Scholarly record

LEGAL POLICY OF RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN RESPECT OF LANGUAGE RELATIONS IN XIX – EARLY XX CENTURIES

M. Akishin

Abstract

The legal policy of the Russian Empire in XIX – early XX centuries in respect of language relations was aimed at strengthening the state positions of the Russian language in a spirit of European doctrines of Romantic era on the importance of the language in the nation’s consolidation. The basis for criticism of the national policy of the Russian Empire was laid by the Russian liberals and the Polish conservatives in the late XIX – early XX centuries. The most revolutionary-radical character the criticism of Russian “imperialism” has acquired in the works of V. Lenin, who called the Russian Empire “a prison of peoples”. In Soviet historiography, criticism of national policy of “tsarist regime” was made a dogma. But that notwithstanding, Russia respectfully treated the native languages of indigenous peoples living on its territory(in the European and Asian parts of the country). Swedish, Finnish and Russian languages enjoyed the status of the state language in the Grand Duchy of Finland. The Polish language preserved the status of the state language until the mid-nineteenth century in the Polish Kingdom. The Baltic provinces used the Russian, German, Estonian and Latvian languages. Native languages of Eastern “non-Russians” were used in local government home rule and in courts. The Russian Empire carried out a big amount of work on peoples of the East writing system creation and on their school education development.

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