Written Task - 4 - Rudenko

The connection between language and society is tightly anchored.
The
relationship of the two is deeply rooted. Language performs various functions in
the society and the society does the same way. If one will not exist, the other one
will be affected. Language is the primary tool for communication purposes, for
establishing peace and order in our society, for showing authority and power, and
for attaining goals and objectives. But, it can also destruct the society if it will use
inappropriately. It must follow the conformity governing the society to avoid
conflict s and to meet the boundary of individual differences.
Society however controls our language by giving us preferences as what are
acceptable and not, because each one of us has our own perception or point of
view. A group of people may accept our language, but for others, it could be kind
of offence or insult. We must know how, when and where to say it and for what
purpose.
Social changes produce changes in language. This affects values in ways
that have not been accurately understood. Language incorporates social values.
However, social values are only the same as linguistic values when the society is a
stable and unchanging one. Once society starts changing, then language change
produces special effects.
So, language is the reflection of a society with its all social values, norms,
components and many other characteristics means that language is inseparable
phenomena which mirror a society. At the same time society and its value are
reflected in its language. Language, in turn, contributes to the development of
society. Every position pronounced in a particular language contains specific
meaning which can be easily overlooked unless one is familiar with the system of
society. There is a natural connection between language spoken by members of
social group and that group’s identity.
As we know, the ability use of language is clearly a mental ability and thus,
at least to modern sensibilities, one that is dependent on brain function. Mental
ability is result of brain function and it is developed and lives with society. From
this side, language always connects society. Language not only has meaning but
also value, and every utterance exhibits an evaluative orientation, reflecting and
evoking the perspectives, ideologies, and identities of particular social groups.
As we reflect on the abstract and the reasons for agreeing or disagreeing
with its conclusions, I believe it is necessary to highlight the following.
Tsarist Russia started colonizing large territories populated by
indigenous people – mostly in the East and North and later in the South from the
late 16th century. Russian Orthodox faith and Russian language education in the
army and schools served as the main instruments to impose Russian as a “superior
language” and a tool for social and economic advancement. During this period,
Tsarist authorities also started banning the use of certain languages in print or in
education, as was the case for Ukrainian. So, we can preliminarily conclude that
there is historical evidence indicating that Russian became the dominant language
within the Tsar's empire due to various factors, such as political centralization,
cultural assimilation policies, and the spread of Russian education and
administration. Later, after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the official
narrative called for all nations of the former Tsarist Empire to have the right to use
their language. Enthusiastic linguists also created alphabets for non-written
languages, but as Stalin monopolized absolute power from the 1930s, Russian was
deemed the language of Communism and progress, meant to eventually replace all
other languages as a medium of peace, communication, and education for all. That
aspect was extended to thousands of students from the global south who could
study in Russian and access the Soviet Union to become doctors, engineers,
researchers, professors, and artists. Parallel to this reality, the Russian language
was used to suppress local language, culture, and identity not just across the Soviet
Union but also in Central Europe, where it was made compulsory in all state
schools in places like Hungary and Czechoslovakia that had been crushed by
Soviet-led invasions in the 1950s and 1960s. It has also been a language of
colonization and oppression in many parts of the world: Central Asia, the South
Caucasus, Eastern and Central Europe, the Baltic states, and Finland. Knowing
Russian well was a precondition to prestigious careers in all fields and could also
open the doors to prestigious studies in the Soviet Union. It is clear that in a
country as large as the Soviet Union, a universal language was a necessity, but it
had to be a secondary language, preserving the supreme status of national
languages. But this did not happen because of the aggressive language policy.
All of the
above demonstrates that the Russian language has been and remains an ideological
tool and a voice of propaganda. There are many cases when the Soviet government
tried to prove to the society at any cost that Russian was the most important
language in the world, since, for example, it was the first to be heard from space.
Policies such as the implementation of the Cyrillic alphabet of minority languages
and the introduction of Russian as a compulsory subject in schools also support the
idea. It
would seem that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it would be logical to end
the Soviet ideology, including the use of its tools to manipulate the population
through language policy. For some time, this was the case. Countries gained
independence, began their own development, and adopted state languages. The
society was undergoing more and more positive changes, becoming civic, bound
by its own national idea. Yes, we got a state language, but our state has never had
any complaints about the use of other languages in Ukraine, everyone spoke as
they preferred. The only one who was not satisfied with this was the Russian
Federation. Ukraine is, of course, a special case as it had a large number of
Russian and bilingual speakers as part of the Soviet colonization until 1991. The
first and second invasions by Russia in 2014 and 2022 were justified by the need to
“protect Russian-speakers” even though they always were able to speak Russian at
home and in public spaces — and still do to this day in Ukraine. But this led to the
exact opposite result - today large numbers of Ukrainians who use both languages
or even predominantly Russian are switching to speaking and writing in Ukrainian
only as a result of Russia’s aggression.
Therefore, yes, in my opinion, the Russian language was and remains
highly ideological, used as a tool of manipulation and it must be excluded from the
six official languages of the United Nations.

Written Task - 4 - Rudenko

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The connection between language and society is tightly anchored.

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