I. INTRODUCTION

On Saving the Mordvin Languages Via Education

I. INTRODUCTION

Ethnic Russians made up 50.78% of the Soviet Union’s population (Central Intelligence Agency, 1991) and only 45% of the population of the Russian Empire’s (Gilbert, 2007). Despite this demographic reality, the Russian language has always been dominant in education and administration and was in extensive use by the general populace within these two states. Even today Russian is still dominant in the modern Russian Federation where, according to the 2010 census, ethnic Russians make up 81% of the population. One of the consequences of the leverage held by the Russian language is the marginalization and endangerment (and in some cases extinction) of the languages and cultures of ethnic minorities (Kolga, Tõnurist, Vaba, & Viikberg, 2001).

The Mordvinic languages—Erzya and Moksha—spoken by their eponymous ethnic groups, are under threat of extinction. Throughout history, the number of people who speak Erzya and Moksha has steadily decreased due to Russification and Soviet language policies. These people are among the oldest known inhabitants of the central Volga region and were first mentioned by the Roman historian Jordanes in the 6^th century in his historical account Getica, alongside other Uralic nations: the Merja and the (Imniscaris tribe, who can perhaps be identified as the Mari) (Klima, 1995). However, since the rise of Muscovy and the subsequent expansion of Imperial Russia, the Mordvin peoples have been subjected to Russification for centuries throughout both the Imperial and Soviet eras of Russian history and this was facilitated through measures including but not limited to religious persecution (with Russian Orthodox Christianity gradually replacing the Erzyan and Mokshan native religions), mass murder, emigration induced by oppression, famine, suppression of the languages, the permeation of Russian words into Erzya and Moksha, the crushing of rebellions, and the mass immigration of Russians to Mordovia (Kreindler, 1985; Vaba, & Viikberg, 1996).

Presently, Mordovia is one of the Uralic minority republics within the Russian Federation and is the nominal homeland of the Mordvin peoples (the Erzya and the Moksha) and their respective languages. Erzya and Moksha are seemingly at high risk due to rapid Russification and the dispersal of their peoples throughout history. While various sources provide vastly different figures, the general consensus is that their cultures and languages are at risk of extinction. A research paper would be a good way to analyze this issue and investigate a possible solution to this problem via education as well as the causes of it.