The language situation in the national republics of the Volga region: a comparative analysis of Tatarstan and Udmurtia

Abstract

Peculiarities of the language situation in the Republic of Tatarstan and the Udmurt Republic are revealed in a comparative perspective. The study is based on the materials of semi-formal interviews with public opinion leaders (media workers and cultural figures, activists of public organizations), conducted in the summer of 2021 (16 respondents), all-Russia population censuses of 2002, 2010 and micro-census of 2015, as well as information from Rosstat and republican ministries of education. Specificity is reflected both in economic and demographic processes, the degree of attractiveness of the region, and the content of language policy, the number and the share of persons of the titular nationality as native speakers, in the native language proficiency and its use in everyday life, the learning their native language at school and teaching in the titular language. Common features include, on the one hand, an increase in the level of proficiency in the national Russian language, an increase in the proportion of people of the titular nationality who consider it their native language and choose it for study at school, and on the other hand, a decrease in the number of native speakers among the titular nationality, the number of schools with teaching of the titular languages and in the languages of the peoples of the Volga region, despite the revival of interest in the original local culture.