How Stalin defended the Russian language

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

From the author:This article is the result of combining an article by Viktor Chumakov in the Pravda newspaper and a selection of documents from V. Soym's book "Forbidden Stalin".

The point is that immediately after the October Revolution, some ultra-revolutionaries were going to replace the Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin alphabet. The scientific department of the People's Commissariat for Education, not without the participation of the People's Commissar A. V. Lunacharsky, already in 1919 expressed "… about the desirability of introducing the Latin script for all peoples inhabiting the territory of the Republic, which is a logical step along the path that Russia has already entered, adopting a new calendar style and metric system of measures and weights", which would be completion of the alphabetical reform, at one time carried out by Peter I, and would stand in connection with the last spelling reform.

The Society of Russian Literature Lovers strongly opposed this idea. It created a special commission, which issued a statement on December 23, 1919. Here are excerpts from it: "Having introduced a new, monotonous font for all nationalities, one should not think about the convergence and unification of all nationalities, which is possible only on the basis of a living language, which is an organic expression of the entire age-old cultural path traversed by each individual people." “Proponents of the reform, standing on an international point of view, insist on the introduction of the European script not only for the unwritten peoples of Russia, but also for the Russian …” “The introduction of the Latin alphabet will not only make it easier, but rather make it difficult for foreigners to learn Russian”.

And the introduction of the Latin alphabet instead of the Cyrillic alphabet into Russian writing did not take place in 1920.

However, the Trotskyists, with their pseudo-internationalist demagogy, did not calm down. Ten years later, an article by A. V. Lunacharsky with a call to switch to the Latin alphabet. And in particular, Anatoly Vasilyevich, dismissed from the post of People's Commissar of Education in 1929, recalls that V. I. Lenin allegedly told him about the desirability of switching to the Latin alphabet, but "in a quieter time, when we get stronger." A lie, of course. There is not even a hint of this topic in any of Lenin's works.

An immediate reaction followed - a note from the People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR A. Bubnov to I. Stalin with the attachment of a certificate on the work of Glavnauka on completing the spelling reform and on the problem of romanizing the Russian alphabet.

The answer from the Central Committee came exactly 10 days later.

And the seditious process died out almost immediately. Even then, they were afraid of Stalin. Comrade I. Luppol hastily reported to the Secretariat, the Politburo, the Cultprop of the Central Committee and to the Deputy People's Commissar of Education, Comrade Kurtz, on the dissolution of the Commission on Romanization and the termination of all work on this topic:

Yes, then they were already afraid of Stalin, but still there were brave people who were able to get on the rampage. Literally a year and a half later, amazed adherents of the Russian language could familiarize themselves with the “Draft Reform of Russian Spelling” in “Vechernyaya Moskva” dated June 29, 31st, as a result of the All-Union Spelling Conference, which completed its work on June 26.

The Politburo's reaction followed three days later.

It would seem that everything, but no, the struggle continued until 1937. In any case, in 1932 they were replaced by the Latin alphabet, and in 1935 the Komi-Zyryan and Udmurt languages were returned to the Russian basis. Let us recall that the Zyryan alphabet on the Cyrillic basis was compiled back in the XIV century by St. Stefan Permsky, and the Udmurt language received its written language in the middle of the 18th century and, naturally, on the Russian alphabetical basis. In numerous speeches in the early 30s about the translation of the Udmurt and Komi-Zyryan languages into the Latin alphabet, this act was not called anything other than mockery and sabotage. At the same time, the issues of translating the scripts of the Turkic and many unwritten peoples of the USSR into Cyrillic were vigorously debated. By the time the Constitution of the USSR was adopted on December 5, 1936, the problem had largely been resolved.

Z av. the cultural department of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) A. Stetsky - to I. Stalin and L. Kaganovich

Note from the manager. Department of Science, Scientific and Technical Inventions and Discoveries of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) K. Bauman

↑ Practical suggestions for a new alphabet and language construction

1. Establish such an order that henceforth all alphabets, spelling reference books, terminological dictionaries and grammars, as well as any changes in them, were accepted and put into use only by special resolutions of the Presidium of the Council of Nationalities of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR on the proposal of the All-Union Central Committee of the New Alphabet (VTSKNA).

2. Cancel the decisions of the All-Union Central Committee of the New Alphabet and the Leningrad Regional Committee of the New Alphabet on the creation of a Latin script for Vepsians, Izhorians, Kalinin Karelians, Permian Komi and the peoples of the Far North (Nenets, Evenks, Evens, Khanty, Mansi, etc.) and oblige VTsKNA, within three months, translate the alphabets of all these peoples to the Russian basis.

3. Instruct VTsKNA to urgently consider the proposals of the North Caucasian and Kabardino-Balkarian organizations on the transition of the Kabardians from the Latinized alphabet to the alphabet with a Russian base.

4. Instruct VTsKNA to prepare, by the fall of 1936, a conclusion on the advisability of further application of romanized alphabets among the Khakassians, Oirots, Kumandins, Shors, Circassians, Abazins and Adyghe.

5. To oblige the VTsKNA in the next two or three years to unify the new alphabets in Latin and Russian bases separately, to ensure the compilation and publication of spelling reference books, terminological dictionaries and grammars for the peoples of the USSR with new alphabets.

6. To unite the Institute of Nationalities of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR with the Leningrad Research Institute of Linguistics of the People's Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR and the research association of the Institute of Peoples of the North, reorganizing them into the Central Institute of Language and Writing of the Peoples of the USSR under the Council of Nationalities of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, with a branch in Leningrad, entrusting for this institute the direct development of spelling reference books, terminological dictionaries and grammars, as well as the provision of qualified scientific assistance to the nat. regions and republics in the work on the alphabet and in language construction.

To organize by the beginning of the 1936-1937 academic year at the Central Institute of Language and Writing three-year courses for 100 people to train linguists and translators of the classics of Marxism-Leninism.

Head Department of Science, Scientific and Technical Inventions

and the discoveries of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) K. Bauman."

In the same place. L. 114-121. Copy.