Language Policy in the Soviet Union

The former Soviet Union provides one of the most interesting examples of a nation state's deliberate use of language policy to further its political goals. This text provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the development of this policy at both national and local levels. It is meant for linguists, policy makers, and specialists on the USSR and Eastern Europe. The book is organized in such a way that it can be read in its entirety or selectively, with an introduction to the USSR and its ethnolinguistic makeup, followed by a chronology of Soviet language policy and its general development. Subsequent chapters are organized regionally, with surveys of the geographic and ethnolinguistic regions of the Soviet Union and a discussion of language policy and its impact in each of them.