The Russian language is in its own right is a part of the heritage of world civilization. As Nikolai Gogol wrote, the poets and writers of Russia did a good deed simply by “spreading previously unheard of euphony… Our poetry has tried all the chords, was nurtured by the poetry of all peoples, listened to the lyres of all poets, attained some sort of worldwide language so that it could prepare everyone for a more meaningful service.” Fifty years ago the Russian language became the first language in space. But by the 1990s Russian practically became a persecuted language.
The peak in the number of people who knew the Russian language came in the late 1980s. Then around 350 million people spoke Russian. And 290 million lived in the Soviet Union, where Russian was the state language and the native language for most of its residents. It was in the second half of the 20th century that Russian language and Russian culture reached its peak in global prevalence and Russian became a leading world language that was used in all major international organizations. Russian was a universal means of communication in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact, which incorporated dozens of countries in Eastern Europe, South-East Asia, the Middle East, North and Southwest Africa and even Latin America. The USSR was the largest exporter of educational services. In 36 countries dozens of institutions of higher education were created as were hundreds of professional education centers, schools and technical colleges, where the teaching was in Russian.
The collapse of the USSR dealt a major blow to the position of the Russian language. The number of speakers was substantially reduced. Russian is the only major world language that not only lost its position in the world over the past 20 years but lost it rapidly. At present Russian is the native language of 130 million citizens of Russia, nearly 25 million citizens of CIS and Baltic states and 7 million residents of countries further abroad. So approximately 160 million consider it to be their native language. But a substantial number of people, the exact figure is difficult to ascertain, know Russian as a second language, primarily in the CIS and Baltic states. There could be around 130-160 million such speakers.
In terms of the global prevalence of the Russian language, we are either in fifth or sixth place, depending on how we calculate the number of people who know Russian as a second language or first foreign language.
The area where the Russian language is most prevalent outside the Russian Federation is the Commonwealth of Independent State, where its position is would steady. But we should not that its use over the past 20 years has notably decreased. Today we are talking about the status of the language. And status, as we know, can be formal or informal.
In the countries where Russian language is a state language, there is no real cause for concern over its fate. Above all else this means Belarus and the recently formed states of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where Russian has also been declared a state language. There is a relatively positive climate for Russian in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan as well as such regions in Moldova as Transnistria and Gagauzia. Here Russia has official status or is in practice such. In Kazakhstan, where the state language is Kazakh, back in the mid-1990s a law was adopted that equated Russian with the state language in official spheres. Furthermore, in Kazakh schools the Russian language is a mandatory subject, alongside Kazakh and English. In all the other countries of the CIS the Russian language has a lower status. It is either the language of international communication, as in Moldova, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, or the language of the national minority, as in Ukraine, or a foreign language, as in the Baltic states.
Everywhere but in Belarus the national language is affirmed as the state language. As a result, the Russian language is gradually falling out of public and political life, business life, cultural affairs and mass communications. Furthermore, there is rather active dismantling of Russian-language education. In comparison to the Soviet period, the schools where teaching takes place in Russian in CIS and Baltic countries has on average dropped two- to threefold. The only exception here is once again Belarus.
There are states in the CIS where teaching in Russian is almost completely absent. For example, in Turkmenistan there are only two Russian schools now.
In the 1990 a catastrophe occurred with the Russian language in Eastern Europe. In many countries the Russian language was excluded from public school systems. It is practically impossible to study in school even as a second foreign language in such countries as Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. If in the late 1980s approximately one million university students in Eastern Europe studied Russian, then today only 25,000 are enrolled in Russian studies programs. In total, approximately 20 million people in this region speak Russian.
In terms of positive trends, I would note the leap-like growth in interest in the Russian language beginning in the 2000s. To a large degree this stems from the passing into history of the sharp anti-Russian reaction and many prejudices. Pragmatism has come. In countries of Eastern Europe there is a need for more competitive people with knowledge of Russian. The Russian language is being restored in the Baltic, where members of the national ethnicity – Estonians and Latvians – are once again studying it, as for them it is a serious competitive advantage.
In Western Europe, as in the West in general, interest in the Russian language and Russia in the 1990s also notably sagged. During the time of the Soviet Union and the Cold War there were enormous programs for financing the study of Russia – mainly for defense ministries, foreign affairs departments and intelligence. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, financing for Sovietology dried up, which led to a mass exit from such specialties. In the 1990s the overriding tendency was a reduction of the number of people studying the Russian and Russia in general at educational institutions. Now the situation is changing – the number of schools and classes with in-depth study of Russian is increasing. The leader in this process is Germany, where Russian is studied by nearly 150,000 schoolchildren, followed in the distance by France, England and Austria. Approximately 30,000 students and graduate students are studying the Russian language in institutions of higher education, mainly in German, France and Great Britain. Cross-years are being successfully held this year with Italy and Spain, demonstrating growth in interest in Russian culture in Western Europe. According to a recent Eurobarometer survey, 6% of EU residents declared that know Russian, they same number said the same about Spanish (only English, German and French are more popular).
In Asia, which holds a much more significant portion of the world’s population, Russian is much less widespread. During the time of the USSR, in all of Asia (excluding the Arab world) approximately 5.5 million people knew Russian. Today the number is around 4 million. In the late 1980s, Russian dominated as a foreign language in Afghanistan, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, North Korea, Laos and Mongolia. In the 1990s for the vast majority of these countries Russian lost its position as the means for international communication to English. The exception is Mongolia, where Russian remains mandatory in most educational establishments.
There are states where Russian does not exist as a subject taught in schools. Afghanistan and Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, with a population of 240 million. Russian is not taught in the schools of Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines or Sri Lanka. But it is taught beginning recently, thanks in part to the Russkiy Mir Foundation, in some of the institutions of higher education of Indonesia and the Philippines. Russian studies are seeing some success in China, where the 300th anniversary of the teaching of this subject was recently celebrated. The number of schools and universities offering Russian is growing, thanks to strengthening ties. In China the number of centers of our Foundation is also growing, appearing already in Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian, Changchun, Guangzhou and Macau. Although, of course, 300,000 Chinese schoolchildren and 20,000 students studying Russian is just a drop in the sea of Chinese students (schoolchildren alone in China outnumber the total population of the Russian Federation). In total, in institutions of higher education in Asia a little more than 200,000 students and graduate students study Russian, with only 15% studying it as their main focus.
In the Middle East, Northern African and in the Arabian world the Russian speakers are mainly graduates of Soviet and Russian universities. In this area there are over 200,000 graduates from our universities. Of them, 100,000 are in Syria, 40,000 in Yemen, 30,000 in Libya, 15,000 in Jordan and 10,000 in Egypt. In these countries Russian is on the rise, mainly thanks to Tourism. Popular resorts on the Red Sea require personnel who know the Russian language. Furthermore, carriers of Russian language and culture in the Arab world can be found among the tens of thousands of former Soviet and Russian women who married Arabs. Their children know Russian as well. In total, there are approximately 300,000 Russian speakers in the Arab world.
There is another country in the region that we cannot fail to take note of. Here, as the Vladimir Vysotsky song goes, a quarter of them are ‘our former people’. In Israel around one and a half million use the Russian language. But there is a problem in that the Russian language can only be taught in school as a second foreign language.
In Sub-Saharan Africa up until the 1990s Russian was taught in 40 countries, mainly in the educational institutions that we built and where out specialists worked. Today in some African countries Russian is taught in certain lyceums, schools and universities – in Egypt, Mali and Senegal. In total approximately 120,000 people know the language, of which around 100,000 are graduates of our universities.
During the mid-term congressional elections in the United State in November of last year, voting pamphlets in the state of New York were printed in Russian for the first time, as the language become one of the official languages of the state. In total in New York and the vicinity approximately one and a half million Russians or Russian speakers live. In all of the United States, according to my calculations there are 4.5 million people who one way or another know Russian. They primarily live in New York, California and the Mid West. In the US there are many educational establishments where Russian is taught. This includes around 3000 schools (strangely enough many of them are located in Texas) and colleges and around 200 universities. We should note that the Russian-speaking minority in the United States has proved itself to be one of the most progressive. According to the most recent census, people who reported that Russian was their native language had a income level that is one and a half times higher than the average for the United States. Of all the national groups in the United States, Russians turned out to be the most affluent.
In Canada there are fewer Russians, and the large Ukrainian diaspora there practically does not speak Russian. But there are about one million people who know Russian. And about the same amount, one million, in all of the 30 Latin American countries combined. These are largely graduates of our universities and also the Russian-speaking diaspora. Furthermore, for more than 20 years Russian was the most widespread foreign language in Cuba, where a large number of people continue to speak the language.
No finally Australia. There are around 160,000 Russians here. The first wave of immigration came from China, where following the Civil War there were a large number of soldiers and officers of the White Army, followers of Kolchak. Following the victorious Chinese Revolution and Mao’s ascension to power, the White Army soldiers and their descendants were forced to flee. A large portion of them relocated to Australia. In the 1990s a large number of our compatriots also moved there, leaving Russia as a part of the economic emigration and brain drain.
So the universe of Russkiy Mir is enormous, but it is also shrinking. But it is comforting to know that the trend is changing.
The Russian language, one way or another, is taught in approximately 100 countries. In 79 there are university academic programs and in 54 it is included in schools’ educational programs. The Russian language is no longer persecuted on the state level in Ukraine, as was the case with the previous administration. In Armenia, knowledge of Russia has become mandatory for entry into top universities. In the Baltic state representatives of the national ethnicities are once again studying Russian, because this provides them with better life opportunities. In Bulgaria Russia has become the second foreign language for school and university students, despite not even making the top ten just a short while ago. In Poland thanks to the warming in relations – the situation is similar – Russian is second following English but ahead of German. At resorts in Turkey, Egypt, Thailand, Indonesia and Hainan you are certain to be addressed in Russian as well as in the best stores on Bond Street in London on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honor
