Russophone

This article details the geographical distribution of Russian speakers. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union the status of the Russian language was often a matter of controversy. Some states adopted a policy of de-Russification directed to reverse the former Russification.

After the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, de-Russification occurred in newly independent Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and in the Kars Oblast which became part of Turkey.

Within the new Soviet Union, a policy of Korenizatsiya was followed, which, it part was aimed at the reversal of tsarist Russification of the non-Russian areas of the country. Korenizatsiya meaning "nativization" or "indigenization", literally "putting down roots", was the early Soviet nationalities policy promoted mostly in the 1920s but with a continuing legacy in later years. The primary policy consisted of promoting representatives of titular nations of Soviet republics and national minorities on lower levels of the administrative subdivision of the state, into local government, management, bureaucracy and nomenklatura in the corresponding national entities.

Joseph Stalin mostly reversed the implementation of Korenizatsiya, not so much in changing the letter of the law but in reducing its practical effects and introducing de facto Russification. Russian language was heavily promoted as the "language of inter-ethnic communication". Eventually, in 1990 Russian became legally the official all-Union language of the Soviet Union, with constituent republics having rights to declare their own official languages.

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