencies that promote "digital diplomacy," institutions of higher education in the Russian Federation, and Russian-language educational materials. For some reason, the chapters describing these institutions conclude the volume, but they would be most useful as an introduction to the problem. Specifically, I would recommend starting with Noack's chapter 9, which compares Russkii Mir and Rossotrudnichestvo as agencies that promote the Russian language internationally with their European counterparts promoting English, French, and German languages, such as the British Council, Alliance Française, Institut Français, and the Goethe Institute. Noack argues that the European agencies function as knowledge-economy actors responding to the global demand for studying English, French, and German languages. By contrast, Russian-language instruction operates as an extension of the Russian state seeking to preserve or extend its political control abroad. Noack sustains his argument by comparing these organizations' funding sources, geographies of operation, and mechanisms of accountability as well as the ideologies behind language learning. It appears that Russian-language and -culture institutions are located mostly in the post-Soviet countries and funded by the Russian state as compared, for instance, to the French institutions that operate around the globe and are funded mainly through local sources. This allows Noack to argue that it is primarily the Russian state that drives the spread of Russian now, which "reflects [the] political imperatives and geostrategic considerations" of the Russian Federation (P. 225). The patterns of recruitment by Russian-language promotion agencies and their accountability principles cause Noack to conclude that neither Russkii Mir nor Rossotrudnichestvo is interested in having Russian learners' acquire marketable linguistic competence or even broadening their numbers. Many nominally existing chapters of the Russkii Mir Foundation are not functioning, and five out of seven branches based in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, were registered at the same address (P. 35). Whereas Germany's agencies promoting German language and culture curate lists of sources they find appropriate for language learners at different stages of proficiency, no similar efforts are made by their Russian counterparts. Finally, no standardized...