For the Russian world of Central Asia, the past year will be remembered by two contradictory trends. On the one hand, the reduction of Russia's military-political influence in the region did not happen. The new leadership of the Russian Federation managed to agree with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on the extension of the terms of stay of Russian military facilities, and, despite the withdrawal of Uzbekistan, positive dynamics are noticeable in the development of the CSTO. Contours of strengthening of economic presence of the Russian Federation in the region were outlined. On the other hand, Russia's cultural and civilizational influence in the region continues to weaken.
The narrowing of the Russian world on the territory of the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and Kazakhstan is caused by two interrelated processes: a decrease in the number of Russian (Slavic) population and a reduction in the sphere of use of the Russian language. And if the first of these processes is objective and, to some extent, natural, the second is largely a consequence of the language policy pursued by the authorities. Both of these processes have a mutual influence on each other: the reduction in the number of Russians leads to a further narrowing of the Russian-language cultural and information space, which, in turn, gives the rest a desire to emigrate to a country with a more comfortable ethno-cultural environment.
At the same time, the language policy of the authorities is one of the main reasons forcing the Slavic population to focus on moving to Russia.
It is noteworthy that the deterioration of the position of the Russian language in the past year was observed in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan - the allied Russian states that are its partners in the CSTO. In addition, Astana, together with Moscow and Minsk, are part of the Customs Union (CU) and the Common Economic Space (CES), and Bishkek is a candidate for joining these organizations. The Russian language in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, being official, has so far enjoyed the most favorable legal status in comparison with other Central Asian states, which, by the way, is a constant target of attacks from the nationalist opposition. In other countries of the region, there were no significant changes in the situation of the Russian language last year. In Tajikistan, which is also a member of the CSTO, in 2011 it was restored to the former status of the language of international communication, and in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan the status of the Russian language has not yet been determined by law.
The reasons for the aggravation of the language issue are rooted in the particularities of the internal political development of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Over the course of 2012, a difficult socio-political situation developed in both republics, accompanied by an increase in nationalist sentiments and demands for raising the status of state (titular) languages. In Kyrgyzstan, the situation around the status of the Russian language became aggravated last spring, when a number of politicians and public figures suggested depriving it of its official status, while retaining only one state language - Kyrgyz. The decision was initiated by deputies from the ruling political party Respublika, led by then-Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov. In early March, Urmat Amanbayeva, a member of parliament (Zhogorku Kenesh) from the Republic party, introduced a bill on introducing changes and amendments to some laws of the Kyrgyz Republic, which provided for the introduction of fines for state employees who do not speak the state language to the due extent. In an interview with the Kyrgyz-language newspaper Achyk Sayasat Plus, the deputy proposed to remove from the Constitution a clause on the official status of the Russian language, since “the Kyrgyz language is on the verge of extinction” and for its preservation it is necessary to make all officials know the Kyrgyz language at the level where they can perform their duties. "
The press service of the parliament tried to alleviate the situation, saying that U. Amanbayeva proposed not to change the Constitution, but only to make some changes and additions to the law on the state language. However, this news got a wide resonance. On March 27, the Chairperson of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko, at a meeting with the Speaker of the Jogorku Kenesh, Asilbek Zheenbekov, noted that reducing the scope of the Russian language would have a negative impact on the image of the republic, since Russian is the language of international communication. A. Jeenbekov, in response, was forced to declare that they did not plan to deprive the Russian language of the official status of Kyrgyzstan. “Even there is no question of depriving Russian of its official status,” he noted at a meeting of parliament. “This provision is spelled out in the Constitution, and we must honor the Basic Law.”
Soon, however, U. Amanbeva again made a similar statement. 15 May at the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Science, Culture and Sport, she was outraged by the fact that officials speak in Russian.
“... It is imperative to keep all clerical work in Kyrgyz,” she said. - All official speeches must be in the official language. In state institutions it is necessary to introduce an exam for officials on the knowledge of the state language, and a multilevel one, and in case of violation of the law on the state language administrative responsibility should be provided for. ”
The requirement to use the Kyrgyz language instead of Russian has recently become one of the main trends in the country's political life. At the beginning of May, the first kurultai of students of Kyrgyzstan took place. The resolution adopted on its basis states that the state language in Kyrgyzstan should have official status. At a press conference devoted to the results of the kurultai, a member of the student council of the Kyrgyz-Turkish University Manas, Adilet Orozbaev, said that according to students, the Russian language hinders the development of the state language. However, according to him, giving official status to the Kyrgyz language does not mean that students will not have to learn Russian, English or other languages. The resolution also spoke of the need to translate computer programs, social networks and Internet resources into Kyrgyz language.
In June, a deputy of the Jogorku Kenesh, Gulasal Sadyrbaeva, spoke out with a demand to prepare all laws in the Kyrgyz language at a meeting of the committee on judicial and legal issues and legality. In her opinion, when translating documents from Russian into Kyrgyz and vice versa, gross grammatical and semantic errors occur. If the preparation of draft laws in the Kyrgyz language with their translation into Russian is legalized, then a special examination will be carried out to eliminate errors. A week and a half later, a similar demarche was made by the deputy of the parliament Torobai Zulpukarov, who resented the fact that the version of the concept of reforming state bodies was not presented in the state language. 12 June a document obliging to prepare all bills in the state language, was approved by the parliamentary committee on constitutional legislation, state structure and human rights. According to the deputy Kurmantai Abdiyev, all texts must be passed through the linguistic service of the apparatus of the Jogorku Kenesh to eliminate errors. The translation into Russian is assumed not literal, but semantic. To the same legislators who do not speak Kyrgyz, he proposed to involve consultants and translators.
In Kazakhstan, the desire to strengthen the position of the state language was expressed in the resuscitation of the idea of its translation into the Latin alphabet.
In December, President N.A. Nazarbayev, in the message “Strategy Kazakhstan-2050”, instructed 2025 to work out the issue of translating the Kazakh alphabet into Latin graphics. The language, according to the president, is one of the main consolidating factors of the Kazakh nation, and therefore it must be modern and actively used in all spheres of social life. To do this, it is necessary not only to translate it into Latin graphics, but also to modernize the language itself in order to make it able to perform communicative functions and have appropriate terminology for this. Romanization of the alphabet will be accompanied by the expansion of the scope of the Kazakh language. By 2025, 95% of the population should own it. As a result, in 10-12 years, an entire generation should appear, polling Kazakh, which will become the language of ubiquitous communication.
The idea of moving from Cyrillic to Latin in Kazakhstan began to be actively discussed after, when in October 2006, N. Nazarbayev stated the need to consider this issue. In July 2007, the Ministry of Education and Science prepared an analytical note “On the translation of Kazakh script into Latin script”, which considered the experience of other countries and peoples of the East on the introduction of Latin characters, justified the need to translate the Latin script of the Kazakh alphabet and gave a calculation of financial costs. The main initiator of the transition to the Latin alphabet is the Minister of Culture of Kazakhstan M. Kul-Mohammed. "I am absolutely sure: sooner or later we will move on to this," he declared, "life forces us to do this." At the same time, M. Kul-Mohammed assures that this issue has no political motivation, since, in his opinion, the alphabet has no “national face”.
In Central Asia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have already switched to the Latin alphabet. Moreover, the experience of their transition is rather negative, since there were more minuses (a decrease in the literacy level of the population, difficulties with the translation of educational and scientific literature, etc.) than advantages.
A particularly illustrative example of Uzbekistan, where the translation of the alphabet into Latin, having started in the middle of the 1990-s, was never completed due to the problems that arose. For Kazakhstan, the introduction of Latin characters will have much more serious consequences. About 1 / 5, its inhabitants are still Russians, and the cumulative share of Russian-speaking residents in the republic reaches 85%. The transition to the Latin alphabet will inevitably increase the ethnocultural differences between the Kazakhs and the Russians, and also will cause an increase in the migration outflow of Russians and other European ethnic groups. In cultural terms, the rejection of the Cyrillic alphabet will lead to increased alienation from Russia. At the same time, no integration of Kazakhstan into the world communication environment should be expected, since these processes are not directly connected with the graphic basis of the alphabet.
Meanwhile, the emigration of the Russian population from Kazakhstan and other states of the region, which had noticeably decreased by the middle of the last decade, increased again. In October, the number of participants in the compatriots resettlement program exceeded the psychologically significant figure in 100 thousand people. And almost half of them moved to Russia over the past year. The popularity of the program is growing, and the main stream of immigrants comes from the states of Central Asia. According to the Federal Migration Service, 32% of compatriots came to Russia from Kazakhstan, 20% from Uzbekistan, 10% from Moldova, 9,7% from Ukraine, 8% from Kyrgyzstan, 7,2% from Armenia and 4% from Tajikistan. Central Asia, therefore, accounts for almost two thirds of the displaced people. The leading position in the region is occupied by Kazakhstan, which continues to leave the Russian and other Slavic peoples. According to the Republican Statistics Agency for 2011, almost 3 / 4 emigrants were Russians (71,9%), followed by Ukrainians (7,9%), Germans (5,4%), Kazakhs (4,5%), Tatars (2,3 %) and Belarusians (1,8%). On the contrary, 2 / 3 are Kazakhs among immigrants (70,3%). That is, mainly the European leaves Kazakhstan, and the Asian population comes. As a result, the number of Russians is declining, although not as fast as in the 1990-s. In the three years that have passed since the 2009 census, their proportion among the inhabitants of Kazakhstan decreased from 23,7 to 22%.
Integration of the economies of the Customs Union and its parallel compression historical the civilizational basis - the Russian world - is one of the main contradictions in the formation of this association.
Moreover, these processes occur in the countries closest to Russia, which are critically important in geo-political and strategic terms. In the future, the de-Russification of the space of the future Eurasian Economic Union can become a time bomb, undermining its cultural foundations. Since the development of these processes will only intensify over time, it is worth considering Russia today to neutralize them. Otherwise, its “soft power” in Central Asia will finally come to naught, being supplanted by other stronger, more dynamic and aggressive cultures.