Authors
Kapitolina Fedorova2; Vera Zvereva3; Natalia Tshuikina2; Dieter Stern1; Jiyeon Lee5; Juldyz Smagulova4; 1 Ghent University, Belgium; 2 Tallinn University, Estonia; 3 University of Jyväskylä, Finland; 4 KIMEP University, Kazakhstan; 5 Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea Discussion
In modern world, some languages are very strong associated with particular countries where they are predominantly used. Russian, undoubtedly, is an example of a language usually perceived as monocentric and representing only one country, the Russian Federation. However, besides being its national language, Russian is currently used by millions of people outside Russia, both as a mother tongue and a lingua franca. Communication patterns of Russian speakers outside Russia are affected by non-monolingual conditions of their everyday reality and diverse ethnic and cultural composition of Russian speaking groups. At the same time, there is a strong tendency for Russian speakers and teachers of Russian all over the world to orient to the norms of Standard Russian as it is supposed to be used in Russia. After Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022, the de facto hegemony of the Russian state over language and culture became problematic and provoked public discussions in many countries which, in their turn, were used by Russian propaganda as evidences of ‘cancelling the great Russian culture’. The round-table aims at discussing main trends in public attitudes to the Russian language and culture after February 2022, with the focus on the following questions: How different were main trends in public discourse on Russian in different countries? How Russian studies were affected by the war? Are there any chances to create more diverse and pluricentric image of Russian?