Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session Volume 36 Article 3 1992 The role of language in the dissolution of the Soviet Union David F. Marshall UND Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/sil-work-papers Part of the Linguistics Commons Recommended Citation Marshall, David F. (1992) "The role of language in the dissolution of the Soviet Union," Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session: Vol. 36 , Article 3. DOI: 10.31356/silwp.vol36.03 Available at: https://commons.und.edu/sil-work-papers/vol36/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session by an authorized editor of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN THE DISSOLUTION OF THE SOVIET UNION David F. Marshall University of North Dakota1 1 The area of study 2 The Soviet Union's multilingualism 3 Centripetal and centrifugal forces 3.1 The CPSU and the national populist fronts 3.2 The imperial legacy vs. national identity 3.3 Soviet language policy vs. language preservation 3.4 Soviet education vs. nationality language preservation 3.5 Nationality cadres vs. mass politicization 3.6 Religion (or the lack thereof) vs. nationality religious traditions 3.7 The military vs. itself 3.8 Centralized economic planning vs. nationality environmentalism . 4 Sociolinguistic dynamics in USSR nationality mobilization 5 Conclusion 1 The area of study The problem of unrest among the ethnic nationalities plagued the USSR since its inception in December 1922 (for a synopsis, see Suny 1990:243-249, Nahaylo and Swoboda 1990: 228-350, Alexeyeva 1985, Solchanyk 1990, Misiunas 1990, Olcott 1989, 1990.