Languages of the Soviet Union

Background

Before the Bolshevik Revolution, Russian was the official language for the Russian Empire, with the exception of a few permitted languages in autonomous regions as Poland, Finland, and the Baltic provinces. Regional languages were discouraged or forbidden, as was the case of Ukrainian between 1876 and 1905. There was no explicit plan to enable non-Russians to learn Russian, and there was no possibility for other ethnic groups to develop their own culture and language.

In this period, some individual efforts developed written forms for some of these languages, but they had limited effect and they were focused on missionary activities. In the case of languages with written tradition, as Armenian, Georgian, Turkic languages of Central Asia, and Tajik, their writing system continued being used, but mainly in connection with religious education.

Soviet language policy

In 1914 Vladimir Lenin was opposed to the idea of a compulsory or official state language.^[1] Equality of all peoples and of all languages was a commitment made by Lenin and his associates before and after the October Revolution.^[2] As a result, no single language was designated for official use in the Soviet Union and the existence of the spoken languages of the national minorities was guaranteed. Everyone had the right to use their own language, both in private and public, as well as in correspondence with officials and while giving testimony in court.^[2] The USSR was a multilingual state, with around 130 languages spoken natively.^[2] Discrimination on the basis of language was illegal under the Soviet Constitution, though the status of its languages differed.

However, the Soviet Union faced the problem of unifying the country, and for that reason, Russian was selected as the common language to facilitate communication between members of different ethnic groups.^[2]

In 1975, Brezhnev said "under developed socialism, when the economies in our country have melted together in a coherent economic complex; when there is a new historical concept—the Soviet people—it is an objective growth in the Russian language's role as the language of international communications when one builds Communism, in the education of the new man! Together with one's own mother tongue one will speak fluent Russian, which the Soviet people have voluntarily accepted as a common historical heritage and contributes to a further stabilization of the political, economic and spiritual unity of the Soviet people."^{[This quote needs a citation]}

Developing writing systems

Few of the languages of the Soviet state had written forms. One of the first priorities of the Soviet state was the creation of writing systems and the development of literacy programs. New or modified writing systems were adopted for over half of the languages spoken in the territory during the early Post-revolutionary years.^[2] In some particular cases, preparatory work was required before the creation of an orthography due to the lack of previous linguistic analysis, as in the case of languages of the Far North.

When a language already had a writing system, there were attempts for making it easier to learn and accessible. As part of this policy, in 1918 Russian orthography was simplified removing orthographic distinctions without phonetic counterpart.^[3] Phonemic or close to phonemic orthographies weren't modified, such as Armenian, Georgian, or Chuvash.^[2]

Writing systems based on the Arabic script caused major problems because they were poorly adapted to indicate phonemic differences that are found in Turkic languages or North-East Caucasian languages. A first attempt tried to create a simplified form of Arabic script. However, the task was abandoned. Instead, the Latin alphabet was used for all languages of the Soviet Union without a traditional alphabetical writing system, avoiding the impression that the policy was a Russification attempt.^[2]

Written forms were developed for several languages with a very small number of speakers, such as the Finno-Ugric languages Karelian, Veps, and Sámi. However, many of these writing systems had a short life. In the case of Itelmen, never was put into practical use. Other languages that received their writing systems during the 1920s and early 1930s kept using them, such as Nanai, Nivkh, Koryak, Chuckchi, Khanty, and Mansi.^[2]

East Slavic languages (Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian) dominated in the European part of the Soviet Union, the Baltic languages Lithuanian and Latvian, and the Finnic language Estonian were used next to Russian in the Baltic region, while Moldovan (the only Romance language in the union) was used in the southwest region. In the Caucasus alongside Russian there were Armenian, Azeri and Georgian. In the Russian far north, there were several minority groups who spoke different Uralic languages; most of the languages in Central Asia were Turkic with the exception of Tajik, which is an Iranian language.

Although the USSR did not have de jure an official language over most of its history, until 1990,^[4] and Russian was merely defined as the language of interethnic communication (Russian: язык межнационального общения), it assumed de facto the role of official language.^[5] For its role and influence in the USSR, see Russification.

On a second level were the languages of the other 14 Union Republics. In line with their de jure status in a federal state, they had a small formal role at the Union level (being e.g. present in the Coat of arms of the USSR and its banknotes) and as the main language of its republic. Their effective weight, however, varied with the republic (from strong in places like in Armenia to weak in places like in Byelorussia), or even inside it.^{[citation needed]}

Of these fourteen languages, two are often considered varieties of other languages: Tajik of Persian, and Moldovan of Romanian. Strongly promoted use of Cyrillic in many republics however, combined with lack of contact, led to the separate development of the literary languages. Some of the former Soviet republics, now independent states, continue to use the Cyrillic alphabet at present (such as Kyrgyzstan), while others have opted to use the Latin alphabet instead (such as Turkmenistan and Moldova – although the unrecognized Transnistria officially uses the Cyrillic alphabet).

The Autonomous republics of the Soviet Union and other subdivision of the USSR lacked even this de jure autonomy, and their languages had virtually no presence at the national level (and often, not even in the urban areas of the republic itself). They were, however, present in education (although often only at lower grades).^{[citation needed]}

Some smaller languages with very dwindling small communities, like Livonian, were neglected, and weren't present either in education or in publishing.^{[citation needed]}

Several languages of non-titular nations, like German, Korean or Polish, although having sizable communities in the USSR, and in some cases being present in education and in publishing, were not considered to be Soviet languages. On the other hand, Finnish, although not generally considered a language of the USSR, was an official language of the Karelia and its predecessor as a Soviet republic.^{[citation needed]} Also Yiddish and Romani were considered Soviet languages.^{[citation needed]}

Languages by family, distribution and status

Language Family	Language	Official in	Distribution	Status[6]
Indo-European > Slavic > East Slavic	Russian	Soviet Union  Russian SFSR	Spoken in all republics	Safe
	Ukrainian	Ukrainian SSR	Ukrainian SSR, Russian SSR, Byelorussian SSR, Estonian SSR, Moldavian SSR, Georgian SSR	Safe
	Belarusian	Byelorussian SSR	Byelorussian SSR, Russian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Latvian SSR, Lithuanian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Rusyn		Ukrainian SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
Indo-European > Slavic > West Slavic	Polish		Ukrainian SSR, Byelorussian SSR, Estonian SSR
	Slovak		Ukrainian SSR, Byelorussian SSR, Georgian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
Indo-European > Slavic > South Slavic	Bulgarian		Ukrainian SSR, Moldavian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
Indo-European > Baltic	Latvian	Latvian SSR	Latvian SSR	Safe
	Latgalian		Latvian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Lithuanian	Lithuanian SSR	Lithuanian SSR	Safe
Indo-European > Germanic > North Germanic	Norwegian		Russian SSR
	Swedish		Estonian SSR, Ukrainian SSR	(Estonian Swedish) Critically Endangered
Indo-European > Germanic > West Germanic	German	Volga German ASSR	Russian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Estonian SSR,Kazakh SSR
Indo-European > Germanic > West Germanic > High German	Yiddish	Jewish AO	Russian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Byelorussian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
Indo-European > Germanic > West Germanic > North Sea Germanic	Plautdietsch		Kazakh SSR
Indo-European > Romance > Romanian	Moldovan (Romanian)	Moldavian ASSR  Moldavian SSR	Moldavian SSR, Ukrainian SSR	Safe
Indo-European > Romance > Italo-Western	Italian		Ukrainian SSR
Indo-European > Albanian	Albanian		Ukrainian SSR
Indo-European > Hellenic > Attic-Ionic	Pontic Greek		Russian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Georgian SSR, Armenian SSR,Kazakh SSR	Definitely Endangered
Indo-European > Armenian	Eastern Armenian	Armenian SSR Nagorno-Karabakh AO	Armenian SSR	Safe
	Western Armenian		Armenian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
Indo-European > Armenian & Romani	Lomavren		Armenian SSR	Critically Endangered
Indo-European > Indo-Aryan > Romani	Baltic Romani		Russian SSR, Byelorussian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Estonian SSR,Latvian SSR, Lithuanian SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Sinte Romani		Kazakh SSR
	Northern Vlax Romani		Ukrainian SSR, Moldovian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Northern Balkan Romani		Ukrainian SSR, Moldovian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Southern Central Romani		Ukrainian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
Indo-European > Indo-Aryan	Parya		Tajik SSR, Uzbek SSR	Definitely Endangered
Indo-European > Iranian > West Iranian	Tajik	Tajik SSR	Tajik SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Bukharian Dialect (Judeo-Tajik)		Tajik SSR, Uzbek SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Kurmanji (Northern Kurdish)		Azerbaijan SSR, Russian SSR, Armenian SSR, Georgian SSR,	Definitely Endangered
	Tat	Dagestan ASSR	Azerbaijan SSR, Russian SSR	Severely Endangered
	Juhuri (Judeo-Tat)		Azerbaijan SSR, Russian SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Talysh		Azerbaijan SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
Indo-European > Iranian > East Iranian > Scythian	Ossetian	North Ossetian ASSR South Ossetian AO	Georgian SSR, Russian SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Yaghnobi		Tajik SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
Indo-European > Iranian > East Iranian > Scythian/Pamiri	Wakhi		Tajik SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
Indo-European > Iranian > East Iranian > Pamiri	Rushani		Tajik SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Shughni		Tajik SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Yazghulami		Tajik SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Bartangi		Tajik SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Ishkashimi		Tajik SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Khufi		Tajik SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Sanglechi		Tajik SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
Kartvelian	Georgian	Georgian SSR	Georgian SSR	Safe
	Kivruli/Gruzinic Dialect (Judeo-Georgian)		Georgian SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Svan		Georgian SSR, Russian SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Mingrelian		Georgian SSR, Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Laz		Georgian SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
Northwest Caucasian	Abkhaz	Abkhaz ASSR	Georgian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Abaza		Russian SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Kabardian (East Circassian)	Kabardino-Balkarian ASSR Karachay-Cherkess AO	Russian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Adyghe (West Circassian)		Russian SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Ubykh		Russian SSR	Extinct
Northeast Caucasian > Nakh	Chechen	Checheno-Ingush ASSR Dagestan ASSR	Russian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Ukrainian SSR,Kirghiz SSR, Kazakh SSR, Georgian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Ingush	Checheno-Ingush ASSR	Russian SSR, Kazakh SSR, Uzbek SSR,Turkmen SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Bats		Georgian SSR	Severely Endangered
Northeast Caucasian > Avar-Andic	Avar	Dagestan ASSR	Russian SSR, Ukrainian SSR,Georgian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR,Kazakh SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Andi		Russian SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Tindi		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Bagvalal		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Akhvakh		Russian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Karata-Tukita		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Botlikh		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Godoberi		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Chamalal		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
Northeast Caucasian > Dargin	Dargwa	Dagestan ASSR	Russian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Kaitag		Russian SSR
	Kubachi		Russian SSR
	Itsari		Russian SSR
	Chirag		Russian SSR	Severely Endangered
Northeast Caucasian > Khinalug	Khinalug		Azerbaijan SSR	Definitely Endangered
Northeast Caucasian > Lak	Lak	Dagestan ASSR	Russian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
Northeast Caucasian > Lezgic	Archi		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Lezgian	Dagestan ASSR	Russian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Tabasaran	Dagestan ASSR	Russian SSR, Ukrainian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Aghul		Russian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Rutul		Russian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Tsakhur		Russian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Udi		Russian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Georgian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Kryts		Azerbaijan SSR
	Jek		Azerbaijan SSR
	Budukh		Azerbaijan SSR	Definitely Endangered
Northeast Caucasian > Tsezic	Tsez		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Bezhta		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Hunzib		Russian SSR, Georgian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Khwarshi		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Hinuq		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
Uralic > Balto-Finnic	Estonian	Estonian SSR	Estonian SSR	Safe
	Võro		Estonian SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Seto Dialect		Estonian SSR
	Karelian	Karelo-Finnish SSR	Karelo-Finnish SSR, Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Finnish	Karelo-Finnish SSR	Karelo-Finnish SSR, Russian SSR	Safe
	Ingrian		Russian SSR, Karelo-Finnish SSR,Byelorussian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Estonian SSR, Kazakh SSR	Severely Endangered
	Ludic		Karelo-Finnish SSR, Russian SSR
	Votic		Karelo-Finnish SSR, Russian SSR	Critically Endangered
	Livonian		Latvian SSR	Critically Endangered
	Veps		Karelo-Finnish SSR, Russian SSR	Severely Endangered
Uralic > Sámi	Kildin Sámi		Russian SSR	Severely Endangered
	Ter Sámi		Russian SSR	Critically Endangered
	Skolt Sámi		Russian SSR	Critically Endangered
	Akkala Sámi		Russian SSR	Extinct
Uralic > Permic	Komi-Zyrian	Komi ASSR	Russian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Komi-Permyak	Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug	Russian SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Komi-Yazva		Russian SSR	Severely Endangered
	Udmurt	Udmurt ASSR	Russian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Estonian SSR, Latvian SSR,Kazakh SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Mari	Mari ASSR	Russian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
Uralic > Mordvinic	Erzya	Mordovian ASSR	Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Moksha	Mordovian ASSR	Russian SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
Uralic > Samoyedic	Tundra Nenets	Nenets AO Yamalo-Nenets AO	Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Forrest Nenets		Russian SSR	Severely Endangered
	Enets		Russian SSR	Critically Endangered
	Selkup		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Nganasan		Russian SSR	Severely Endangered
	Kamassian		Russian SSR	Extinct
Uralic > Ugric > Khanty	Salekhard (Northern) Khanty		Russian SSR	Severely Endangered
	Surgut(Eastern) Khanty		Russian SSR	Critically Endangered
	Southern Khanty		Russian SSR	Extinct
Uralic > Ugric > Mansi	Central Mansi		Russian SSR	Severely Endangered
	Northern Mansi		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Southern Mansi		Russian SSR	Extinct
Uralic > Ugric	Hungarian		Ukrainian SSR	Safe
Turkic > Oghuric	Chuvash	Chuvash ASSR	Russian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
Turkic > Kipchak	Kazakh	Kazakh SSR	Kazakh SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Kyrgyz	Kirghiz SSR	Kirghiz SSR
	Tatar	Tatar ASSR	Russian SSR, Byelorussian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Kazakh SSR, Kirghiz SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Crimean Tatar	Crimean ASSR	Russian SSR, Byelorussian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Lithuanian SSR, Uzbek SSR, Kirghiz SSR	Severely Endangered
	Dobrujan Tatar		Ukrainian SSR, Moldavian SSR
	Siberian Tatar		Russian SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Bashkir	Bashkir ASSR	Russian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Urum		Ukrainian SSR, Georgian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Krymchak		Russian SSR, Ukrainian SSR	Critically Endangered
	Karaim		Russian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Lithuanian SSR	Critically Endangered
	Nogai	Dagestan ASSR Karachay-Cherkess AO	Russian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Kazakh SSR, Uzbek SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Kumyk	Dagestan ASSR	Russian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Byelorussian SSR, Latvian SSR, Kazakh SSR, Uzbek SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Karachay-Balkar	Kabardino-Balkarian ASSR Karachay-Cherkess AO	Russian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Karakalpak	Karakalpak ASSR	Kazakh SSR, Uzbek SSR, Turkmen SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Southern Altai		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Fergana		Uzbek SSR, Kirghiz SSR, Tajik SSR	Extinct
Turkic > Karluk	Uzbek	Uzbek SSR	Uzbek SSR	Safe
	Uighur		Uzbek SSR, Kirghiz SSR, Tajik SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Ili Turki		Kazakh SSR	Critically Endangered
	Chagatai
Turkic > Oghuz	Turkmen	Turkmen SSR	Turkmen SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Azerbaijani	Dagestan ASSR	Azerbaijan SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
	Meskhetian Dialect (Turkish)		Russian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Georgian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Kazakh SSR, Uzbek SSR, Kirghiz SSR
	Gagauz		Moldavian SSR, Ukrainian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
Turkic > Siberian Turkic	Northern Altai		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Khakas	Khakas AO	Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Tuvan	Tuvan ASSR	Russian SSR
	Shor		Russian SSR	Severely Endangered
	Yakut	Yakut ASSR	Russian SSR
	Dolgan		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Chulym		Russian SSR	Severely Endangered
	Tofa		Russian SSR
	Soyot		Russian SSR
Afro-Asiatic > Semitic	Central Asian Arabic		Uzbek SSR, Tajik SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Neo-Aramaic		Armenian SSR, Georgian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR	Safe
Mongolic	Buryat	Buryat ASSR	Russian SSR
	Kalmyk	Kalmyk ASSR	Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Oirat		Kirghiz SSR
	Khamnigan Mongol		Russian SSR
	Mongolian		Russian SSR	Potentially Vulnerable
Tungusic	Evenki		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Even		Russian SSR	Severely Endangered
	Nanai		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Negidal		Russian SSR	Severely Endangered
	Kili		Russian SSR	Severely Endangered
	Oroch		Russian SSR	Severely Endangered
	Udege		Russian SSR
	Uilta		Russian SSR
	Ulch		Russian SSR	Critically Endangered
Chukotko-Kamchatkan	Chukchi	Chukotka AO	Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Koryak		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Alyutor		Russian SSR	Critically Endangered
	Kerek		Russian SSR	Extinct
	Itelmen		Russian SSR	Severely Endangered
Language Isolate	Nivkh		Russian SSR	Severely Endangered
Yukaghir	Tundra Yukaghir		Russian SSR	Critically Endangered
	Southern Yukaghir		Russian SSR	Critically Endangered
Inuit-Aleut	Siberian Yupik		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Aleut		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Naukan		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
	Old Sirenik		Russian SSR	Extinct
Yeniseian	Ket		Russian SSR	Definitely Endangered
Language Isolate	Ainu		Russian SSR	Extinct in Russia, Critically Endangered in Japan
Sino-Tibetan	Dungan		Russian SSR, Kazakh SSR, Uzbek SSR	Endangered/Unsafe
	Taz Dialect (Mandarin)		Russian SSR	Extinct
Koreanic	Koryo-Mar		Uzbek SSR, Kazakh SSR,Turkmen SSR,Russian SSR,Ukrainian SSR

• The Languages of the Peoples of the USSR
• Index of Soviet Union-related articles
• Education in the Soviet Union
• Korenizatsiya
• Russification
• Languages of Russia
• Languages of Ukraine
• Languages of Belarus
• Languages of Estonia
• Languages of Moldova
• Languages of Armenia
• Languages of Azerbaijan
• Languages of Kazakhstan
• Languages of Uzbekistan
• Languages of Kyrgyzstan
• Languages of Tajikistan

• Bernard Comrie. The Languages of the Soviet Union. CUP 1981. ISBN 0-521-23230-9 (hb), ISBN 0-521-29877-6 (pb)
• E. Glyn Lewis. Multilingualism in the Soviet Union: Aspects of Language Policy and Its Implementation. The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1971.
• Языки народов СССР. 1967. Москва: Наука 5т.

• "Language Policies in Present-Day Central Asia". BIRGIT N. SCHLYTER. Stockholm University. International Journal on Multicultural Societies (IJMS)Vol. 3, No. 2, 2001 "The Human Rights of Linguistic Minorities and Language Policies".

• Soviet Language Policy in Central Asia by Mark Dickens