Russian language of the Soviet era: definition of the concept

Abstract

Recent comprehensive studies of the Russian language’s reaction to social upheavals indicate that there is still no common term to denote the expansion of ideology into the Russian lan- guage with the advent of the new Soviet power. This paper is to verify the concepts used in the research literature to describe the Russian language during the Soviet era, with the aim to identify the term “Soviet-type Russian language.” Several concepts are in use: “Soviet language,” “totalitarian language,” “lingua Sovetica,” “newspeak,” “Linguistic Sovietology.” The analysis reveals that several characteristics can be identified to indicate the formation of a specific version of the Russian language in the Soviet era, one to be broadly referred to as the “Soviet-type Russian language.” It is when linguistic signals can identify the process of ideological indoctrination of native speakers. First, “an interpreter” should explain the mean- ing of a new word, with the interpretation imposed “from above” and striving to become the only authoritative one. Second, the axiological bipolarity imposed from the outside becomes dominant in the semantic meaning of a word. Third, the “Soviet-type Russian language” is characterized by a conscious rejection of the linguistic heritage of the previous period. “Sovi- et-type Russian language” is one of the most vivid examples of the internal dynamic language development coinciding with the political and social breakdown of society, causing an incredible acceleration of the natural processes of language change. Thus, the extent and direction of linguistic transformations conditioned the development of a language of a new quality.