The Sociolinguistic Situation: Past, Present and Future in Bashkortostan

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The Sociolinguistic Situation: Past, Present and Future in Bashkortostan

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Introduction

In the region between the Volga and the Urals, the Federal Republic of Bashkortostan is placed. Its natural gas and oil resources have maintained this region always as a prominent region within the Russian Federation. Looking back to its history, Bashkortostan with a surface of 143,000 sq km and more than four million population, has been a significant region regarding its ethnic and linguistic diversities (Gorenburg, 1999; Grimes, 2000).

According to Gorenburg (2003), Bashkortostan was the first autonomous republic which the Communist government created to prevent the dominancy of a Tatar-Turkic republic. Thereafter, Bashkir and many other ethnic groups and Turkic languages have been under the influence of Russian for over a century. This Russification process has ceased after the Soviet Union dissolution on the whole. But, accordingly, in some regions resolute tendency of ethnic language revitalization has become prevailing in the present Russian Federation Republics.

In this essay, the sociolinguistic situation of the past, present and the future of Bashkortostan will be discussed as a case study.

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Historic Overview

From 13th to 15th century, Bashkirs were living under the rule of Mongol Khanate. When Tsar Ivan IV conquered the Kazan Khanate, Bashkortostan then became a Russian colony and Ufa was founded as the capital city of Bashkortostan. Consequently, many Russians settled in the region along with their colonization and centralization policies. Regarding the region was so wealthy in natural resources (gas and oil), an industrialization era starte...

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