Ethnolinguistic Nationalism in Modern Central Europe Tomasz Kamusella University of St Andrews Ukrainian Society, University of of St Andrews 6:30pm, March 2, 2016 School 6, St Salvator's Quad, University of St Andrews

Central Europe The equidistant vertical (North- South) midsection of the continent of Europe, from Scandinavia to the Balkans NB: Political situation in 2007

Imagining Nations, States & Languages: A Reminder Benedict Anderson (1983) > nations = imagined communities, ie constructs, or in other words, entities created and maintained by people and their groups (NOT products of nature). Likewise, languages and states are also imagined / created and maintained by people and their groups. (Languages and states are NOT products of nature.) Languages, nations and states are part of culture, ie the social reality as opposed to the material reality (= nature)

What is a Language? (1) The distinction between ‘language’ and ‘a language’ ‘Language’ is studied by linguists, but ‘a language’ is a socio-political phenomenon, more determined by extralinguistic forces than linguistic ones Hence, ‘languages’ in plural should be researched more by social scientists Leonard Bloomfield’s 1926 linguistic definition of ‘a language’ and dialect (in/comprehensiblity)

What is a Language? (2) But: mutually incomprehensible dialects of Arabic or Chinese are dialects of these languages But: exactly the same Moldovan and Romanian, and almost the same Bulgarian and Macedonian are different languages But: Low German is NOT a dialect of Dutch with which it is mutually comprehensible, but of German with which it is largely incomprehensbile What about: asymmetrical in/comprehensibility between Spanish and Portuguese, or among Scandinavia’s Germanic languages?

What is a Language? (3) Who decides when a dialect / language is a language? > Politicians, politics ‘Imagined language’ ≈ nation as an ‘imagined community’? A language = dialect(s) imagined (through dictionaries, grammars, official use, educational system, army, state offices and other state institutions, mass media, enterprises, cyberspace, etc) to be a language in its own right Yugoslavia: Serbocroatoslovenian ( ) > Croatian, Serbian (41-44) > Serbo-Croatian + Macedonian (44-91) Breakup of Yugoslavia ( ) Breakup of Serbo-Croatian > Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Serbian

Practices of ‘Really Existing’ Nationalism in Central Europe (1) 1: The speakers of a language constitute a nation (ergo, the language is a national one) 2: The territory inhabited by this language’s speakers should be made into the nation’s nation-state 3: The nation’s national language cannot be shared with any other nation or polity

Practices of ‘Really Existing’ Nationalism in Central Europe (2) 4: No autonomous regions with official languages other than the national one can exist in the nation’s nation-state 5: By the same token, no autonomous regions with the nation’s language can exist in other polities Ideal but not necessary principles: A: All speakers of the nat’l language should permanently reside in their nation-state B: No speakers of other languages should permanently reside in the nation-state in question

Practices of ‘Really Existing’ Nationalism in Central Europe (3) ‘Serious’ name for the observed practice of ethnolinguistic nationalism: Normative Isomorphism (ie tight ideological & spatial overlapping) of Language, Nation and State Hence, the political ‘equation’ of ethnolinguistic nationalism is: LANGUAGE = NATION = STATE

Practices of ‘Really Existing’ Nationalism in Central Europe (4) CAVEAT: Often a disjunction between ideology and reality on the ground, as it is a political [normative] principle/ideal, which is to be at least rhetorically upheld, if impossible to implement) For instance: -In Slovakia almost 10% of the population are Hungarian-speakers -A third of all Hungarian-speakers live outside Hungary -In Latvia almost 40% of the population are non- Latvian-speakers

All That Began in the Balkans? From Religion (millet) to Language YearIsomorphic StatesNumber of Isomorphic States 1864Greece {United States of Ionian Islands gifted to Greece} Greece, Romania2 1878Bulgaria, Romania2 Greece [Cyprus] 1905Bulgaria, Norway, Romania Albania, Bulgaria, Norway, Romania 4

WW I: Isomorphism Moves North YearIsomorphic States Number of Isomorphic States 1916Albania, Bulgaria, Norway, Romania4 1917Albania, Bulgaria, Norway, Ukraine 4 Romania [Moldova] 1918 Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland 9 Ukraine [W Ukraine] 1919 Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Norway, Romania {Moldova incorporated}, Ukraine {Union of E & W Ukraine} 7 Belarus [defunct], Hungary [Red Slovakia], Lithuania [Perloja], Poland [Red Galicia] 1920Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Norway, Romania, Ukraine 9

Central Europe = Isomorphism? YearIsomorphic StatesNumber of Isomorphic States 1926Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Romania 9 Ukraine [defunct] 1929Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Romania, Yugoslavia Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Romania, Yugoslavia 9 Czechoslovakia [defunct] 1939Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Yugoslavia 11

WW II: Race Trumps Nation? YearIsomorphic StatesNumber of Isomorphic States 1940Bulgaria, Hungary, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, Yugoslavia (occupied polities not included) Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Yugoslavia 5 Norway [occupied] 1942 (independent states only) Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia 4 Yugoslavia [defunct] 1942 (not fully independent polities included) Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Norway, Romania, Slovakia 6

(National) Communism Trumps Nation? YearIsomorphic StatesNumber of Isomorphic States 1947Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Romania 6 Croatia & Slovakia [defunct] 1956Albania, Bulgaria, Norway, Poland 4 Romania & Hungary [Magyar AO] 1960Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Romania Bulgaria, Norway, Poland3 AL [Kosovo], H & RO [Vojvodina]

After Communism: Isomorphism After All? YearIsomorphic States Number of Isomorphic States 1989Bulgaria, Norway, Poland3 1990Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Romania {autonomy abolished in Vojvodina & Kosovo} Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Ukraine 13 Romania [Moldova] 1992Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Norway Poland, Slovenia 11 Croatia [Bosnia], Ukraine [Crimea] 1993Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Norway Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Norway Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Norway Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia 13 Belarus [Russ lg]

The Complication of the EU YearIsomorphic StatesNumber of Isomorphic States 2004Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Norway Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia (European Union treated as a single, non- ethnolinguistic polity) Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Norway, Romania5 2007Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia (European Union treated as a single, non- ethnolinguistic polity) Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway4 2008Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia 13 Albania [Kosovo] 2008 (European Union treated as a single, non- ethnolinguistic polity) Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway3 2010Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Slovenia 10 Hungary, Romania, Slovakia [Vojvodina] 2010 (European Union treated as a single, non- ethnolinguistic polity) Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway3

Nuancing the Data: 2007 States fulfilling the isomorphis m States aspiring to fulfill the isomorphis m Other ethnolinguist ic states Non- ethnolinguist ic states The total of the analyzed polities Percentage of the isomorphic states in the total of the analyzed polities Isomorphic states and the states aspiring to fulfill the isomorphism combined, expressed as a percentage of the total of the analyzed polities Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia [14] Bosnia, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Moldova, Northern Cyprus, Serbia, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine [13] Austria, Belarus, Denmark, Liechtenstei n [4] Mount Athos, Russian Federation, Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dheleia, Transnistria [4] 35 40% 77%

Fine Tuning: Populations in 2007 Population of the states fulfilling the isomorphism Population of the states aspiring to fulfill the isomorphism Population of other ethnolinguist ic states Population of the non- ethnolinguist ic states Population of all the analyzed polities Percentage of the population of the isomorphic states out of the total population of the analyzed polities Population of the isomorphic states and of the states aspiring to fulfill the isomorphis m combined, expressed as a percentage of the total population of the analyzed polities m245.16m23.29m35.07m416.32m 27%86%

Operationalizng Isomorphism: Ukraine (1) 1917 Full Isomorphism in Ukraine 1918 Near-isomorphic (E & W Ukraine) Full isomorphism (Union of E & W Ukraine) E Ukraine is part of the Soviet Union 1939/40 W Ukraine annexed by the SU > all ethnolinguistically Ukrainian lands in Soviet Ukraine 1956 Crimea passed to Soviet Ukraine 1991 Independence & Full isomorphism Near-isomorphic (Autonomous Crimea) 2014-Today de facto Fully isomorphic (de jure Crimea remains part of Ukraine)

Operationalizng Isomorphism: Russia until 1991 (2) Non-isomorphic (numerous official languages and 17,000 autonomous territories), non- national (communist), non-ethnolinguistic de jure non-isomorphic (numerous official languages and 17,000 autonomous territories), non-national (communist); BUT de facto the domination of Russian language and culture Reassertion of non-Russian languages & cultures at the level of union republic; the limiting of Russian language and culture to Soviet Russia

Operationalizng Isomorphism: Russia since 1991 (3) Resurgence of non-Russian languages & cultures in Russia’s autonomous republics and districts (2000 V Putin > Russian President) 2002 Duma enforces the use of Cyrillic for all languages native to Russia [Tatarstan & Latin script] 2003 Gradual expulsion of Russians from Turkmenistan 2005 Russian co-official in Belarus 2007 Russkii Mir (Russian World) Foundation 2014, Mar 18 Annexation of Crimea 2014, Apr 21 fast-track Russian citizenship law for native Russian-speakers of Soviet & Russian imperial ancestry

Operationalizng Isomorphism: Russia since 1991 (4) New Russia’s ideological and geopolitical drive toward the full normative isomorphism of language, nation and state -Russia’s non-Russian languages concealed within the commonality of the Russian script = Cyrillic -Russikii Mir (Russian World) encompasses all the predominantly Russian-speaking areas of the former SU (including Israel?) -All Russian-speakers = ‘true’ Russian nation -All the Russian-speaking areas must be united within the Russia of a near future?

Operationalizng Isomorphism: Russia since 1991 (5) Central Europe’s ideology of normative isomorphism accepted in Russia New isomorphic formula of Russianness Russian language = Russian script (Cyrillic) = Russian nation (coterminous with Russkii Mir) = true Russian nation-state—cum—empire And thus, corresponding to most of the former SU territories, and possibly Israel

Operationalizng Isomorphism: Russia since 1991 (6) Dangers: Internal -Alienation of non-Russian-speakers in Russia -Conflicts with non-Russian-speakers in Russia (cf Chechnia) External -Expansion of Russia’s political borders for taking in the contiguous Russian-speaking areas; Russia = Russkii Mir -Permanent military involvement in the Middle East, if Israel is deemed to be part of the Russkii Mir

Language Making and Destruction Isomorphic Yugoslavia – Serbocroatoslovenian language Yugoslavia partitioned (WW II) – Serbocroatoslovenian partitioned > Croatian, Serbian, Slovenian, Macedonian (‘44) Yugoslavia recreated – Croatian + Serbian > Serbo- Croatian & Macedonian & Slovenian Yugoslavia federalized (& Albanian made co-official) – Serbo-Croatian consisting of 4 variants: Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin & Serbian Breakup of Yugoslavia – Breakup of Serbo-Croatian > Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Serbian (& Bunjevcan) NB: But Serbo-Croatian is all well on the web: Serbo-Croatian Wikipedia is the largest of all the Wikipedias of the post-Serbo- Croatian languages