Russia, Education of Ethnic Groups

The state policy in Russia regarding the education of ethnic groups was highly controversial during the last century. In prerevolutionary Russia, ethnic languages were banned in public places, and public education was available mostly in Russian; but the revolution of 1917 was followed by a period of indigenization. Thus, by 1934, schools offered education in the primary grades in at least 67 of the languages of the Soviet Union, and members of large ethnic groups were entitled to at least one year of primary education in their mother tongue. When the policy began to encourage Russification, the choice of language in education was delegated to parents and the number of schools teaching in languages other than Russian began to decline. By the end of the 1950s, only three languages remained as languages of instruction in Russia. The sovereign Russian state in the early 1990s declared its commitment to embracing the diversity of its population, and the government encouraged the development of ethnic components in education. Regarding social cohesion issues, the whole Soviet period of history was characterized by the policy of internationalism. However, in spite of the slogan there were certain limitations on the human rights of some ethnic groups, as well as direct repressions. After 1991, the Soviet understanding of internationalism was criticized, but to this day it has not been replaced by a coherent multicultural policy, either in education or in society at large.

In the course of the history of Russia the national policy on languages and cultures of its diverse population was variable—in some periods centrist tendencies prevailed while in other periods more rights were delegated to ethnic regions. During the times of the Soviet Union, the rights of more than 120 ethnic groups indigenous to the territory of Russia to study their languages and cultures were largely respected. However, the recent history of the Russian Federation has demonstrated that this kind of respect for diversity is insufficient for the integrity of the nation. The growing mobility of the population of the Russian Federation and the arrival of migrants from the former republics of the Soviet Union created the need for cross-cultural understandings. Social cohesion also became imperative and the education system was confronted with a challenge to develop a new socially cohesive nation. A growing number of education for diversity initiatives encouraging multicultural dialogue are springing up at the grassroots level and the most recent policy documents commissioned by the Russian government stipulate the need to disseminate the best practices nationwide.