Before getting into my opinion, I would like to establish a few things.
On Feb. 24, 2022, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia is currently at war. It makes sense that students wanting to learn Russian should not study away in Russia. Sending students to a country that is undeniably responsible for the death, displacement and reduction of access to education, healthcare and security of thousands of innocent people would be insane. And also against most of Macalester’s values. It is Macalester’s responsibility to not show any sort of support for a country that has been continuously ignoring the International Court of Justice ordering it to stop killing civilians. To not support an aggressor.
Four countries in the world have Russian as their official language: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the Russian Federation. Due to the country’s colonial and imperialist history, there are many other countries in Central Asia and Eastern Europe where Russian-speaking people make up a significant part of the population.
The problem is that the Russian Federation is actively using the linguistic tools of the Russian-speaking minorities to maintain their influence and foreign policies over independent countries. The Russian language becomes a power tool to assert cultural dominance and to control access to media. Because of this, especially amongst younger generations, there is a continuous push to fight Russian domination in their countries. Their resistance is often linguistic – choosing to not speak Russian.
I grew up in the Czech Republic, a Central/Eastern European country that was part of the Soviet bloc. I decided to learn Russian last semester because I wanted to study the politics of the region I am from. When deciding where I could study away, I looked at Russian programs. For obvious reasons, it is currently not possible to go to Belarus or Russia. That leaves students wanting to improve their Russian to go to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan or one of the other post-Soviet states where Russian is still widely spoken. This makes sense. Whether officially or unofficially, most people in those countries do speak Russian — these states’ number of Russian speakers has even increased in the past few years due to the war in Ukraine. Eastern Europe and Central Asia still are under Russian influence. Chances are, if you were to visit one of these countries, you would at times feel as if you were in Russia.
In late 2022, the European Union recognized Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism.” The United States did the same less than a year later. Russian is a critical language for the U.S. government. That designates Russian as one of the languages “that are considered crucial for national security and economic prosperity but are not spoken by enough Americans.” There are also a lot of other valid reasons to want to learn Russian. Russian is beautiful (mostly for its slight resemblance to Czech) and Russian literature, arts and history are some of the best there are. About 46 percent of Europeans living in the United States are originally from Eastern Europe. There are also many Russian speakers that are not in support of the invasion of Ukraine and other imperialist acts that Russia is currently enacting. My point here is that wanting to learn Russian is valid. What I am questioning is the means through which we learn it.
What is the message that the Russian study away programs are promoting? Are we invalidating these countries’ attempts at liberalization from the Russian influence? Are we just enforcing the idea that these countries never truly liberated themselves?
Last week, a representative from The School of Russian and Asian Studies (SRAS) came to my 203-level Russian class to present the study away opportunities their organization (in partnership with Macalester) provides. The options she presented included Armenia, Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan.
All of these countries have been in recent years taking active steps to reduce their dependence on Russia. Especially the young generations that were born after the dissolution of the USSR living in these post-Soviet countries have been trying to push against the Russian influence and move towards greater independence.
Then she presented the program to go to Georgia.
When describing Georgia, the SRAS representative described its capital of Tbilisi as a “European [city] with a slight exotic vibe.” Obviously, describing any place as “exotic” is always weird and almost always offensive. It especially struck me in the case of Georgia though. Georgia has had quite a tempestuous year to say the least. In March, protests erupted against the government’s introduction of the “Foreign Agents” bill, which was to heavily decrease access to foreign funding for NGOs and media organizations in the country. A very similar law is in place in Russia. Thousands of Georgians went into the streets protesting this bill, for it would greatly impact Georgia’s ability to become a member of the EU. The bill was passed despite the mass protests and president’s veto. In October, new protests began across the country due to the victory of the populist, pro-Russian party Georgian Dream, making the Georgian hopes of escaping the Russian influence seem even more impossible.
I had no idea about any of this until this summer when I started doing more research into post-Soviet countries. Prior to that, it never really occurred to me to look into the political situation in Georgia. I never needed to know anything about the topic. Do you know who should do research into Georgia, know its political situation and make sure to bring it up though? A representative of a study away organization that sends students from American colleges to go to Georgia to learn Russian.
This issue is of course not just about one presenter of one organization. It’s bigger. And there really isn’t a clear solution to it. We all know that some of Macalester’s Study Away programs are messed up, but they are still great opportunities to learn about different parts of the world. Most of the time, it all comes down to personal responsibility to hold yourself accountable and check that your actions are not enforcing colonial and discriminatory relationships. Or, more accurately, that they are enforcing colonial and discriminatory relationships the least possible. But in the case of the Russian-language study away programs, I believe that there is an institutional lack of acknowledgment of their effects and what they represent in the regional politics of the destination area.
