Russian remains second most widespread language in Georgia -1

By Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza

 

 

The delicate sector of lingual relations in a polyethnic society is always a topic of emotions and political intentions of different social and ethnic groups. It is even more politicized in the multinational state of Georgia, considering the presence of compact ethnic minorities and the heritage of a past age, when there was no notion of a “state language” but there was “political language” instead.

The “political language” is a language of public communication and social activeness. Russian was a “political language” in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Even in Soviet times it never had such a status in Georgia, because the local administration was always trying to give the Georgian language the image and function of a “political language.” The same could be seen even during the reign of Brezhnev, based on the cultural traditions of “Kartvelian” languages. For example, Georgian scientists were inventing analogues of mathematical, geometrical, physical and other terms, then a “Georgian computer language” in order to eliminate even the slightest chance of discriminating against Georgian as a “political language.”

Georgian has become the main instrument for social activeness and public communication for the majority of ethnic Georgians living in the republic. Efforts of intellectuals had their candid limits. First of all, Russian was the core in such an important segment of public communication as access to information. The heritage of this reality is easy to trace in dubbed films. Despite the efforts of the government, harsh laws and bans, attempts to drive the Russian language out of theaters and video libraries seem fruitless. People just do not go to watch films dubbed in Georgian and theaters lose money. So the government has to turn a blind eye to a lot of things. Georgian ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili tried to replace Russian with the English language in segments of public communication and social activeness where it has preserved its “political” status.

Another peculiarity giving the Russian language its current status is the diversity of ethnicities in Georgia. Russian was a “political” language for a third of the Georgian population, including ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis as the largest ethnic minorities. After the fall of the USSR and the Georgian language achieving the status of the state language, the factor played its role in forming the nation. The Georgian authorities (starting with first President Zviad Gamsakhurdia and ending with current head of government Irakly Garibashvili) have been closing Russian schools. There were 257 Russian language schools in Georgia in 1988 and only 61 today (50 of them are state-owned, 11 private). Only 12 are full-fledged Russian schools. 11 of them are state-owned and one is private.

To be continued

Despite pressure on Russian schoolsBy Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for Vestnik KavkazaThe delicate sector of lingual relations in a polyethnic society is always a topic of emotions and political intentions of different social and ethnic groups. It is even more politicized in the multinational state of Georgia, considering the presence of compact ethnic minorities and the heritage of a past age, when there was no notion of a “state language” but there was “political language” instead.The “political language” is a language of public communication and social activeness. Russian was a “political language” in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Even in Soviet times it never had such a status in Georgia, because the local administration was always trying to give the Georgian language the image and function of a “political language.” The same could be seen even during the reign of Brezhnev, based on the cultural traditions of “Kartvelian” languages. For example, Georgian scientists were inventing analogues of mathematical, geometrical, physical and other terms, then a “Georgian computer language” in order to eliminate even the slightest chance of discriminating against Georgian as a “political language.”Georgian has become the main instrument for social activeness and public communication for the majority of ethnic Georgians living in the republic. Efforts of intellectuals had their candid limits. First of all, Russian was the core in such an important segment of public communication as access to information. The heritage of this reality is easy to trace in dubbed films. Despite the efforts of the government, harsh laws and bans, attempts to drive the Russian language out of theaters and video libraries seem fruitless. People just do not go to watch films dubbed in Georgian and theaters lose money. So the government has to turn a blind eye to a lot of things. Georgian ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili tried to replace Russian with the English language in segments of public communication and social activeness where it has preserved its “political” status.Another peculiarity giving the Russian language its current status is the diversity of ethnicities in Georgia. Russian was a “political” language for a third of the Georgian population, including ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis as the largest ethnic minorities. After the fall of the USSR and the Georgian language achieving the status of the state language, the factor played its role in forming the nation. The Georgian authorities (starting with first President Zviad Gamsakhurdia and ending with current President Irakly Garibashvili) have been closing Russian schools. There were 257 Russian language schools in Georgia in 1988 and only 61 today (50 of them are state-owned, 11 private). Only 12 are full-fledged Russian schools. 11 of them are state-owned and one is private.To be contin