Social and Political Status of “Non-classical” Diasporas across the Former USSR

Abstract

Amongst the former USSR’s population there are certain ethnic entities, which can be labelled as “non-classical” diasporas, mixing those of dramatic origin and others answering to a broad meaning of the notion of diaspora: there are in this way Greeks, Jews, Koreans, Chinese, Germans, Gypsies, groups who are the focus of this paper. Certain communities managed to preserve their native language, whereas the languages of other groups were less resistant to the influence of Russian. In some cases, the position of an ethnic group in the USSR allowed its people to save their written language, nevertheless there are some examples of extinct idioms in the Soviet Union. This article represents an attempt to determine the social and political status of the languages of these “non-classical” diasporas, with regards to the political situation in the country, the State ideology, the value of the language for its speakers and the level of the language spread in this society. The text also contains a brief description of these “non-classical” diasporas languages, information on the extent of their usage and the means of preserving them within their communities and the state.