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The discussion of the second edition of amendments to the law “On Education” begins in the State Duma of Russia. Cancel compulsory study languages national republics within Russia has been worrying their residents for a year now. The parents were divided into two camps.
In Kazan, there are almost equal numbers of Tatars and Russians – 47 and 48 percent, and there are many mixed families. There are two official languages in Tatarstan – Russian and Tatar. Bilingualism is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic. For the last twenty years, all students have studied Tatar 6 lessons a week. Last year, compulsory learning of the Tatar language in schools was declared illegal. The reason was the statement Russian President Vladimir Putin, about the inadmissibility of forced learning of a non-native language.
“Within the framework of the legislation of the Council of Europe, within the framework of educational standards recommended by the Council of Europe, there is a concept of competence called “ native language" That is, this is a core competency. Our native language is not registered within the Federal State Educational Standard, therefore there is no final certification in the native language. There is only final examination in the state Russian language,” says Airat Fazrakhmanov, historian, deputy chairman World Forum of Tatar Youth.
Even in the second edition of the document, only one of the four curriculum options provides for compulsory teaching of the native language.
The bill assumes that parents will make the choice. If the majority of parents in a class decide to refuse to study Tatar, the children of the rest will have to submit to someone else’s choice. Ekaterina, the mother of an eighth-grader, believes that studying the Tatar language is a waste of time for her son.
“My eldest son is in school, he graduated from the eighth grade this year. We've been studying for eight years Tatar language, to no avail, unfortunately. Almost every day from first to eighth grade,” says the mother of an eighth-grader.
Changes in language policy have already affected teachers of national languages. In the middle school year The prosecutor's office of Tatarstan demanded the dismissal of Tatar language teachers. Most school directors did this. And only the school principal, the Sun Pavel Shmakov refused and filed a lawsuit against the prosecutor's office.
"Sun is an abbreviation for: Specialized scientific olympiad center. We are a school where children are taught from fifth to 11th grade. The prosecutor's office of our country in general and the prosecutor's office of Tatarstan in particular, in my opinion, went too far. When they came to us with inspections, we were ordered to fire Tatar language teachers very quickly, immediately, in the middle of the school year, in winter, to change educational plans“says the director of the Solntse school, Pavel Shmakov.
The school's students agree with their principal. For six months, parents and high school students invariably came to the courts to support Pavel Shmakov.
« I like the Tatar language, and in general everything connected with it, because we generally live in Tatarstan, we must know the Tatar language, the Tatars are like our brothers,” says Alexander, a 5th grade student at Solntse school.
What future awaits the languages of the national republics will become clear after the adoption of the law. In essence, it is not the issue of teaching that is being resolved. And then whether Tatar, Mari, Chuvash, Dagestan and others will only be the languages of home communication or the cultures of multinational Russia.
Yulia Faizrakhmanova, Belsat
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On September 20, it turned out that 1,536 parents from 92 schools in Tatarstan wrote a refusal to compulsorily teach the Tatar language for their children. This information was published in the group of the “committee of Russian-speaking parents of Tataria.”
According to the message, the refusal was written by parents from Kazan, Naberezhnye Chelny, Nizhnekamsk and Zelenodolsk.
The day before with a request to declare official position authorities of Tatarstan, on instructions from Russian President Vladimir Putin, regarding the study of the Tatar language, the Society of Russian Culture of Tatarstan, as well as the committee for protecting the rights of Russian-speaking parents and students, contacted the head of the republic, Rustam Minnikhanov.
In their address to the President of the Republic, the leaders of the 2 public associations Mikhail Shcheglov and Eduard Nosov asked Rustam Minnikhanov to organize a parent meeting of the Republic of Tatarstan on the topic “Parents of the Republic of Tatarstan - for strengthening federal values in the educational system of Russian regions.”
The topic of studying national languages in the republics became relevant again after Vladimir Putin spoke on July 20 about the inadmissibility of forced learning in the subjects of the Russian Federation of languages that are not native.
On September 15, a debate took place in Kazan on the topic “Tatar language in the Russian education system, to be or.?”, which gradually turned into a heated discussion. It was not possible to reconcile supporters and opponents of compulsory study of the Tatar language on an equal basis with Russian at the debate.
The day before, Tatarstan lost its “special status” in Russian Federation, since the special agreement between the republic and the federal center was not extended. Will the essentially unconstitutional law of Tatarstan on the compulsory study of the Tatar language in the republic be ultimately repealed?
In fact, this is not a problem for Tatarstan alone,” notes the director of the Institutional Development Fund civil society“Public Diplomacy” Alexey Kochetkov. - It concerns all of Russia. If we proceed from what we have welfare state, as is written in the Constitution of the country, then such a state should take care not only of a decent standard of living, but also take care of increasing the level of development of citizens. And knowledge of the state language plays an important role here.
Look what happened in the Russian-speaking part of Ukraine. When they began to push out the Russian language everywhere from all levels of education, Ukrainian language never got higher high level. As a result, now a significant part of young Ukrainians do not really know not only Ukrainian, but also Russian. And even if he knows Ukrainian, the scope of its application remains extremely limited. This is noticeable even when you read the Russian-language Ukrainian press. It can be seen how the level of literacy among Ukrainian journalists writing in Russian has sharply decreased.
And similar processes have occurred and are occurring in those national republics on the territory of Russia where, to the detriment of the Russian language, compulsory study of the languages of the so-called titular ethnic groups is imposed.
The Russian language is the basis of all Russian national culture, as well as the language of interethnic communication not only in Russia, but also in post-Soviet space. Within Russian culture, not only Great Russians, but also representatives of all other ethnic groups of Russia are successfully developing. And if we impose some other language as the state language in one of the regions of Russia, the results could be sad. Yes, for example, Tatar nationalists will rejoice. But at the same time, not only Russian, but also Tatar youth will find themselves in losing conditions if they want to enter a university in Moscow or Nizhny Novgorod, where required good knowledge Russian language.
I graduated from school in Moscow. Tatars, native Muscovites, studied with me. They studied Russian at school like everyone else, but no one stopped them from speaking Tatar among themselves and in their families, learning their native language and culture.
I have a feeling that people who talk about the need for compulsory learning of the Tatar language actually care little about the Tatar language and culture. They are more concerned about creating a different identity, different from the all-Russian one. Moreover, the continuation of the practice of compulsory (in fact, forced) learning of the Tatar language will lead to increased tension at the international level. It turns out that due to state budget There is financing of interethnic tension in the country. As a result, this may lead to the fact that our so-called elites of titular ethnic groups will declare that their republics have matured into independent existence. And all Russians who disagree with this will be asked to leave, as was already the case in the nineties in the Baltic states. (Actually, several years ago in Kazan, Tatar nationalists already stood with posters “Suitcase-station-Ryazan” - approx.).
On the other hand, we constantly emphasize that the peculiarity of Russia, the Russian world, is that since the time of Russian Empire We preserve the diversity of cultures of all peoples living in our country. However, preserving culture is impossible without preserving national language. Perhaps there is reason for concern on the part of the same Tatar intelligentsia that few people will want to learn the Tatar language if its compulsory study is abolished?
We know the example of Russian emigration after the 1917 revolution. According to various sources, from 800 thousand to half a million people lived in France alone. This is approximately the number of some small people on the territory of Russia. I know a considerable number of third and fourth generation emigrant families who still speak Russian and know Russian culture. Moreover, the question was never raised that in places where Russians live densely French state should create and finance schools where Russian is taught. Therefore, knowing your native language, regardless of where you live, is first and foremost a matter of choice. Yes, the state can local level support the culture of small nations. If someone thinks that this is not enough and it is necessary to study the Evenki language more deeply, there is a proven method - creating non-governmental organizations, private schools, etc. Those who believe that the language of their people must be supported are, in one way or another, involved in financing all these endeavors. But the task of the state is to ensure that a person living in the same Tatarstan, regardless of whether he is Tatar or Russian, can receive quality education, study the state language of Russia and, if desired, enroll in a university anywhere in the Russian Federation. But it turns out that often parents of students from the same Tatarstan have to hire tutors so that their children do not write with errors in Russian.
It is known that in the Tatar language in Soviet time the Tatars spoke less and less. Waiver of compulsory study of this language at school can lead to his actual disappearance? Maybe it makes sense to make the Tatar language mandatory for those who are Tatar by passport, for example?
In Soviet times, in the same Ukraine, the Ukrainian language was studied in schools, Ukrainian authors, loyal to the Soviet regime, often had the opportunity to publish their creations in huge editions. However, few people read them. And until now, Russian-language literature in Ukraine is in much greater demand than Ukrainian-language literature, despite all imaginable and inconceivable prohibitions. In Russia, the situation is traditionally different. If not Soviet authority, which is traditionally criticized by the same Tatar nationalists, today few people even speak the Tatar language.
I would like to say to Tatar nationalists - let your writers write such works that not only Tatars, but also other peoples will want to read them in the Tatar language. And everything will be fine with your language without forced learning of it by those for whom it is not native.
Forced to learn the Tatar language ethnic Tatars, in my opinion, is also wrong. This is reminiscent of the policy of Jewish communities, which locked themselves in ghettos in the 17th century. And after some time, Jewish youth could no longer leave this ghetto. It turns out that we are driving people into a cultural ghetto. What if a Tatar or mixed family doesn’t want this? We are again dividing people artificially. A Russian of Tatar origin must have the same rights as a Russian of Russian origin. Walls within the state must be destroyed, not erected. Why create a wall between Russian Great Russians and Russian Tatars?
Most often, those who talk about multiculturalism, about additional preferences for certain small nations, think about their own selfish interests.
In your opinion, will the federal center be able to ensure that in Tatarstan compulsory education remains only in Russian?
Russia has no other choice: if we want to preserve the unity of the country, this must be done. In fact, the second cold war we are in a very difficult situation. Many people simply do not realize this. If now federal center will give way, all ethnic and even regional nationalisms will come out of all the cracks. And we won't save at all international peace, if we indulge the nationalists in Russian republics, and we’ll finally finish it off. The only way to destroy Russia is to tear it apart from the inside. Since outsiders are afraid to do this, they try to act through the creation of alternative identities. Our task is to strengthen a single Russian civilization, to which all the peoples of Russia belong, introducing into it our own ethnic characteristics.
Disputes about the need to study the Tatar language in schools flare up every day. The prosecutor's office began conducting checks in educational institutions Kazan
Parents of Kazan schoolchildren, demanding the abolition of compulsory study of the Tatar language, seem to be happy. Things have progressed since dead center. Despite the tough position of the republican Ministry of Education, they say, we will not change anything in the system, the prosecutor’s office began to conduct inspections in educational institutions on instructions received from the Kremlin. And the first results are already there.
Even in conditions of total silence of all structures - from schools to the prosecutor's office - thanks to parents, leaked to the Internet official documents. Thus, according to the requirement of the prosecutor’s office, school directors in the Vakhitovsky district were required to report on the curriculum, current schedules, and also provide written consent from parents to teach the Tatar language. A number of schools underwent prosecutorial inspections that revealed violations. Parents vying with each other to tell stories from their schools. Thus, the mother of a second-grader, Raisa Demidova, wrote an application for her daughter to study according to the version of the curriculum for schools with Russian language of instruction and for the child to be excluded from the program educational subjects“Tatar language” and “Tatar literature”.
Right to choose
“The compulsory study of the Tatar language and literature leads to a catastrophic overload of the child. In addition to the fact that children have to make up for the missing hours of Russian language and literature every day at home through independent studies, they additionally have to learn an unfamiliar language from scratch. As a result, preparation time homework increases to 2-3 hours daily. And this is in 2nd grade. At the same time, schools distribute statements of consent to include the child in a group additional study Russian (in some schools - Tatar) language. A second-grader already has a maximum workload of 26 hours - due to compulsory lessons. Additional classes come at the expense of the student’s personal time and lead to even greater overload. Parents are faced with a choice: agree to additional classes, but at the same time overload the child even more, or abandon them, despite the catastrophic shortage of Russian language lessons,” says Demidova.
The Chairman of the Committee of Russian-Speaking Parents of Tatarstan, Edward Nosov, hopes that the situation in educational institutions will change. “I am the parent of a student myself. I encountered this problem eight years ago. In 2011, when my eldest child was in primary school, I collected signatures to choose a program with “Russian language of instruction”. In the evening I went home. Only three people from the class did not sign. But then the school director refused. I submitted to statement of claim V district court, but he didn’t take my side either. Supreme Court Tatarstan also denied my child a full study of the Russian language. In 26 years of teaching the Tatar language, Russians have not spoken it,” Nosov shares his opinion.
According to the activist, every day they receive new data on inspections in schools not only in Kazan, but throughout the region. “We hope that the activities of the prosecutor’s office will yield results. We want schools to use multiple curricula simultaneously. And everyone will choose for themselves: to study the Russian language fully or to learn Russian and their native languages,” says Nosov.
President Putin's recent statement addressed to the heads of the regions that it is unacceptable to force people to learn a language that is not their native language raised a reasonable question among parents of schoolchildren in national republics - did the president want to say that studying the languages of titular peoples cannot be mandatory?.. The other day, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bashkortostan, “in connection with citizens’ appeals,” explained that “teaching native languages, including Bashkir language, contrary to the consent of the students’ parents, is not permitted.” "Evening Kazan" asked the Tatarstan Prosecutor's Office to provide a similar clarification on this issue.
IT'S NOT ABOUT US, IT'S ABOUT THEM
Let us recall that on July 20, the President of Russia, at a visiting meeting of the Council on Interethnic Relations in Yoshkar-Ola, stated: “The Russian language for us is the natural spiritual framework of our entire multinational country. Everyone should know him. The languages of the peoples of Russia are also an integral part of original culture of the peoples of Russia. Studying these languages is a right guaranteed by the Constitution, a voluntary right. Forcing a person to learn a language that is not his native language is just as unacceptable as reducing the level and time of teaching Russian. I point this out Special attention heads of regions of the Russian Federation."
The head of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan, Engel Fattakhov, the president’s statement, it seems like Putin did not say this about our republic.
But in Bashkortostan, where within school curriculum all the children are studying the Bashkir language, paid attention to the words of Vladimir Putin. In early August, the head of the Republic of Belarus, Rustem Khamitov, told reporters that the republican Ministry of Education “once again analyzed” the issue of language learning and decided to make changes to the “basic educational plans eighth and ninth grades”, where Bashkir language lessons will henceforth become optional. And the other day, the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Belarus gave an official explanation on the “language” issue in schools. In its commentary, the supervisory authority relies on Art. 14 of the Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation”, according to which citizens “have the right to study their native language from among the languages of the peoples of Russia.”
“Thus, the law establishes the right, not the obligation, to study native languages and state languages subjects of the Russian Federation... Teaching native languages, including the Bashkir language, contrary to the consent of the parents (legal representatives) of students, is not allowed,” the prosecutor’s clarification says.
As is known, in Tatarstan there are also many parents of schoolchildren dissatisfied with the topics that children, regardless of nationality, are required to study the Tatar language in equal amounts with Russian. And even Russian children in Tatarstan study Russian as a “non-native” language according to an abbreviated program national schools. Therefore, “Evening Kazan” turned to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Tatarstan with a request to provide a similar explanation for parents.
The first reaction of the press service of the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Tatarstan to our request: “Tatarstan is not Bashkiria, we do not have a similar situation with the study of native languages.” And then they asked to send an official request.
“Understand, the question is very sensitive. Here you can even lead to extremist statements...” - the supervisory authority explained the seriousness of the “language” issue.
We have sent a request to the prosecutor's office and are waiting for a response.
BETWEEN THE MOSCOW KREMLIN AND KAZAN
Meanwhile, “Evening Kazan” asked independent experts to speculate on how Tatarstan differs from Bashkiria in the situation caused by Putin’s statement, and what position our prosecutor’s office will ultimately take.
Prosecutor's office of Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Chechnya or Ryazan region is a single federal body. She has common approaches and standards. The Bashkirs cannot say one thing, and the Tatars another, says the expert Public Chamber RT lawyer Marat Kamalov. - But it happens that the prosecutor’s office is mistaken. I do not claim that the opinion of the Bashkir prosecutor’s office is wrong or correct. I do not know that. But Tatarstan has its own Constitution, which talks about two state languages - Tatar and Russian. Another thing is that the methods of teaching Tatar in schools are extremely poor, the textbooks are primitive. If not for this, the children could learn Tatar with only two lessons a week.
According to the academician's forecasts Russian Academy political science Vladimir Belyaev, the Tatarstan Prosecutor’s Office will simply avoid the “language” issue:
- She will fidget between the Moscow Kremlin and the Kazan Kremlin and, as the Minister of Education of Tatarstan, pretend that this does not concern us. Meanwhile, the problem of learning the Tatar language is like an old unhealed wound. As before, as now, I see one of her solutions - to teach children only conversational Tatar and not for five hours a week, as now, but for two.
Political scientist and historian Rais Suleymanov believes that although Putin’s statement was undoubtedly addressed to Tatarstan, it is not worth measuring Bashkortostan and Tatarstan with the same yardstick.
Tatarstan has a law “On the state languages of the Republic of Tatarstan” ( has been in operation since 1992. - "VC"), and Bashkortostan has its own language law. But the Tatarstan language talks about the compulsory study of two state languages - Tatar and Russian - in equal amounts, while the Bashkortostan language does not stipulate the compulsory study, respectively. local legislation does not contradict the federal law in this matter. Because of this, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Belarus speaks about the right to study Bashkir, and not about the obligation, explains Suleymanov. - Moreover, the prosecutor's office of the republic at one time made warnings to the head of Bashkortostan about the universal study of Bashkir in schools, without taking into account the opinions of parents. It must be said that this is a rare case in prosecutorial practice. And now in Bashkiria, it seems, everything is moving towards the fact that their native language will be studied there on a voluntary basis. I assume that the Tatarstan Prosecutor’s Office will not follow the path of its colleagues and will refer to the republican law on state languages.
The head of the community “Russian language in schools of national republics” and one of the participants in the protest parent movement against the compulsory study of Tatar, Ekaterina Belyaeva, agrees with Suleymanov - the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Tatarstan will appeal to the republican law on state languages:
- Except Putin, no one will save us from compulsory Tatar. Several years ago, we, more than 300 parents, applied to the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia, but received a reply. Perhaps now that the agreement between Russia and Tatarstan has come to an end, the situation will change in our favor. But I would like the Russian President to come to Tatarstan and explain to everyone what he meant.
They believe in the power of Putin’s word, but do not count on a positive response from the prosecutor and public organization“Committee for the protection of the rights of Russian-speaking parents and students of the Republic of Tatarstan.”
After the president’s statement, parents in Tatarstan waited for someone from the authorities to explain to us and legally justify whether we understood his words correctly. But for some reason, Putin says one thing, and officials say another, as if we live in two realities,” committee chairman Edward Nosov is perplexed. - Now the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation is discussing a draft of new federal educational standards, and in it we, to our surprise, found a clause on the compulsory study of the state languages of the republics. If such federal standard If they approve it, then we will be completely surrounded by red flags. Therefore, we recently sent appeals to the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, the State Duma and the Federal Minister of Education Olga Vasilyeva. And now we are preparing appeals to the Prosecutor General’s Office - let it explain to us what Putin meant.
Photo from the VK archive
The head of the government of Tatarstan, Alexey Pesoshin, decided to increase the number of Russian language hours in the republic’s schools from January 1, 2018.
According to this, this was done following a meeting of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Interethnic Relations on July 20, 2017. At it, Vladimir Putin said that “forcing a person to learn a language that is not his native language is just as unacceptable as reducing the level and time of teaching Russian.”Moreover, until November 30, the Prosecutor General’s Office and Rosobrnadzor were instructed to verify compliance with the rights of citizens to “voluntary study of their native language from among the languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation and the state languages of the republics within the Russian Federation.” As the prosecutor's office of the Republic of Tatarstan clarified, there has not yet been such an order from a higher department.
Tatarsky will remain
The number of hours in Russian will increase, but the Tatar language will remain, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan comments and refers to the resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of 2004. According to it, the study of the state languages of the republic - Russian and Tatar - in schools in Tatarstan is recognized as not contradicting the Constitution of the Russian Federation (the decision of the Constitutional Court specifies that Tatar should not be studied to the detriment of the Russian language - Ed.). Therefore, the Tatar language, as a compulsory language, will also remain in the curriculum.
“The school told me to fill out consent forms to learn additional Russian as quickly as possible,” says the mother of a second-grader from Kazan, Raisa Demidova. - They said that 1 hour a week would be allocated for this, but at the expense of what hours (curricular or extracurricular), there is no answer. But according to our school’s curriculum, second-graders already maximum load(26 hours), provided for by SanPiN!”Plus, according to the parent, the resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, which is operated by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Tatarstan, says about equal volumes Russian and Tatar - on a voluntary basis. They say that such teaching does not contradict the Constitution if it is conducted in accordance with federal government educational standards. “But in these standards there is no subject “state language of the subject of the Russian Federation”, there is a subject “native language”! - explains Raisa Demidova.
Earlier, about the situation with the study of the Tatar language in the schools of the republic, “It seems to me that this is not entirely correct if you were born and live on the territory of Bashkiria or Tatarstan and do not know the language at the everyday level,” she said at the all-Russian parent meeting August 30 this year.
a common problem
Director of the Institute of History. Sh. Marjani of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan Rafael Khakimov, on the basis of the same resolution, expects an automatic increase in the hours of the Tatar language - in the event that there is more Russian. " Unified State Exam results Russian language skills in Tatarstan are better than the Russian average,” he says. - Parents were dissatisfied only with the methods of teaching the Tatar language. But this year the situation will improve: new textbooks have appeared. There are no other problems - there is no need to artificially politicize the issue.”
“This question is not within the scope interethnic relations, - objected the mother of a 4th grade student Galina Mikhailova (name changed). - We are not against the Tatar language. Both Tatars and people of other nationalities are in favor of increasing Russian hours. Because everyone is worried about the future of our children. They must take the Unified State Exam in Russian according to all-Russian requirements, although there are fewer hours of Russian in the Republic of Tatarstan. In addition, the Tatar language - unlike English - will be needed only in Tatarstan.”The Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan has found it difficult to say how many lessons will be added to each class and how the curriculum will change in connection with this.