As soon as the volleys of victorious October 1917 died away, the Russian Communists, creating a new state on the ruins of the tsarist Empire, implemented a program of complete equality of languages. Privileges of Russian as a "mandatory state" was abolished; freedom and equality languages, fixed by law in all documents of a new state - from the "Declaration of the rights Pirogov Russia" 1917 to the present Constitution of the USSR. Legal recognition was accompanied by accelerated training of local personnel, the spread of teaching in the native language, its use in court, the press, and the theater. Despite the post-war devastation, sabotage, and intervention, the Soviet government spent huge forces and funds for the real rise of all languages, actually supporting the proclaimed rights.
Special research centers were established to create writing where there was none, and simplify the alphabet and spelling where there were none. In-depth and comprehensive analysis made it possible to establish reference dialects for the formation of literary languages. Thus, "bolmats" was taken from the Avars as the basis for military communication of various dialect groups.the Dargin script was created in the akushin dialect, which is spoken by the majority of Dargins. Not only "young-written" languages, i.e. those who received the letter, but also "old-written" languages were improved. By the mid-30s. for example, the database of the literary Uzbek language was clarified: the account of the dialects of the socio-economic centers of the Republic - Tashkent and Ferghana-made the book language, which was far from colloquial speech, truly all-Uzbek. Russian Russian letters were simplified by the decrees of 1917-1918, which eliminated, in particular, the unnecessary letters Yat, FITU, izhitsa, and" s " decimals, and made it more accessible to both Russians and non-Russians.
The development of literature, the publication of dictionaries, grammars and scientific descriptions in all languages regulated grammar and style, enriched the vocabulary. After all, the younger written languages sometimes did not have words even for such concepts as ‘subject’, ‘revolution’, ‘statement’. And these languages, along with old-written ones, were widely used, because they made the Soviet government more native and understandable for the backward, mostly peasant, 65 million non-Russian population of the country. These languages were the levers of the rise of the state, economy and culture of Nations and peoples, the means of involving the masses in socialist construction and educating them in the spirit of communism. All languages were used in the heroic campaign to eliminate illiteracy, when a network of "likbez", short-term free courses to teach reading and writing, covered the entire country. The feat of a hitherto unseen nationwide campaign for culture will be remembered by mankind: previously semi-literate Russia turned into a state of the highest education by 1937!
In conditions of freedom and mutual assistance, all languages are rapidly developing in both known to science plans: intrastructural, improving their potential, enriching vocabulary and grammar, and functional and social, acquiring new areas of application, becoming the languages of science, education, and fiction. The world-famous works of Chingiz Aitmatov or Rasul Gamzatov are written in the Kyrgyz and Avar languages, which actually did not have a written language back in the 20s. Is this not a refutation of the opinion about the "weak prospects" of languages that have been delayed in their development?!
The question of a French newspaper about the publication of Eugene Onegin in the Chuvash language is ridiculously ridiculous: "I wonder what Pushkin's poem turned into, so subtle in form and musical in rhythm, so refined, after being translated into the necessarily rude language of the Chuvash?» Thanks to the efforts of its people, this language has reached such perfection that it successfully serves modern production, schools, and art. OI was able to give the first education to cosmonaut A. Nikolaevu, he transmitted the beauty of the works of merima, Daudet, Maupassant, Hugo and Balzac, which the Chuvash people read in their native language. And as for Pushkin, they can read it in their native language in the magnificent translation of the national poet P. Khuzangay, and in the original - unlike most French. The Chuvash writer N. Ilbekov reminded the French newspapermen of this fact and said with knowledge:"the Wonderful Pushkin verse did not wither from translation into the Chuvash language."
Interesting are the opinions of people who, after a long life outside the USSR, have again become familiar with the culture and language of their peoples. The famous American writer Philip Bonoski, a Lithuanian by origin, told: "It was only when I visited Lithuania myself, for the first time in 1959 and several times later, that I heard the real live Lithuanian language... I saw that" local " scientists are engaged in cleaning up the Lithuanian language and preparing for the publication (for the first time in the entire history of Lithuania) of its complete dictionaries and also encyclopedias. One of the most impressive scientific endeavors that I have personally met can be called literally saving the traditions of Lithuanian culture. Scientists engaged in a thorough collection of folk tales and legends, Proverbs and sayings, songs and ditties... Philologists and linguists should respond and respond with deep gratitude to the Lithuanian government, which organized these expeditions to study Lithuanian folklore, which cost a lot of money. For the cultural heritage of an entire nation was thus preserved and can now become the property of all other peoples of the world."
All languages in the USSR are equally "state". They are recognized with equal rights in state administration, the court, the press, education, and the economy. The language of the majority of the population serves as the main means of communication in each given territory: in 15 Federal and 20 Autonomous republics, 8 Autonomous regions and 10 national districts. The educational process in schools is conducted in 52 languages, radio broadcasts in 65, art works are written in 75, and books and Newspapers are printed in 122. Special equipment is produced, such as "Almaz" TV sets with two-program audio accompaniment: watching the program, the viewer can choose the most convenient language. But what about the "opportunity to come to terms"?
Rasul Gamzatov once figuratively remarked that you can come to communism "in your native Avar language." The Soviet people will undoubtedly come to it each with their own language. But how much easier will this path be if, in addition, the citizens of the country of the Soviets are United by a common language for exchanging experience, for introducing each nation to the achievements of others, for entering a broad international and world arena! When free people come together, they can do it themselves, without compulsion (and the less compulsion, the more equal the languages, the more developed the native language, the faster!) they come to the conclusion that it is profitable for them, they need to know other languages besides their own. Which ones? Which one?
Communication and mutual understanding is best achieved, of course, by" absolute " multilingualism. Speaking out against the state language, V. I. Lenin positively assessed, for example, that in Switzerland the entire population speaks French and German, in Belgium - French and Flemish. There is an old way of proving the importance of an object-to imagine that it does not exist. Let's assume for a moment that the population of these countries is not multilingual: most likely, these States would have collapsed as one.
People of 32 nationalities who built the Karakum canal would not have been able to join forces without knowing other languages than their own. We would not have the Kremenchug or Nurek HPP: their builders belonged to 40 Nations, and the equipment was supplied by 800 enterprises from 12 different republics. And the development of virgin lands in Kazakhstan, where representatives of one hundred Nations now live as a single family? And the organization of uninterrupted operation of a single power system that unites producers and consumers of electricity throughout the USSR? And all-Union transport? The construction of the BAM?
In connection with the huge new buildings of communism, the development of the expanses of Siberia and the East of our country, there is a mixing of the multilingual population: from 1939 to 1959, the population of Eastern Siberia grew by 34%, in Central Asia and Kazakhstan-by 38%, and, although the absolute number of indigenous residents increased, their share decreased due to the influx of foreign population. According to the census of 1959, there are about 17 million Russians outside the RSFSR, more than 6 million Ukrainians outside Ukraine, about 1 million Uzbeks outside the Uzbek SSR, and about 1 million Uzbeks outside Kazakhstan. Russian Russians, who make up a minority within the Republic in relation to other nationalities taken together (4 million Russians, 3 million Kazakhs, more than 750 thousand Ukrainians, about 200 thousand Tatars, almost 150 thousand Uzbeks, etc.). there are more Russians Than the indigenous population in Bashkiria, Buryatia, Kalmykia, Karelia, Komi, Mordovia, Udmurtia. In the USSR, according to the 1970 census, there are 4,967,701 Tatars, while in Tataria there are only 1,345,000; interestingly, by the way, 4 573 075 Tatars consider Tatar their native language, while 349 202 Tatars consider Russian their native language, and 656 Tatars consider Uzbek their native language, 8,090 - Kazakh, and 4,041 - Belarusian. Russian Russians, according to the same census, consider one of the other languages of the USSR to be their native language, and half of them named Russian as their second language, which they speak fluently. Approximately 60 million people of the USSR live outside their "own" territory.
People who live side by side and work together naturally learn each other's languages. In the Caucasus, the population of mixed border areas or those who are associated with frequent movements by profession usually speaks Georgian, Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian. In Central Asia, almost every resident can talk in Tajik, Uzbek and Russian; the great Uzbek writer S. Aini also worked in a magazine in Tajik, and a native of a Tajik family, Hamza Hakim-zade Niyazi, became the Creator of the Uzbek theater, poet, playwright and composer. The Tajik SSR currently conducts its business in Tajik and Russian, as well as teaching in higher and secondary specialized educational institutions. Trilingualism is common in the Volga republics, for example: Chuvash, Russian and Tatar. We have local Newspapers that publish materials in several languages, since all readers are fluent in them. Many Republican theaters, radio and television operate in two or more languages.
Respect and attention to all languages-is not this an example of true internationalism of the Soviet people! In Tashkent, a city of courage and friendship in the schools with Uzbek language of instruction being studied Russian language in schools with Russian as the language of instruction is Uzbek. In addition to the parodic languages of the USSR, Uzbek schoolchildren can study English, French, German, Indian, Chinese, Arabic, Iranian and other languages. Students of school №110, which was given to the city after the earthquake by Ukraine, correspond with their Ukrainian friends, just as students of school №9, built by Bulgaria, correspond with their peers from the city of Haskovo - Tashkent's sister city - and master the Bulgarian language with enthusiasm. In Latvia, Kyrgyzstan and other Union republics, mixed schools with parallel classes with different languages of instruction are now becoming widespread; in the Kyrgyz SSR alone, more than 170,000 students study in such schools. Popular now are the so-called special schools with intensive study of foreign languages and passing a number of subjects on them.
However, it is impossible to imagine that a citizen of the USSR knew all or even the most common languages of the country. The solution to the problem here is very individual: it is determined by the ability to master the languages of a particular person. Despite frequent examples of phenomenal talents that create polyglots, this ability is normally limited by the well-known "magic" formula seven plus or minus two, and in practice even less: two or four languages.
This pattern comes into contact with another kind of law that regulates multilingualism, the process of mastering, as they say, "second languages": the more people use a particular language, the more other people learn it to also use it. The more people study it, the more people use it... Therefore, multilingualism is usually reduced to bilingualism: the predominant knowledge (along with an unchanged native language) of one of the possible second languages, which thus becomes a means of communication for an increasing number of peoples. Life illustrates these processes by extensive study of the Russian language in the USSR.