Russian as a native language in the post-Soviet space in comparison with the results of the 1989 census

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In the post-Soviet period, there was a significant narrowing of the Russian language distribution space. The aim of the study is to identify the changes that have taken place since the collapse of the Soviet Union at the level of the post-Soviet countries in the number and proportion of people who named Russian their native language. The novelty of this study is based on the level of regions in the post-Soviet space and the analysis of the dynamics of such indicators as to the share of the non-Russian population, who named Russian their native language. Almost all post-Soviet states experienced a decrease in the number and share of the Russian-speaking population. Currently, the minimum indicators of the proportion of Russians and Russian-speaking people are characterized by the states of Transcaucasia, as well as Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The biggest losses in the post-Soviet period of both the Russian and Russian-speaking population, in relative terms, were experienced by Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. A special dynamics of these indicators have developed in two states — in the Republic of Belarus and Ukraine. In these countries, the part of the biethnic population that adopted the identity of the titular ethnic group retained the Russian language. Russian, for example, has declined more rapidly in Ukraine than in the categories of people who consider Russian as their native language, and this has led to a decline in the number and share of the Russian population. The situation in the Republic of Belarus, which is unique in the post-Soviet space, was the result of the 1995 referendum that established the status of the state language for Russian. As a result, along with the decrease in the Russian population in the Republic of Belarus, there has been a significant increase in the category of citizens who named Russian their native language.