Russification of Muslim Central Asia: An Overview of Language, Culture and Society

Abstract

Russian influence in Muslim Muslim Central Asia was far reaching. The transformational force of Russian presence first emerged in the administrative setup and governance, soon it spread to the domain of education and sociocultural symbols. The Muslim Central Asian society lost its connection with Muslim world in neighborhood as Russian alphabets, lexemes and structures. The Tsarist era initiated these changes but its scope remained limited. In quest for making the Muslim Central Asians emulate the role of “new Russian man” the Soviet era used force to popularize and cultivate Russian language and culture. However, the distrust among Russian diaspora and Muslim Central Asian local population was deep seated. Once the Soviet Union fell, the demographic and linguistic changes were attacked by nationalists. Despite the post-1991 attempts, Russian language is still dominant in Muslim Central Asia as compared to English and other modern European languages