Why in the 1920s were the languages ​​of most peoples of the USSR translated into the Latin alphabet, and in the 1930s into the Cyrillic alphabet? Who wanted to romanize the Russian alphabet and why? How did the confrontation between Stalin and Trotsky affect this issue? Why are many post-Soviet states now abandoning the Cyrillic alphabet, and is it ever possible for the Russian language to switch to the Latin script? Doctor of Philology, Corresponding Member, Director of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Alpatov spoke about this.

A good idea

Lenta.ru: How did the idea of ​​romanizing the Russian alphabet come about in the late 1920s?

Alpatov: This idea was in line with the conscious language policy of the Soviet government in the first years after the revolution. In contrast to the Russification carried out by the tsarist government, the new government set a course for the national development of all the peoples inhabiting the USSR, including their languages. But some nations did not have their own script at all, and the Muslim population used Arabic script, which was then considered unsuitable.

Because she was associated with religious tradition, with the Quran. In the 1920s, they still believed in the imminent victory of the world revolution, which, sooner or later, was to lead to the creation of a world language for the communication of working people. different countries and continents. The Cyrillic alphabet was not suitable for this, since it was associated with the hated royal system. Only the Latin alphabet remained, which then did not correlate with any specific language - it was often called the "alphabet of the revolution." There was another important argument: in 1928, Kemalist Turkey, friendly to the USSR, switched to the Latin alphabet, which in those years carried out a forced Europeanization of all spheres of public life.

Therefore, all the languages ​​​​of the Muslim and Buddhist peoples of the USSR and those who had not previously had their own written language were first translated into Latin. The Yakut language and the Komi language, which had previously used Cyrillic, even fell under latinization. As the philologist, the author of the idea of ​​switching to the Latin script, wrote at the beginning of 1930, “the territory occupied by the Russian language within the Union remains a relic of the Russification activity of the tsarist missionaries - the spreaders of Orthodoxy (...). The territory of the Russian alphabet is at present a kind of wedge driven between the countries where the Latin alphabet of the October Revolution is adopted, and the countries of Western Europe, where we have national-bourgeois alphabets on the same basis. Thus, at the stage of building socialism, the Russian alphabet existing in the USSR is an unconditional anachronism, a kind of graphic barrier that separates the most numerous group of the peoples of the Union from both the revolutionary East and the working masses and the proletariat of the West.

Was one of the goals of the Latinization of the Russian language the desire of the Bolsheviks to break with the old cultural tradition and make it as difficult as possible for Soviet people to access literature published before the revolution?

It was not about breaking with the entire previous written tradition, but only about overcoming the legacy of religious culture and rapprochement with the world proletariat. But no one set the task of forgetting Pushkin or Tolstoy...

The new Kazakh alphabet, based on the Latin script, was approved by the decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

“I decide to approve the attached alphabet of the Kazakh language, based on the Latin script,” reads the decree, published on the website of the head of state on October 27.

The Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic should form a national commission, as well as ensure the transition of the Kazakh language from Cyrillic to Latin script. The government has been given a deadline of up to 2025 to implement the project.

Recall that earlier Nazarbayev ordered the government to create a detailed schedule for the translation of the state language into Latin. As early as 2018, the country will begin training specialists and teaching aids to learn a new alphabet.

It should be noted that the translation of the national language from Cyrillic into the Latin alphabet was carried out earlier by Moldova, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. According to experts, the experience of Azerbaijan can be considered the most successful - rather quickly overcoming the difficulties of the transition period, the country switched to a new script. But in Uzbekistan, the translation into Latin took place only partially - the population continues to actively use the familiar Cyrillic alphabet.

In Kyrgyzstan, they also talk about the need to switch to the Latin alphabet. For example, Kanybek Imanaliev, a deputy from the Ata Meken faction, came up with such an initiative earlier. However, this idea ran into criticism from the head of state - according to the President Kyrgyz Republic Almazbek Atambaev (whose term expires on November 30), the arguments of the supporters of the Latin alphabet sound unconvincing.

“Each time the desire to change the alphabet is given a new explanation. Here, for example, is such a reason: the Latin alphabet is the alphabet of all developed countries, the transition to the Latin alphabet will help the development of the country's economy. But did the fact that they use hieroglyphs prevent Japan and Korea? - the politician noted, speaking at the international forum "Altai civilization and related peoples of the Altai language family." At the same time, the use of the Latin alphabet in a number of African countries did not at all help them escape from poverty, the politician added.

According to Atambaev, another popular argument is also untenable, according to which this measure will help unite the Turkic peoples. “For hundreds of centuries, the Turkish language already in the 19th century had little resemblance to the language of the Turkic Khagans,” Atambayev said.

spirit of the times

For their part, the authorities of Kazakhstan explain the rejection of the Cyrillic alphabet by the requirements of the era.

“The transition to the Latin alphabet is not a whim, it is a trend of the times. When I talk about an able-bodied state, I am talking about able-bodied citizens. You need to know the international language - English, because everything advanced rests on it, ”Nursultan Nazarbayev believes.

In addition, Astana believes that this measure will help rally the Kazakh community, including those Kazakhs who live abroad.

Recall that until the 10th century, the population of the territories of modern Kazakhstan used the ancient Turkic script, from the 10th to the 20th - almost a thousand years - the Arabic script was used. The spread of Arabic script and language began against the backdrop of the Islamization of the region.

In 1929, by a decree of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Latinized Unified Turkic alphabet was introduced in the Kazakh territories.

Note that in the 1920s, the young Republic of Turkey switched to the Latin script of the alphabet - such a decision was made by Kemal Atatürk as part of a campaign to combat clericalism.

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• Ilya Naymushin

In the 1930s, Soviet-Turkish relations deteriorated noticeably. According to a number of historians, this cooling was one of the factors that pushed Moscow to abandon the use of the Latin alphabet in the national republics. In 1940, the USSR adopted the law “On the transfer of Kazakh writing from Latinized to a new alphabet based on Russian graphics”.

It should be noted that Ankara has been most actively promoting the idea of ​​turning to “general Turkic roots”, which over the past decades has been striving to attract the former Soviet republics into its orbit of influence. The ideas of pan-Turkism, actively promoted by the Turkish side, serve as a tool for the implementation of Ankara's ambitious plans. Recall that for the first time the concept of pan-Turkism was formulated in the newspaper "Translator-Terdzhiman", published in Bakhchisarai by publicist Ismail Gasprinsky in late XIX century.

The creation of a single Turkic alphabet is an old dream of the ideologists of Turkic unity, such attempts have been made more than once. One of the most successful dates back to 1991 - following the results of an international scientific symposium held in Istanbul, a unified alphabet for the Turkic peoples was created. The basis for it was the Latin graphics of the Turkish alphabet. The new alphabet was adopted in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. True, later Baku made a number of changes to the Turkic alphabet, and Tashkent and Ashgabat completely abandoned it.

Although Kazakhstan takes an active part in Turkic integration projects (for example, it is a member of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States. — RT) and cooperates with Ankara in a number of areas, it is not worth exaggerating Turkish influence in Central Asia, experts say.

“The translation of the Kazakh language into Latin is welcomed by Ankara, the Turkish side has long been promoting the idea of ​​​​a common Turkic alphabet in Latin, but Turkish influence has many limitations that cannot be overcome with the help of linguistic measures alone,” said the head of the Central Asia and Kazakhstan Department of the Institute of CIS Countries in an interview with RT Andrei Grozin. - Of course, Ankara is interested in creating additional incentives for the consolidation of the Turkic world, in which it plays a leading role. However, in this case, the role of Turkey should not be overestimated.”

"Destiny of Ukraine"

Recall, according to the Constitution of Kazakhstan, the state language of the republic is Kazakh, and the Russian language is officially used “on a par with Kazakh” in state bodies.

“The state takes care of creating conditions for the study and development of the languages ​​of the people of Kazakhstan,” the basic law of the Republic of Kazakhstan says.

The reform of the alphabet will affect only the Kazakh language, the authorities of the republic emphasize.

“I especially want to emphasize once again that the transition of the Kazakh language to the Latin alphabet in no way affects the rights of the Russian-speaking, Russian and other languages. The status of the use of the Russian language remains unchanged, it will function in the same way as it functioned before, ”the press service of the head of the Republic of Kazakhstan quotes Nursultan Nazarbayev as saying.

• Nursultan Nazarbaev
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• Kremlin Pool/Global Look Press

It should be noted that the leadership of the republic considers any initiative to ban or restrict the use of the Russian language in the country harmful and dangerous.

“Suppose we legally ban all languages ​​except Kazakh. What awaits us then? The fate of Ukraine,” Nazarbayev told the Khabar TV channel in 2014. According to the politician, the role of the Kazakh language is growing naturally along with the growth in the number of Kazakhs.

“Is it necessary to forcibly bring everyone to the Kazakh language, but at the same time lose independence in bloodshed, or is it prudent to solve problems?” - added the head of the republic.

According to Andrey Grozin, the innovations will also partially affect the Russian-speaking population - after all, now all schoolchildren will have to learn the state language in a new transcription.

“True, the level of teaching of the Kazakh language in the country was not high before, and ethnic Russians do not speak it particularly well. Therefore, for the Russian-speaking residents of Kazakhstan, in fact, the changes will not be very noticeable,” the expert noted.

According to Grozin, the fact that no polls were conducted in Kazakhstan on such an important topic as changing the alphabet public opinion raises some doubts.

“Assessments were made only by individual representatives of the creative intelligentsia and public figures,” Grozin explained. — But there is no data about what opinion about the new alphabet prevails among the population. This may indicate that the authorities of the country understand that the level of approval of the reform among the population is very low.”

Astana values ​​relations with Moscow, the Kazakh leadership emphasizes that Russia "remains the number one partner for Kazakhstan both in politics and in the economy." Today, Kazakhstan and Russia are working together within the framework of a number of integration projects - the SCO, the CSTO, the Customs and the Eurasian Economic Union. There is a visa-free regime between the countries, according to the 2010 census, 647 thousand ethnic Kazakhs live in Russia, about 20% of the population of Kazakhstan are Russians.

However, when it comes to the joint past, Astana changes the tone of statements. For example, Nazarbayev's speech, delivered in 2012 at the Kazakh-Turkish business forum held in Istanbul, made a great response.

“We live in the homeland of the entire Turkic people. After the last Kazakh Khan was killed in 1861, we were a colony of the Russian kingdom, then Soviet Union. For 150 years, the Kazakhs have almost lost their national traditions, customs, language, religion,” the head of the Republic of Kazakhstan said.

Nazarbayev repeated these theses in a milder form in his keynote article published in April 2017. According to the Kazakh leader, the 20th century taught the Kazakhs "in many respects tragic lessons", in particular, the natural path of national development” and “the Kazakh language and culture were almost lost.” Today, Kazakhstan must abandon those elements of the past that hinder the development of the nation, the article says.

Translation of the alphabet into Latin will allow Astana to implement this plan, experts say. True, the practical result of the introduction of such measures may not be development, but the split of the nation.

“The discussion about switching to the Latin alphabet began in Kazakhstan back in the mid-2000s, so there is no surprise in this decision,” Dmitry Aleksandrov, an expert on the countries of Central and Central Asia, explained in an interview with RT. — But for the Kazakh society, this step can turn into very ambiguous consequences. This will lead to the creation of a serious barrier between generations.”

According to the expert, the array of literature published in the Soviet and post-Soviet times will not be republished - this is simply impossible. Therefore, the result of the reform will be to limit the access of Kazakhstanis to their own cultural heritage.

• Graduates of one of the Alma-Ata schools during the celebration of the "Last Bell"
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• Anatoly Ustinenko

“The experience of other states has shown that not only very old people, but even people of 40-50 years old, cannot retrain for a new transcription,” Andrey Grozin noted. “As a result, the baggage of knowledge they have accumulated will remain with them, regardless of their ideological orientation.”

The younger generations will no longer know the past: it is simply impossible to transfer the entire volume of literature written over more than 70 years to the new graphics.

“In the same Uzbekistan, many intellectuals are already turning to the authorities with a request to return the old alphabet - over the years since the reform, a cultural and ideological gap has formed between generations. In such cases, we are talking about a split in society no longer along ethnic lines. Dividing lines are growing inside the titular ethnic group - and this is a very dangerous trend. The authorities of Kazakhstan declare the goal of the reform to be "modernization of consciousness", but if it happens, it will be only among the younger generation. It is also about the rejection of the Soviet past. It is no secret that the entire bulk of the literature of all the Central Asian republics is associated with the Cyrillic period, and only a very small number of texts were created in the “Arab” period,” the expert summed up.

“Bolashakka bagdar: ruhani zhangyru” (“Course for the future: spiritual revival”), published today, April 12, in the newspaper “Egemen Kazakhstan”.

« It's connected with modern technologies, environment and communications, also with the peculiarities of the processes in learning and science of the 21st century. From the school bench, our children study English and learn Latin letters, so there should be no difficulties and barriers for the younger generation. By the end of 2017, with the help of scientists and public discussion, it is necessary to adopt a new standard for alphabet graphics”, Nazarbayev writes in his article.

He notes that over the long history of existence, the Kazakh alphabet was translated into one or another script solely for political reasons, but not in the interests of the people.

« You know that the roots of the Kazakh alphabet come from the deep past: VI-VII centuries. is the early Middle Ages. During this period, on the Eurasian continent, the ancient Turkic runic writing, known to science as the “Orkhon-Yenisei writings”, arose and began to be used. This is one of the most ancient alphabets in the history of mankind. In the 5th-15th centuries, the Turkic language was the language of interethnic communication in a large area of ​​the Eurasian continent. For example, all official documents and international correspondence of the Golden Horde were conducted mainly in the Turkic language. When our people converted to Islam, the use of runic writing began to gradually decline, the spread of the Arabic language and the Arabic alphabet began. From the 10th to the 20th centuries, for 900 years, the Arabic alphabet was used on the territory of Kazakhstan. On August 7, 1929, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution on the introduction of the "Unified Turkic Alphabet" based on the Latin alphabet. Writing based on the Latin alphabet was used from 1929 to 1940, then there was a transition to the Cyrillic alphabet. On November 13, 1940, the Law "On the translation of the Kazakh language from the Latin alphabet into an alphabet based on Russian graphics" was adopted. Thus, the history of the translation of the Kazakh alphabet into one or another alphabet was dictated by certain political motives.”, Nazarbayev outlines the history of Kazakh writing.

At the same time, the President recalls that he announced the need to switch from 2025 to the Latin alphabet back in 2012 in the Kazakhstan-2050 Strategy.

"This means that from the designated period we will begin the transition to the Latin alphabet in all areas. That is, by 2025 we must begin to use the Latin alphabet in office work and publish periodicals, textbooks and everything else in it. This period has already approached, therefore, not wasting time, we must start this work now.The government needs to develop a specific plan for the translation of the Kazakh language into the Latin alphabet.By the end of 2017, with the help of representatives of the scientific community and using the advice of the public, it is necessary to adopt a single standard of the Kazakh alphabet in the new script.From 2018 we must start training specialists who will teach the new alphabet, and we must also begin to prepare textbooks for schools.In the next two years, organizational and methodical works. Of course, during the period of adaptation to the new alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet will also be used for a certain time.”, Nazarbayev explains.

It should be clarified here that Nazarbayev has spoken in favor of the Latin alphabet before. For example, speaking October 24, 2006 In Astana, at the XII session of the Assembly of Peoples of Kazakhstan, the President of the country stated the following:

« We need to return to the issue of switching to the Latin alphabet of the Kazakh alphabet. We put it off at the time. Nevertheless, the Latin script dominates today in the communication space. And it is no coincidence that many countries, including post-Soviet ones, switched to the Latin alphabet. Specialists within six months should study the issue and come up with specific proposals».

If we compare these two statements, it becomes clear that nothing has changed in Kazakhstan over the past decade, including in the texts of the speeches of the head of state.

In 2007, which was declared the Year of Language in Kazakhstan, the controversy on this topic is especially strong. During the public discussion, it turned out that the presidential initiative has many opponents who believed and continue to believe that the translation of the Kazakh language into the Latin alphabet will lead to the impoverishment of the phonetic specifics of the Kazakh language. The fact is that, according to linguists, the Latin alphabet is less adapted to the Kazakh language than the Cyrillic alphabet familiar to everyone - in particular, it contains almost half the number of necessary letters. Now in the Kazakh language is used 33 letters of the Russian alphabet plus 9 specific letters. Latin can offer only 26 letters of the alphabet.

We also note that the idea of ​​switching to the Latin alphabet has been circulating in Kazakh society for a long time - literally since the collapse of the USSR. However, no decisive steps have been taken in this direction so far. There are many reasons for this. First of all, not all citizens of the country are optimistic about the Latin alphabet. Secondly, among the supporters of the transition there is no clear understanding of which alphabet (and there are several variants of the Kazakh alphabet in Latin transcription) to use. Thirdly, such a transition will require large material resources.

Meanwhile, still in 2013 When the translation of the Kazakh script into Latin was actively discussed, Nursultan Nazarbayev actively emphasized that there was no political overtones in this.

« Some people quite unreasonably saw in this some kind of "evidence" of a change in Kazakhstan's geopolitical preferences. Nothing like this. I will say this for sure. The transition to the Latin alphabet is an internal need for the development and modernization of the Kazakh language. No need to look for a black cat in a dark room, especially if it has never been there. Let me remind you that in the 20-40s the Kazakh language already used the Latin alphabet. In three of the fifteen union republics former USSR until the very moment of its collapse, national languages ​​​​were also in Latin", the president explained.

At the same time, he stressed that the transition to the Latin alphabet should not entail the loss of Cyrillic writing.

« This process must be well prepared and measured. It is important to remember here that in the 20th century, on the basis of Cyrillic graphics, a huge layer of literary and scientific heritage in the Kazakh language was developed. And it is important that this national heritage is not lost for the next generations of Kazakhstanis. We will create a State Commission for the translation of the Kazakh language into Latin script", the head of state stressed.

A little later it became known that the state commission for the transition to the Latin alphabet could be created by September 2013. This was announced by the deputy Aldan Smayil.

However , the deputy 's statement was refuted by the Committee on Languages ​​of the Ministry of Culture and Information of Kazakhstan .

« Today, we can only talk about the work of the scientific and expert community to determine the conceptual approaches to solving this problem. In particular, the scientific and linguistic issues of the Kazakh alphabet are considered by scientists of the Institute of Linguistics named after Baitursynov. The question is not easy, everything should be considered. Until today, there is no single vision in alphabetical order among experts and scientists", - said the Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Languages ​​of the Ministry of Culture and Information of Kazakhstan Sherubay Kurmanbayuly.

In 2016 Deputy Director of the Institute of Linguistics named after Akhmet Baitursynov Anar Fazylzhanova told in an interview with the Kazakh media that there are a lot of advantages in switching to the Latin alphabet:

« In the Soviet period, all foreign words entered the Kazakh language through the Russian language, it was the donor language of foreign borrowings. But a strict law was approved "to write and pronounce all borrowings through the Russian language in Russian." Thus, the natural mechanism for adapting foreign words based on the articulatory base of the recipient's language was turned off. And this is a powerful immune apparatus of any language. That is, any language in order for it to exist must have its own adaptation mechanisms. They act as powerful immune means of the language. If such a medium suffers, there is a high probability that the language will subsequently turn into a creolized, tracing language. In any language, foreign words are either translated by the resources of that language or adapted to the pronunciation and writing in that language. For example, in Russian there are a lot of borrowed words from English, German, French, but all of them were adapted to the pronunciation of the Russian language. They are all written as it is convenient for Russians to write, they are pronounced as it is convenient for Russians to pronounce. For example, today no one will recognize these Anglicisms English words: emphasize, similar, vary, vulgar, misinform, decorate, ideal etc.; Turkisms - Turkic: artel, drum, turquoise, mound, border, quiver, suitcase etc. And in the Kazakh language, all borrowings not only from Russian, but also from many European languages ​​are written and pronounced in Russian: camp, engineer, miner, wardrobe, evolution etc. The same mechanism of mastering foreign elements in your own way, if you look at history, can be traced in the Kazakh language. This suggests that the tongue had powerful immunity: plate(plate), bokebay (downy), ustel (table), samauryn (samovar), borene (log)etc. But unfortunately, now in Kazakh texts the volume of words of Russian origin increases every year, which should be written according to the rules of Russian spelling and pronounced according to the rules of Russian orthoepy. Every year there are more and more such words. This is the "result" of the work of a long-term stereotype: "write Russian words in Russian." This powerful, inertialthe stereotype still works, despite the fact that we gained independence 25 years ago. And Cyrillic reforms are powerless here. Therefore, in order to get around it (and, as is known from psychology, it is more difficult to break the stereotype), you need to choose a new graphics”, the expert explained the nuances of this issue.

At the same time, she noted that the root of the problem lies not in the Cyrillic alphabet, but in psychological stereotypes.

« The Cyrillic alphabet itself, when viewed from a purely linguistic point of view, is a perfect alphabet, modernized, modern. But if we now begin to write Russian words in Cyrillic in the Kazakh way, adapting them according to the old mechanisms, then the Kazakhs themselves will be very outraged, because this stereotype has strongly stuck in their minds. They cannot imagine what is written in Kazakh Russian word in Cyrillic. And Latin letters do not yet have any stereotype in the minds of our population. If we write in Latin letters foreign words in the Kazakh way, mostly Russian, then there will be no resistance. Thus, we can revive the immune mechanism of adaptation of foreign words. Otherwise, it will turn half into Russian and half into Kazakh. In the Kazakh language, there are only 26 of their original sounds. And we convey these 26 sounds with 42 letters. Can you imagine, a Kazakh child goes to the first grade, he learns 42 letters, among which about 15 do not concern his language. He learns them in order to write Russian words. All words from European languages ​​come to us, refracted through Russian spelling. If we switch to the Latin alphabet, then we can take many words from the original and immediately adapt them to the articulation of the Kazakh pronunciation. Thus, we will preserve the originality of the language and its sound structure.”, Fazylzhanova explained.

Meanwhile, Nazarbayev's proposal to switch to the Latin alphabet, voiced again, has already received responses. In particular, Professor, Doctor of Philology, Head of the Laboratory of Linguistic Conflictology, National Research University Higher School of Economics Maxim Krongauz in an interview with nsn. fm stated that there is still a lot of political overtones in this issue.

« Here the reasons, of course, are not linguistic, but rather political. This is a question of the political choice of the country and rapprochement with this or that civilization. In this case, the choice of the Latin alphabet means rapprochement with other Turkic languages. First of all, it's Turkish. And some distance from the civilization that uses the Cyrillic alphabet, that is, from Russia. This is always a very painful process. The eye gets used to its graphics. This is not to say that this is a rather expensive process. We'll have to re-release the classics. In addition, we are talking about all the names, rewriting tablets and so on.", - said the professor.

In Kazakhstan, they also evaluate the president's article. Traditionally, the reaction came from the very top. In particular, the speaker of the Mazhilis (lower house) of the Parliament Nurlan Nigmatulin stated that the article of the head of state is of historical importance, since it is a large-scale project for the modernization of public consciousness.

« It complements the program of political reform and economic modernization with a unique vision of the spiritual modernization of Kazakhstani society and every Kazakhstani. Only highly educated and spiritually enriched people can respond flexibly to the new challenges of the time and make the right decisions. Therefore, it is very important that the article contains a number of specific measures in the form of socio-political, cultural and educational projects that are relevant today, each of which implies a huge layer of work. I am sure that the new large-scale tasks of modernizing public consciousness, set by the Leader of the Nation, will open up new horizons for our people, which will bring our country to a qualitatively new level of development.».

In early April, the President of Kazakhstan reminded that by 2025 it is necessary to translate the Kazakh alphabet into the Latin alphabet. This intention received many different interpretations: both as the republic's exit from the cultural field of Russia, and as a kind of "civilizational choice", and simply as a desire for at least some changes. I figured out why the country's authorities want to change the writing system, what does this have to do with the situation in the country and the discussions of the 1930s in the USSR.

Language reload

Despite the slogan “there are no fortresses that the Bolsheviks could not take,” by the 1930s the Soviet government was convinced that reality was not entirely amenable to experiments. The languages ​​of the Soviet republics could not function as full-fledged communication systems. In the department of agitation and propaganda of the Central Committee, they complained about the poor quality of dictionaries and books, the lack of protocols, and errors in translating the statements of the classics of Marxism and party leaders into local languages. And in the early 40s, the Turkic languages ​​were translated into Cyrillic.

Goals are clear, tasks are the same

Of course, part of the intelligentsia of Kazakhstan is happy to perceive romanization as a symbolic exit from the cultural space of Russia and "decolonization". The irony of history is that here, too, they follow Soviet ideological patterns. In 1934, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Joseph Stalin, set the task for the Bolsheviks in the republics to "develop and strengthen courts, administrations, economic bodies, and authorities operating in their native language." Tasks, apparently, after 80 years have not changed - the Soviet intelligentsia has been stubbornly leaving the cultural field of Russia for several decades. How successful she is in doing this and what does real, and not imaginary Russia have to do with this, is at least a debatable question.

Photo: Alexey Nikolsky / RIA Novosti

The most interesting thing is that most of the disputes about the change of writing in Kazakhstan make no sense because in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan the alphabets have already been romanized. It is difficult to judge what this gave Turkmenistan because of the closed nature of the country, but the situation in the other two former Soviet republics obvious. In Uzbekistan, it was not possible to completely translate even state office work into the Latin alphabet. The language reform was criticized in 2016 by one of the country's presidential candidates, leader Sarvar Otamuratov. The experience of Azerbaijan is considered more positive, but critics note that total Latinization has led to the fact that citizens began to read less.

People who work professionally with the word, the writers of Kazakhstan, have taken into account the experience of their neighbors. In 2013, after the publication of the thesis on the transition to the Latin alphabet, a group of writers addressed an open letter to the president and government. “To this day, almost a million titles of books, scientific works on the ancient and subsequent history of the people have been published in the republic (...). It is clear that with the transition to the Latin alphabet, our young generation will be cut off from the history of their ancestors,” the appeal said. The authors of the letter drew attention to the fact that there is generally a problem of mastering the Kazakh language in the country and in these conditions it is unreasonable to carry out radical reforms.

On the way to the civilized world

Obviously, Kazakhstan will face significant problems in the transition to the Latin script. Firstly, it will require significant financial costs - the numbers here are different, from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. But not everything is so unambiguous: for the national intelligentsia admitted to the implementation of the reform, the development of huge funds is an absolute plus. Another thing is that this can slow down the implementation of other projects in the humanitarian and cultural sphere, although, apparently, there are simply no such projects. Secondly, it will create difficulties for those who use the Kazakh language - even for educated person slowing down the reading process complicates the perception of texts, which will affect the state of the intellectual sphere in the country.

Of course, supporters of Latinization consider these problems insignificant. For example, in response to the question of how much it would cost to transfer the country to a new script, the lower house of parliament answered in the spirit of the hero Ilf and Petrov “bargaining is inappropriate here.” “Going out on the road to the civilized world is always more expensive, but then you go out into the world,” the deputy said. If the reform is nevertheless started, then only victorious reports will come from the field about the successful development of the new graphics by the broad masses of workers.

One of the reasons why Astana needs modernization in the ideological sphere is that the state in the cultural sphere has to compete with the ideologically savvy agents of the doctrine of the theocratic state - the Islamists. They skillfully use modern means communication and know how to answer questions from the public. If Latinization causes even a short-term vacuum in culture and education, the Islamists will fill it with lightning speed.

It is very important that the change in writing will affect only the Kazakh society, or its Kazakh-speaking part (ethnic Kazakhs speak not only Kazakh). Russian officials practically do not speak out on this issue, Kazakh officials insistently emphasize that the language reform will not affect relations between Moscow and Astana in any way. But why do the authorities of the republic have to procrastinate on the ideological issue of 80-90 years ago? Apparently, because no other mobilization agenda has been formed for societies (against the backdrop of five-year industrialization plans, this all makes a strong impression of deja vu). Under these conditions, ideologists, with the most powerful theoretical base, can only copy the successful experience of marketers - try to give citizens "good emotions", as the journalist put it. And, of course, “play with fonts” and budget.

On October 26, 2017, a decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan was issued on the transfer of the Kazakh language alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin script. This historic decision, even at the stage of discussion, caused various reactions outside of Kazakhstan itself. The head of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, Olga Vasilyeva, several months ago, made a proposal to return the Slavic alphabet, Cyrillic, to all CIS countries. Quite recently, Atambayev said: "Apparently, it is not in vain that Kazakhstan is going to switch from Cyrillic to Latin - this is a cut off from Russia." Here it is worth noting several points that foreign commentators miss.

1. This is not a spontaneous, but a deeply thought-out and conceptual decision, which is being implemented in strict accordance with the plans. The decision to switch the Kazakh language to the Latin alphabet was made in the early 2010s. In 2013, the Message "Kazakhstan-2050" outlined the general time frame for this transition. In 2017, clear deadlines for the transition of the Kazakh language to the Latin alphabet were already set.

2. Kazakhstan, as a sovereign country, has the right to determine which alphabet is better to use for the state language. At the same time, Kazakhstan does not seek to switch to the Latin alphabet overnight. The transition period will last until 2025. A state commission for the introduction of the Latin alphabet was created, which will be the operator of this process. The very transition to the Latin alphabet intensifies the processes of nation-building. This will happen, since the change of the alphabet, according to the classics who studied the processes of nation-building, entails processes of deep reformatting of existing population groups, which end with the addition of single civil nations.

3. The transition of the Kazakh language to the Latin alphabet does not affect the cultural and linguistic interests of people who are native speakers of the Russian language. The Russian language will not suffer in any way from changes in the Kazakh alphabet. Based on purely material and mercantile interests (knowledge of several languages ​​gives an advantage in the labor market), most citizens of Kazakhstan will keep the Russian language as the language of communication, and also strive to learn Kazakh and English. The Kazakh language, having switched to the Latin alphabet, will be subject to a certain modernization. Thus, the assumptions that the transition of the Kazakh language to the Latin alphabet is directed against the native speakers of the Russian language are incorrect. The main goal of the transition of the Kazakh language to the Latin alphabet is the intensification of the process of nation building in Kazakhstan. The romanization of the Kazakh language is the first step in the process of building a new modernized Kazakhstan.

Zhaksylyk Sabitov, leading expert of the Institute of World Economy and Politics (IMEP) under the Foundation of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan - Elbasy