The Background and Fundamental Structure of Bilingual System in the Soviet Union

Abstract

This paper attempts to consider the use of Russian language as the "inter-national language of Soviet society " and as "a medium of educational system for all the peoples of the USSR". As a means of communication, Russian is becoming a second native language, for a growing number of the non-Russian population of the USSR. Consequently, the author is particularly interested in the factors behind the process of such phenomena as bilingualism. The analysis of how educational system and pedagogy reflect or reinforce language policy is a main factor in the treatment of the operation of educational elements in the bilingual situation of the Soviet Union. Bilingual didactics, so far as Soviet theory is concerned, is conceived mainly in both psychological and linguistic terms. Amongst others, Vygotsky and Shcherba ensure that the mother tongue is recognized as the basis for the acquisition of the non-native language. Bilingual educational theories reflect the general emphasis in the USSR on the child's consciousness of language processes, and have long stressed the principles of conscious acquisition. On the whole, it is not too much to say that after its long development , the Soviet bilingual educational system has reached a high scientific level and is now intensively developing in its theoretical aspects. In its actual phases of bilingualism, the raising of Russian to the status of a second native language in non-Russian schools is symptomatic of acculturation. It will probably mean the decline of traditional bilingualism as the smaller minority groups are assimilated.