Russian language in Azerbaijan

Orkhan Sattarov, exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

It's no secret that attitudes to the Russian language and culture are absolutely different in various countries of the post-Soviet space. In Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan or Moldova language policy is based on the reality that huge Russian-speaking communities live there. But in the South Caucasus Russian-speaking communities are small, and the attitude to the Russian language could be a criterion of cultural and political loyalty of the countries toward the Russian Federation.

Incredible as it may seem, among three South Caucasus countries the Russian language takes a privileged position not in Armenia, which is ready to join the Customs Union and the Eurasian Union. Even though it would be logical, considering the political benefits which Yerevan gets from Russia in the spheres of security and financial support. The Russian language didn’t endure in Georgia. Today Georgia is pro-Western and officially integrated into Europe. Anti-Russian attitudes have dominated in Georgian society since Saakashvili’s period. The main “refuge” of the Russian language in the South Caucasus is non-aligned Azerbaijan, where the Russian-speaking population feels comfortable. In 2008 the first branch of Moscow State University in the South Caucasus was opened in Baku.

The reason for this is the well-known traditional openness of Azerbaijan toward other cultures and a significant ethnic Russian community (120 thousand people) in comparison with other republics. But the language was preserved and developed due to active state policy by the government in the sphere. 327 mixed state schools are working in Azerbaijan, in which children study in Azerbaijani and Russian simultaneously. Moreover, there are 16 state schools where subjects are taught in Russian exclusively. In general the number of pupils who get an education in Russian is almost 91 thousand people, according to the data of 2014. Moreover, the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan, the Russian embassy in Baku, and the Azerbaijani office of Rossotrudnichestvo provide a project on in-depth study of the Russian language in 50 republican schools. For example, in Armenia mixed classes are working only in 42 schools; there is no information on exclusively Russian classes.

The same situation can be seen in Azerbaijan in the sphere of higher education. The Ministry of Education finances 11,125 students who study in state universities (11.3% of all students in the universities). Moreover, there are universities which belong to other ministries and departments (the Medical University belongs to the Ministry of Healthcare). There are about 3 thousand students studying in Russia. In general the state pays for education in Russian of more than 17 thousand students in the republic. 3 thousand students study in Russian at their own expense.

Analyzing the situation with Russian in Azerbaijan, we should mention a sociological survey which is devoted to the Russian language’s position in the post-Soviet space. It was conducted in 2007 within the project of Eurasian Monitor. Answering the question on how fluently their immature children speak Russian, 23% of respondents said that “they speak it perfectly,” 34% - “partially.” According to the survey, in Armenia only 14% of minors speak Russian fluently and 31% - partially; in Georgia 14% - fluently and 23% - partially.

Probably another reason for the comfortable position of Russian in Azerbaijan is that the majority of the Azerbaijani elite, including the political one, speaks it perfectly and knows the richness and variety of Russian culture well. Humanitarian cooperation with Russia is one of crucial aspects of Azerbaijani cultural policy. The annual humanitarian forum was initiated by alumni of MGIMO, President Ilham Aliyev and his Russian colleague Dmitry Medvedev.