Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-p2v8j Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2024-05-23T07:32:45.224Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stabilization and symbolism: language and regional politics in the Chuvash Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Kyle L. Marquardt
Kyle L. Marquardt*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA
*
*Email: klmarquardt@wisc.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The government of the Chuvash Republic, an ethno-federal region of the Russian Federation, used a targeted and symbolic language policy in an attempt to stabilize the position of the republic's titular language while avoiding conflict with local Russophones and the Russian federal government. The resulting policy allowed the republic's government to frame the existence of an autonomous Chuvash republic – as well as the local elite's form of governance – as being essential to the preservation of the Chuvash language and thus the Chuvash people. In this way, it used language politics to strengthen its position vis-à-vis both local constituents and the Russian federal government. However, the limited nature of the government's program has made its gains tenuous in the face of continuing Russian political and cultural recentralization.

Keywords

language politicsethnic politicsChuvashiafederalismRussia
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 127 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beissinger, Mark R. Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State. Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics. New York: Cambridge UP, 2002. Print.Google Scholar
Boiko, Ivan. “Chuvashiya.” Mezhetnicheskie otnosheniya i konflikty v postsovetskikh gosudarstvakh: Ezhegodnyi doklad 2000. Eds. Tishkov, Valerii and Filippova, Elena. Moscow: EAWARN, 2000. Print.Google Scholar
Boiko, Ivan. “Problema ravenstva yazykovykh prav v obrazovanii.” Etnokul'turnoe obrazovanie. Metody sotsial'noi orientatsii rossiiskoi shkoly. Ed. Stepanov, V.V. Moscow: Set’ etnologicheskogo monitoringa i rannego preduprezhdeniya konfliktov (EAWARN) Institut etnologii i antropologii RAN, 2010. 127–36. Print.Google Scholar
Boiko, Ivan, Braslavskii, L., and Kharitonova, Valentina. “Chuvashiya.” Mezhetnicheskie otnosheniya i konflikty v postsovetskikh gosudarstvakh: Ezhegodnyi doklad 2005. Eds. Tishkov, Valerii and Filippova, Elena. Moscow: EAWARN, 2003. Print.Google Scholar
Boiko, Ivan, and Kharitonova, Valentina. “Chuvashiya.” Mezhetnicheskie otnosheniya i konflikty v postsovetskikh gosudarstvakh: Ezhegodnyi doklad 2001. Eds. Tishkov, Valerii and Filippova, Elena. Moscow: EAWARN, 2001. Print.Google Scholar
Boiko, Ivan, and Kharitonova, Valentina. “Chuvashiya.” Mezhetnicheskie otnosheniya i konflikty v postsovetskikh gosudarstvakh: Ezhegodnyi doklad 2002. Eds. Tishkov, Valerii and Filippova, Elena. Moscow: EAWARN, 2002. Print.Google Scholar
Boiko, Ivan, and Kharitonova, Valentina. “Chuvashiya.” Mezhetnicheskie otnosheniya i konflikty v postsovetskikh gosudarstvakh: Ezhegodnyi doklad 2004. Eds. Tishkov, Valerii and Filippova, Elena. Moscow: EAWARN, 2004. 275–86. Print.Google Scholar
Boiko, Ivan, and Kharitonova, Valentina. “Chuvashiya.” Mezhetnicheskie otnosheniya i konflikty v postsovetskikh gosudarstvakh: Ezhegodnyi doklad 2005. Eds. Tishkov, Valerii and Filippova, Elena. Moscow: EAWARN, 2005. Print.Google Scholar
Boiko, Ivan, and Kharitonova, Valentina. “Chuvashiya.” Mezhetnicheskie otnosheniya i konflikty v postsovetskikh gosudarstvakh: Ezhegodnyi doklad 2006. Eds. Tishkov, Valerii, and Filippova, Elena. Moscow: EAWARN, 2006. Print.Google Scholar
Boiko, Ivan, Markov, Iuri, and Kharitonova, Valentina. “The Chuvash Republic.” Anthropology and Archaeology of Eurasia 44.2 (2005): 41–60. Print.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. “Nationhood and the National Question in the Soviet Union and Post-Soviet Eurasia: An Institutionalist Account.” Theory and Society 23.1 (1994): 47–78. Print.Google Scholar
Cashaback, David. “Assessing Asymmetrical Federal Design in the Russian Federation: A Case Study of Language Policy in Tatarstan.” Europe-Asia Studies 60.2 (2008): 249–75. Print.Google Scholar
Cederman, Lars-Erik, Wimmer, Andreas, and Min, Brian. “Why Do Ethnic Groups Rebel? New Data and Analysis.” World Politics 62.1 (2010): 87–119. Print.Google Scholar
“Chuvashskie diaspory schitayut sokrashchenie mestnogo veschaniya amoralnym.” IA Regnum 24 Mar. 2005. Web. 29 June 2011. <http://www.regnum.ru/news/426391.html>..>Google Scholar
“Chuvashsko-russkoyazychnyi skandal: Spiker ob”yasnilsya.” IA Regnum 19 May 2011. Web. 11 July 2011. <http://www.regnum.ru/news/1406628.html>..>Google Scholar
Danilov, V.D. Ocherki noveishei politicheskoi istorii chuvashii. Cheboksary: Novoe Vremia, 2006. Print.Google Scholar
Davis, Howard, Hammond, Philip, and Nizamova, Lilia. “Media, Language Policy and Cultural Change in Tatarstan: Historic vs. Pragmatic Claims to Nationhood.” Nations and Nationalism 6.2 (2000): 203–26. Print.Google Scholar
Degtyarev, G.A. “Yazyk sovremennogo chuvashskogo sotsiuma: Osnovnye tendentsii razvitiya.” Problemy natsional'nogo v razvitii chuvashskogo naroda (2003). Web. <http://gov.cap.ru/hierarhy_cap.asp?page=./86/3743/l 189/1194>..>Google Scholar
“Deputaty Gosdumy: Zayavlenie chuvashskogo spikera antikonstitutsionno i trebuet poritsaniya.” IA Regnum 5 Apr. 2011. Web. 11 July 2011 <http://www.regnum.ru/news/1401121.html>..>Google Scholar
Fedorov, Nikolai. “Prezident Chuvashii obratilsya s poslaniem gossovetu (polnyi tekst).” IA Regnum 17 Feb. 2005. Web. 9 May 2009. <http://www.regnum.ru/news/408929.html>..>Google Scholar
Fedorov, Nikolai. “Torzhestvennoe sobranie, posvyashchennoe 160-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya I. Ya. Yakovleva.” Sait Prezidenta Chuvashskoi Respubliki 24 Apr. 2008. Web. 9 May 2009. <http://gov.cap.ru/list2/view/02SV_SPEECH_OV/form.asp?id=5589&pos=13&GOV_ID=9>..>Google Scholar
Fedorov, Nikolai. “Vystuplenie Prezidenta Chuvashskoi Respubliki Nikolaya Fedorova na torzhestvennom sobranii posvyashchennom 80-letiyu Chuvashskoi Respubliki.” Sait Prezidenta Chuvashskoi Respubliki 24 June 2000. Web. 9 May 2009. <http://gov.cap.ru/hierarhy_cap.asp?page=./870/1358>..>Google Scholar
Fedorov, Nikolai. “Vystuplenie Prezidenta Chuvashskoi Respubliki na VII S”ezde chuvashskogo natsional'nogo kongressa.” Sait Prezidenta Chuvashskoi Respubliki 20 Mar. 2009. Web. 9 May 2009. <http://gov.cap.ru/list4/news/rec.aspx?gov_id=9&pos=60&id=805908>..>Google Scholar
Filippov, V.R. Chuvashiya devyanostykh. Etnopoliticheskii ocherk. Moscow: Tsentr Tsivilizionnykh i Regionalnykh Issledovanii Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, 2001. Print.Google Scholar
Fox, John E., and Miller-Idriss, Cynthia. “Everyday Nationhood.” Ethnicities 8.4 (2008): 536–76. Print.Google Scholar
Giuliano, Elise. “Secessionism from the Bottom Up: Democratization, Nationalism, and Local Accountability in the Russian Transition.” World Politics 58 (2006): 276–310. Print.Google Scholar
“Glava Chuvashskogo natskongressa: tatary i bashkiry ne smiryatsya s isklyuchenim natsional'nogo komponenta v obrazovanii.” IA Regnum 19 Nov. 2008. Web. 27 June 2011. <http://www.regnum.ru/news/1086262.html>..>Google Scholar
Gorenburg, Dmitry. Minority Ethnic Mobilization in the Russian Federation. New York: Cambridge UP, 2003. Print.Google Scholar
Gorenburg, Dmitry. “Nationalism for the Masses: Popular Support for Nationalism in Russia's Ethnic Republics.” Europe-Asia Studies 53.1 (2001): 73–104. Print.Google Scholar
Gorenburg, Dmitry. “Tatar Language Policies in a Comparative Perspective: Why Some Revivals Fail and Some Succeed.” Ab Imperio 1 (2005): 257–84. Print.Google Scholar
Graney, Katherine E. “Education Reform in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan: Sovereignty Projects in Post-Soviet Russia.” Europe-Asia Studies 51.4 (1999): 611–32. Print.Google Scholar
Grenoble, Lenore A. Language Policy in the Soviet Union. Boston: Kluwer Academic, 2003. Print.Google Scholar
Grigor'ev, V.S., et al. “Respublika Chuvashiya.” Regiony v Rossii: Sotsiokul'turnye portrety regionov v obshcherossiiskom kontektse. Eds. Lalina, N.I. and Belyaevoi, L.A. Moscow: Academia, 2008. 427–94. Print.Google Scholar
Hale, Henry E. The Foundations of Ethnic Politics: Separatism of States and Nations in Eurasia and the World. New York: Cambridge UP, 2008. Print.Google Scholar
Hale, Henry E. “The Parade of Sovereignties: Testing Theories of Secession in the Soviet Setting.” British Journal of Political Science 30.01 (2000): 31–56. Print.Google Scholar
Hyltenstam, Kenneth, and Abrahamsson, Niclas. “Who Can Become Native-Like in a Second Language? All, Some, or None? On the Maturational Constraints Controversy in Second-Language Acquisition.” Studia Linguistica 54.2 (2000): 150–66. Print.Google Scholar
Ignat'eva, A.P, et al. “Govoryat li deti po-chuvashskii.” Cheboksary: Laboratoriya “Technologii Obucheniya Chuvashskomu iaziku” pri Kafedre Chuvashskogo Yazyka i Literatury GOU “ChRIO”, 2009. Print.Google Scholar
Il'in, I.E. “Mezhnatsional'nye otnosheniya v Chuvashii: Etnosotsial'nye problemy perekhodnogo perioda.” Problemy natsional'nogo v razvitii chuvashskogo naroda (2003). Web. <http://gov.cap.ru/hierarhy_cap.asp?page=./86/3743/1189/1195>..>Google Scholar
Ivanov, V.P. Etnicheskaya karta Chuvashii: Rasselenie, chislennost’ i mezhetnicheskoi vzaimodeistvie titulnoi natsii i etnicheskikh grupp na territorii respubliki. Cheboksary: Chuvashskii Gosudarstvennyi Institut Gumanitarnykh Nauk, 1997. Print.Google Scholar
Ivanov, V.P. “Osobennosti etnicheskikh protsessov v Chuvashskoi Respublike.” Chuvashskaya Respublika: Problemy natsional'no-gosudarstvennogo stroitel'stva (Istoriya i sovremennost'). Ed. Klement'ev, V.N. Cheboksary: Chuvashskii Gosudarstvennyi Institut Nauk, 2005. 76–130. Print.Google Scholar
Kabinet Ministrov Chuvashskoi Respubliki. “Postanovlenie o respublikanskoi Tselevoi Programme ‘Kul'tura Chuvashii: 2010–2020 gody'.” Cheboksary, 2009. Print.Google Scholar
Kabinet Ministrov Chuvashskoi Respubliki. “Postanovlenie o respublikanskoi programme po realizatsii Zakona Chuvashskoi Respubliki ‘O yazykakh v Chuvashskoi Respublike” Cheboksary, 2002. Print.Google Scholar
“"Kam val, Ignat'ev Yultash?”: Pervaya press-konferentsiya vtorogo prezidenta chuvashii.” IA Regnum 9 Dec. 2010. 27 June 2011. Web. 27 June 2011. <http://www.regnum.ru/news/1355062.html>..>Google Scholar
Kharitonova, V.G. “Kul'turnyi potentsial naseleniya Chuvashskoi Respubliki.” Sotsiokul'turnye portrety regionov rossii: Opyt kompleksnoi realizatsii. Ed. Boiko, I.I. Cheboksary: Chuvashskii Gosudarstvennyi Institut Gumanitarnyi Nauk: Sbornik Materialov IV Vserossiiskoi Nauchno-Prakticheskoi Konferentsii 18-22 sentyabria 2008 g., Cheboksary, 2008. 117–26. Print.Google Scholar
Laitin, David D. Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Near Abroad. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1998. Print.Google Scholar
Laitin, David D. “Language Games.” Comparative Politics 20.3 (1988): 289–302. Print.Google Scholar
Lapidus, Gail. “Asymmetric Federalism and State Breakdown in Russia.” Post-Soviet Affairs 15.1 (1999): 74–82. Print.Google Scholar
Lobjakas, Ahto. “Apparently, Russia Needs Just One ‘National Component'.” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 23 Apr. 2009. Web. 27 June 2011. <http://www.rferl.org/content/Apparently_Russia_Needs_Just_One_National_Component/1614655.html>..>Google Scholar
“Natsional'noe obrazovanie segodnya”. 2010. Ministerstvo Kul'tury Chuvashskoi Respubliki. 1 June 2010. Web. 11 July 2011. <http://gov.cap.ru/hierarhy.asp?page=./16/2586/389427/618015/618016>..>Google Scholar
Petrov, Nikolai, and Slider, Darrell. “Putin and the Regions.” Putin's Russia: Past Imperfect, Future Uncertain. Ed. Herspring, Dale R. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. 75–98. Print.Google Scholar
Press-Sluzhba, Administratsiya Prezidenta Chuvashskoi Respubliki. “Izuchenie yazykov i informatsionnykh tekhnologii - predposylki dlya vkliucheniya v natsional'noe i mezhdunarodnoe sotrudnichestvo.” Ofitsial'nyi Portal Organov Vlasti Chuvashskoi Respubliki Mar. 5 2008. Web. 9 May 2009. <http://gov.cap.ru/list4/news/rec.aspx?gov_id=49&link=&preurl=.&FKey=F_JURL_ID&id=639798>..>Google Scholar
Putin, Vladimir. “Vystuplenie na torzhestvennom sobranii, posviaschennom 450-letiyu vkhozhdeniya Bashkirii v sostav rossii.” Prezident Rossii: Offitsial'nyi Sait 11 Oct. 2007. Web. <http://www.kremlin.ru/text/appears/2007/10/148081.shtml>..>Google Scholar
Putin, Vladimir. “Zaklyuchitel'noe slovo na rabochei vstreche po voprosam mezhnatsional'nykh i mezhkonfessional'nykh otnoshenii.” Prezident Rossii: Ofitsial'nyi Sait. 5 Feb. 2004. Web. 10 May 2009. <http://www.kremlin.ru/appears/2004/02/05/2135_type63376type63378_60331.shtml>..>Google Scholar
Roeder, Philip G. Where Nation-States Come From: Insitutional Change in the Age of Nationalism. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2007. Print.Google Scholar
Rossiyskaya Federatsiya. Federal'naya Sluzhba Gosudarstvennoy Statistiki. Itogi vserossiyskoy perepisi naseleniya 2002 goda. Moscow: Federal'naya Sluzhba Gosudarstvennoy Statistiki. 2004. <http://www.perepis2002.ru/>..>Google Scholar
Sebba, Mark. “Ideology and Alphabets in the Former USSR.” Language Problems & Language Planning 30.2 (2006): 99–125. Print.Google Scholar
Silver, Brian. “Social Mobilization and the Russification of Soviet Nationalities.” American Political Science Review 68.1 (1974): 45–66. Print.Google Scholar
Slezkine, Yuri. “The U.S.S.R. As a Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism.” Slavic Review 53.2 (1994): 415–52. Print.Google Scholar
Soyuz Sovetskhikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik. Komitet po Statistike. Itogi vsesoyuznoy perepisi naseleniya 1989 goda. Moscow: Statisticheskii Komitet Sodruzhestva Nezavisimykh Gosudarstv. 1991–1993. (Microform by East View Publications).Google Scholar
“Spiker i glavnyi edinoross chuvashii: ‘Osnovnoi yazyk - Chuvashskii, a uzhe potom russkii'.” IA Regnum 28 Apr. 2011. Web. 11 July 2011. <http://www.regnum.ru/news/1399864.html>..>Google Scholar
Stoner-Weiss, Kathryn. “Resistance to the Central State on the Periphery.” The State after Communism: Governance in the New Russia. Eds. Colton, Timothy and Holmes, Stephen. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. 87–120. Print.Google Scholar
Toft, Monica Duffy. The Geography of Ethnic Violence. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2003. Print.Google Scholar
“Tyurkoyazychnaya Chuvashiya otmechaet Den’ slavyanskoi pis'mennosti kak svoi.” IA Regnum 24 May 2007. Web. <http://www.regnum.ru/news/832726.html>..>Google Scholar
“V Chuvashii - novyi prem'er-ministr.” IA Regnum 22 Mar. 2011. Web. 26 June 2011. <http://www.regnum.ru/news/1386467.html>..>Google Scholar
“V Chuvashii sozdayut natsional'noe radio.” IA Regnum 12 Dec. 2008. Web. 29 June 2011. <http://www.regnum.ru/news/1098115.html>..>Google Scholar
“Vladimir Putin napravil pozdravlenie Prezidentu Chuvashskoi Respubliki Nikolayu Fedorovu i vsem zhitelyam Chuvashii v svyazi s 80-letiem obrazovaniya respubliki.” Prezident Rossii: Ofitsial'nyi Sait 24 June 2000. Web. 10 May 2009. <http://www.kremlin.ru/text/news/2000/06/124795.shtml>..>Google Scholar
Vovina, Olessia P. “Building the Road to the Temple: Religion and National Revival in the Chuvash Republic.” Nationalities Papers 28.4 (2000): 695–706. Print.Google Scholar
Wertheim, Susan. “Linguistic Purism, Language Shift, and Contact-Induced Change in Tatar.” U of Wisconsin–Madison, 2003. Print.Google Scholar
“Zamministra obrazovaniya Chuvashii: O sokraschenii regional'nogo komponenta ne mozhet byt’ i rechi.” IA Regnum 18 Feb. 2008. Web. 27 June 2011. <http://www.regnum.ru/news/958412.html>..>Google Scholar