tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24528000.post7645897961303367066..comments2023-10-28T12:01:47.929+00:00Comments on Edward Lucas: Europe View no 91Edward Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11369936559712607693noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24528000.post-75475098485707657232008-07-27T02:27:00.000+00:002008-07-27T02:27:00.000+00:00Even by standards of biased “viewpoint” journalism...Even by standards of biased “viewpoint” journalism of Edward Lucas this piece is too much. It is based on Internet prank, misrepresentation of facts, etc.<BR/><BR/>“Siberian” language was an Internet prank, somebody claimed that “Siberian” dialect of Russian language exists and tried to create “Siberian” version of Wikipedia. Most of these pages were empty shells, or contained f-words, lies, prank, etc. No evidence of existence of such “dialect” was found outside of the Internet:<BR/><BR/>http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сибирская_Википедия<BR/>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Siberian_language_(2_nomination)<BR/><BR/>And here we go: “respectable” economist.com now talks about “suppression” of “Siberian” language and Internet prank became a matter of serious discussion.<BR/><BR/>Clearly, the author either doesn’t have any idea about real situation in Tatarstan or doesn’t want to admit the truth. As a native of Kazan, I can testify that discrimination does exist in Kazan, that is discrimination of Russians. A good friend of mine whom I know since childhood tried to get a job in the local government in Kazan. He was explicitly told that he won’t get such a job because he is ethnical Russian, and not Tatar. And this is not the only example.<BR/><BR/>The opposite is not true: Tatars are well represented in the federal government of Russia: Rashid Nurgaliyev is a minister of interior (basically in charge of police) and Elvira Nabiullina is a minister of economic development and trade.<BR/><BR/>Also, the author had to note (at least for the sake of objectivity) that teaching of Tatar is compulsory in Tatarstan for everybody now. When I was in school it was voluntary for non-Tatars.<BR/><BR/>I agree it was a bad idea to prohibit usage of whatever alphabet. But why is Latin “orthographically better-suited” for Tatar language as author stated? I heard this statement before but nobody could give any reasonable argument why. Current Tatar alphabet is Cyrillic-based but it is not actually readable for Russians because it contains letters which are not present in Russian version of Cyrillic alphabet.<BR/><BR/>The history of alphabet question is interesting: in the late 1920s comrades Stalin and Lunacharsky, his minister of education, wanted all languages in the USSR (including Russian) to switch to Latin. However, because of huge costs they decided to start from minority languages. Tatars used Arabic before that.<BR/><BR/>Then, 12 years later comrade Stalin changed his mind (Lunacharsky was gone by that time). Stalin ordered all minority languages to switch to Cyrillic-based alphabets. How does that make Latin “the orthographically better-suited”? Why not Arabic-based?<BR/><BR/>Yes, I agree that Russification did happen at various points in history. However, for example, Tatar language is well and alive after more than 450 years in Russia. Compare this to the fate of Irish language, here is a good quote from Wikipedia:<BR/><BR/>“The official languages are Irish and English. Teaching of the Irish and English languages is compulsory in the primary and secondary level schools that receive money and recognition from the state. ... English is by far the predominant language spoken throughout the country.”<BR/><BR/>And this is so even though Ireland became independent country long time ago and government spent a lot to teach Irish! In reality, people, who visited Ireland, say that Irish is almost never used in practice. So, how does Russification compare to Englification?solshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15487434751300349268noreply@blogger.com