From Enshrined Language of the State, to Secondary Language of Tourism, Trade and Education : The Development of Policies Regarding the Russian Language in the South Caucasus Region, During and After the Soviet Union

Abstract: The aim of my own research is to bind together the limited research done regarding the topic,and to use the research of Russian in the Baltic post-soviet state of Lithuania as a backdrop and comparison. The analysis is postcolonial and comparative, using the concepts of linkage and leverage of Levitsky and Way. A guiding term in this work has been the concept of politicisation, which ultimately means the act of adding a political character to an otherwise unpolitical thing or issue. The time-period that is relevant for this paper is the 1950s to the 2010s. But earlier as well as later information will be included when necessary. In my research I came to find that Russian rather than disappear or entirely overtake South Caucasian society, instead devolved into a secondary language with limited importance. As ethnic and national conflicts made Russian controversial, the countries within the region would come to reimagine the importance of the language. This development would lookdifferent in the nations, entirely depending on their linkage and leverage to Russian or western society. The paper will target two major areas of society, these being the political andlegislative sphere, as well as education. In my conclusion I saw major differences between the more pro-Russian and Russian-speaking Armenia, and the more pro-Western and multilingual Georgia. Whilst Azerbaijan would represent a Russian-speaking, but rather neutral, grey area in the middle.