Russian Language and Identity: Discursive Practices in Post-soviet Russia

1991年苏联解体后，俄罗斯一直在应对影响其民族认同感的大量挑战：苏联的14个加盟共和国离开，在俄罗斯人中留下了一种解放和遗弃的混合感觉;占主导地位的共产主义意识形态破产，最重要的是，该国遭受了严重的经济和社会动荡。当代俄罗斯社会在语言实践中就民族认同的新的种族、地理、意识形态和历史层面进行谈判，换句话说，到目前为止，还没有对这种语言实践进行全面的研究，拟议中的研究涉及这一空白。精英们对俄罗斯人的定义尤其是在某些公开形式的话语，例如在国家场合或在俄罗斯议会/杜马辩论期间达成的类别和公式中发表的演讲。这些观点可能会在社会的其他部分得到支持或挑战，例如在媒体或私人领域。因此，不同的声音和不同的表达方式出现，将在项目中跟踪和识别。在这两个时期，大致相当于后苏联时期的叶利钦和弗拉基米尔·普京的两任总统，俄罗斯身份的官方故事在内容和语言手段上都发生了变化。其中一个例子是对苏联过去的态度是如何改变的，从完全拒绝该政权到一个更加和解的立场。在俄罗斯多民族身份的图景中，谁被视为内群体或外群体的成员，这一复杂性和经常的混乱，是身份故事的另一个方面，将被探讨。最后，重要的是要看到俄语本身是如何被不同的话语用作其俄罗斯性观点的必要组成部分的。苏联政权的解体伴随着语言用途：公共俄语变得更加自由化，而过去时期的僵化规范被边缘化。在调查所涵盖的第二个时期，俄罗斯身份的官方版本的巩固与规范权力的回归有关。因此，该项目将对关于身份表达与为此目的使用的语言之间的联系的理论做出贡献。

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has been dealing with a large number of challenges that affected its sense of national identity: the fourteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union departed, leaving among Russians a mixed feeling of liberation and desertion; the dominant Communist ideology bankrupted and on top of that, the country has been exposed to severe economic and social turbulence. The negotiation by contemporary Russian society of the new ethnic, geographical, ideological and historical dimensions of the national identity takes place in language practice, in other words, in discourses produced at the various levels of society.So far no comprehensive study of such language practices has been undertaken and the proposed research deals with this gap.The elites' version of what it means to be Russian is especially formulated in certain public forms of discourse such as for example speeches given at national occasions or in categories and formulas arrived at during the debates in the Russian parliament / the Duma. These views might be supported or challenged in other parts of the society, such as in the media or in the private sphere. As a result, different voices and different ways of expression emerge that will be traced and identified in the project. Over the two periods, roughly corresponding to the two post-Soviet presidencies, of Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, the official story of the Russian identity has undergone both, changes in content and the language devices used for its production. One example of this is how the attitudes to the Soviet past changed, from a total rejection of the regime to a much more reconciling position. The complexity and often confusion as to who is seen as member of the in- or the out-group in the picture of the multi-national Russian identity, is another aspect of the identity story that will be explored. Finally, it is important to see how the Russian language itself is employed by different discourses as a necessary component of their view of Russian-ness. The disintegration of the Soviet regime was accompanied by changes in language use: public Russian became more liberalised while rigid norms of the past period were marginalised. In the second period covered by the investigation, the consolidation of the official version of the Russian identity becomes connected with the return to the power of the norm. Thus, the project will make a contribution to the theory regarding the connection between the identity articulation and the language used for that purpose.