Eng
Esp

Copyright © 2024 Euromaidanpress.com

The work of Euromaidan Press is supported by the International Renaissance Foundation

When referencing our materials, please include an active hyperlink to the Euromaidan Press material and a maximum 500-character extract of the story. To reprint anything longer, written permission must be acquired from [email protected].

Privacy and Cookie Policies.

Russia’s many non-Russian nations no longer have any authors under 35 writing in their languages – Tatar scholar

byPaul A. Goble
08/04/2023
1 minute read
Major languages in Russia (Image: Daniel Dalet, d-maps.com)
Major languages in Russia (Image: Daniel Dalet, d-maps.com)
Russia’s many non-Russian nations no longer have any authors under 35 writing in their languages – Tatar scholar
Kazan, the capital of Russia’s Tatarstan, continues to be the site of roundtables at which experts on Tatars and other non-Russians continue to address what they say are the worrisome implications of the newly released data from the 2021 All-Russian census. Many participants rehash familiar arguments, but sometimes they present unexpected and important new ones.

A recently held roundtable on the census in the Tatarstan capital that attracted experts from across the Russian Federation featured three such observations that have implications far broader than just for that Middle Volga Turkic Muslim republic.

First. Aleksey Arzamasov, a senior specialist on the humanities and philology at the Kazan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pointed out that many non-Russian nations no longer have any authors under the age of 35 writing in their native languages. Younger writers, he says, to make a go of it financially, are compelled to write in Russian.

As a result, the average age of non-Russian writers using non-Russian languages is 50 or “even 60.” That means there is no successor generation coming along and that with time, the non-Russian literatures will suffer and even disappear and in so doing contribute to the disappearance of these nations as well.

Second, Albert Bibkov, a Tatarstan blogger and economist, says that this is part of a more general problem, one he describes in the following terms: “The most horrible enemy for the Tatars,” he says, is capitalism because it gives advantages to larger nations like the Russians and doesn’t leave much room for the state to compensate.

Because the Tatars still have a republic, their officials can compensate for that impact to a degree; but nations without such official hierarchies or with hierarchies filled with Russians or others who do not care about the fate of the non-Russians do little or nothing to compensate for capitalism and thus allow the market to do the heavy lifting in the destruction of nations.

And third, Radik Iskhakov, a Tatar historian who specializes on the history of censuses, says he has noted one development that isn’t being picked up by those enumerations. Many Tatars who live outside Tatarstan are buying apartments in Kazan either as places where they hope to retire or to ensure that they will live where Tatar is still spoken.

Read also:

You could close this page. Or you could join our community and help us produce more materials like this.  We keep our reporting open and accessible to everyone because we believe in the power of free information. This is why our small, cost-effective team depends on the support of readers like you to bring deliver timely news, quality analysis, and on-the-ground reports about Russia's war against Ukraine and Ukraine's struggle to build a democratic society. A little bit goes a long way: for as little as the cost of one cup of coffee a month, you can help build bridges between Ukraine and the rest of the world, plus become a co-creator and vote for topics we should cover next. Become a patron or see other ways to support. Become a Patron!

To suggest a correction or clarification, write to us here

You can also highlight the text and press Ctrl + Enter

Please leave your suggestions or corrections here



    Euromaidan Press

    We are an independent media outlet that relies solely on advertising revenue to sustain itself. We do not endorse or promote any products or services for financial gain. Therefore, we kindly ask for your support by disabling your ad blocker. Your assistance helps us continue providing quality content. Thank you!

    Related Posts