Russian as a lingua franca in post-Soviet countries

Abstract

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the former republics of the USSR undertook a nationbuilding process that in most cases is still underway today. The changes involved in this process, which take in both education and cultural and language policies, are as diverse as the states that have emerged from the dissolution of the USSR. One issue of study within this process is the current status of the Russian language in these states: the role it plays in education, administration and relations among post-Soviet states. Hence, this article analyses the factors that gave rise to the current situation and focuses on the role of Russian as a lingua franca in the territory of the former Soviet Union, while evaluating the importance of the present (re)construction of the Russian identity vis-à-vis the country’s relations with its former Soviet neighbours.

Key words: Russian language, lingua franca, post-Soviet sociolinguistics, Russian identity.