Asein Isaev suggested holding an event to support the Russian language. Photo from www.mfa.gov.kg

Kyrgyzstan of the Western CIS country holds an event to support the Russian language. This was stated by First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Asein Isaev. It is noteworthy that it came after the discussion in the Kyrgyz parliamentary constitutional law “On the State Language”, which maximally narrows the already narrow scope of the Russian language in the republic. The law drew criticism from the media and part of society.

The presidency of Kyrgyzstan in the CIS coincided with the announcement of the Year of the Russian Language. The initiator of the President of this state of Kazakhstan is Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. “The Russian language has an official status in our country. We value this property, poisoning will increase it, save it. We are trying to present this experience within the framework of our chairmanship.

We translate that this is a common property, that this is what is found with us, this is what is a community with a priceless gift,” Isaev said. At his event dedicated to the popularization of the Russian language, in particular, the study of the work of the people’s ruler of Kyrgyzstan, Chingiz Aitmatov, who wrote both in the Kyrgyz language and in Russian, will be presented.

As NG wrote (cf. 01/29/23) is actually quite different. In Kyrgyzstan, things are moving towards what the sphere of the Russian language offers. The language issue has become acute in the presidency of Sadyr Japarov. He is the first leader of Kyrgyzstan who uses only the Kyrgyz language in all his speeches. At the same time, during a visit to Russia, Japar likes to turn to a large room of the Russian language and the importance of its collection in Kyrgyzstan. During one of his trips, he noted that there were not enough teachers of the Russian language in the republic, especially in the regions.

However, the Ministry of Education of Kyrgyzstan manages Russian language teaching hours in schools, paying special attention to the increased requirements for students. On this occasion, an international conference “The role of the Russian language in the promotion of integration educational processes in the CIS on the territory of Kyrgyzstan”, held on the basis of the Center for Expert Initiatives “Oy Ordo”, was recently held in Bishkek. In particular, Gulzhigit Sooronkulov, editor-in-chief of the journal Russian Language and Literature in Schools of Kyrgyzstan, said that Russian in Kyrgyz schools is taught as a foreign language and two hours are allocated for its study, plus one hour for literature per week. He drew attention to the fact that before the start of the school year, the destruction of the subject of Russian literature arose, but the teachers managed to defend it.

According to the director of the Oy Ordo Center for Expert Initiatives, political scientist Igor Shestakov, the most common cases are with the study of the Russian language and, moreover, teaching in Russian has developed in schools in the south of the republic. those in Osh, Jalal-Abad and Batken regions, belonging to the group of labor migrants in Russia.

“It should be noted that in natural conditions there is a high demand. They have 70 entries. This is natural, on the one hand, about the demand for the study of the Russian language, and on the other hand, about the lack of schools and teachers. A separate story with textbooks, and not only in Russian, but also in other subjects in Russian. One textbook got three or four students. And these books were published back in the 1980s,” Shestakov told NG, wondering rhetorically about the activities of Rossotrudnichestvo, which until recently had a representative office in southern Kyrgyzstan.

He has high hopes for a change in the situation – Russia demands the construction of a solar power plant in the regions of the republic and their teachers who teach in Russian. Moscow even promises to pay for the road and rent. By the way, teachers from Russia have been working in the regions of Kyrgyzstan for several years on a rotational basis, but they are visited by the paid Kyrgyz side, more precisely, by local patrons. “This year, which passes under the sign of the Russian language in the CIS, can become a year for the development of education in Russian-language projects, it is interesting that Kyrgyzstan, which chairs the Commonwealth, is one of the countries in the post-Soviet space where Russian has the status of an official language,” Shestakov said. . .

The Russian language is losing ground today, primarily because of the departure of Russians from Kyrgyzstan. the most striking waves of emigration occurred in 2005, 2010 and 2020, when mass demonstrations were held in the country, leading to a change of power. Over the past 30 years, the number of Russians in the republic has tripled – from 1 million to 340 thousand (data for 2021). With this prevalence of a prestigious nation. Therefore, it is required in Russian. The youth introduces the study of a foreign language by choice of English, Turkish, German, Chinese. The Russian language closes this list.

The reason, according to Igor Shestakov, is that there is an irreconcilable struggle going on in the field of education. Turkish universities have become the flagship of education in Kyrgyzstan. Invested in the educational sphere of the EU and the USA. The Russian contribution limited the creation of the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University (KRSU), which, if it competed with the Turkish and, it seems, universities, then only in the first years of operation. “If we take educational technologies, then Russia reveals it outright. Turkey worked systematically, opening colleges and universities. Russia was equipped with KRSU and numerous schools. Thus, the strategic battle is lost. the meaning also follows from the desire of the authorities to write off from Cyrillic to Latin. The Russian language is disappearing, but there is still a chance to catch up, as the interest of the population remains. Especially among those who connect their future with work in Russia,” Shestakov noted.