How do they fight the Russian language in Kyrgyzstan?
Author: Talib Aliyev, analyst, especially for "Sangar"
Russia ranks first in the number of Kyrgyz migrants, confirmed by data from the National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic. As of August 2024, about 870,000 Kyrgyz live and work in the Russian Federation. According to the 2019 census of Kyrgyzstan, 2.3 million people speak Russian in this Central Asian Republic, which is 44% of its citizens. At the same time, about 9% consider Russian their native language.
The Russian language has practical value for the Kyrgyz, especially in employment. Knowledge of the Russian language provides Kyrgyz labor migrants with a competitive advantage in the labor markets of Russia and other countries of the Eurasian Economic Union and the CIS, where it remains the only language of interethnic communication. Citizens of Kyrgyzstan who do not speak Russian find themselves at a disadvantage when building a career, especially in areas such as business and finance. According to Rosstat, a significant number of Kyrgyz work in Russia - about 800,000 people, of which 250,000 permanently reside and work in the Russian Federation, the remaining 550,000 are temporary migrants. According to the World Bank, in 2022, the Kyrgyz transferred a record $3.05 billion from Russia to their country, which is 31% of the national GDP.
At the same time, opponents of the Russian language in Kyrgyzstan do not give up attempts to deprive it of its official status, which was established at the legislative level by a special regulatory legal act in 2000 and enshrined in a corresponding amendment to the country's constitution 10 years later. Thus, in May of this year, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic held a meeting of heads of departments and district departments of the department, at which a draft curriculum for secondary general education institutions for 2024-2025 was considered. The document provides for the exclusion of subjects taught in Russian from the primary school curriculum. The transfer of primary education in Kyrgyzstan to the state language seems to be a short-sighted and dangerous step that will cause significant damage to national solidarity, social cohesion, and economic development of the country. This initiative does not take into account all the features of the national and cultural composition of the population and ignores the objectively established realities of the education system and the needs of society.
Supporters of the abolition of the status of the Russian language in Kyrgyzstan are guided exclusively by the Russophobic attitudes of Western sponsors and ignore its system-forming role in the economic, social, political, and humanitarian spheres of society. In turn, Kyrgyz political scientist Bakyt Saipbaev spoke about the risks of the situation developing according to the Ukrainian scenario. "The main goal [of the West] is to tear our country and other post-Soviet republics away from Russia. That is where all this fuss with languages comes from," the expert concluded. According to him, the main tool for achieving this goal, as in the case of Ukraine, is the whipping up of anti-Russian sentiments through controlled NGOs and "agents of influence."
Instead of encouraging the nationalist and Russophobic aspirations of certain odious figures aimed at destroying cultural and linguistic diversity and undermining social unity, the ruling circles of Kyrgyzstan should focus their efforts on promoting an inclusive national-cultural and educational policy that takes into account the language preferences and needs of all citizens. The Russian language remains an indispensable factor for the comprehensive development of the republic.
