The Ethnic Russians – Scattered in Geo-cultural and Semantic Spaces of Kyrgyzstan – Minorities, Diasporas or Depleting Historical Resource? Back to the History of the Issue

Abstract

The current status of the Russian language in modern Kyrgyzstan is vague and precarious. Historically, Russians and the Russian language have been a backbone of Kyrgyz culture that paved the way for an unprecedented rise in literacy and a socio-economic upswing in this small mountainous country during Communism. However, post-Soviet times have witnessed an advent of revisionist tendencies in rethinking of the Communist past where Russians and their language are implicitly associated with historical injustices towards titular nations. Russian lingua franca as a means of inter-ethnic communication has become a source of controversy and a matter of debates. The Kyrgyz are divided along the lines of those politically-motivated public figures, who seek to exploit the status of the Russian language in their election campaigns. A package of laws providing exclusive use of Kyrgyz language in office and administration has been recently adopted in an attempt to place limits on the Russian language. These developments are widely regarded as discriminative towards not only Russian but also other minority languages in the country. On the other hand, the overwhelming majority of Kyrgyz intellectuals still hold a strong view that Russians and the Russian language deserve better in Kyrgyzstan.