1. Some of the material in this article also appears in “Independence and the Declining Priority of Language Law Implementation in Uzbekistan,” a chapter in the forthcoming volume The Muslim Republics of the Former USSR. This book, edited by Yaacov Ro'i, is being published by Frank Cass. While the present article focuses on the language situation and practical problems of implementation, the chapter in the book edited by Ro'i concentrates on the political context of the declining priority of language law implementation.Google Scholar

2. At the time of the 1989 census, less that 5% of Russians living in Uzbekistan claimed to be fluent in Uzbek, see Natsional'nyi sostav naseleniia (Moscow: Finansy i statistika, 1989), p. 64.Google Scholar

3. TsSU SSSR Itogi Vsesoiuznoi perepisi naseleniia 1970 goda, (Moscow: Statistika, 1973), p. 202; TsSU SSSR Chislennost' i sostav naseleniia SSSR po dannym Vsesoiuznoi perepisi naseleniia 1979 goda (Moscow: Finansy i statistika, 1984), pp. 110-111; manuscript of census materials of Gosudarstvennyi Komitet po statistike, Natsional'nyi sostav naseleniia (Moscow: Finansy i statistika, 1989), p. 64.Google Scholar

4. Statistics provided to author by Uzbekistan Ministry of Education in summer, 1992.Google Scholar

5. Ibid. Google Scholar

6. The census statistics are from Tashkent. Entsiklopedia (in Uzbek) (Tashkent: Qamuslar Bash tahririyati, 1992), p. 56. The figures for the number of pupils, provided by Uzbekistan's Ministry of Education, were 173,139 and 142,450 for RLG's and ULG's, respectively.Google Scholar

7. This stands in sharp contrast to the situation in the capitals of Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan at the same time, where Kazakh- and Kyrgyz-language schools were all but unavailable.Google Scholar

8. Pravda Vostoka, 31 July 1990.Google Scholar

9. Komsomolets Uzbekistana, 4 October 1989.Google Scholar

10. Pechat' SSSR v 1987 godu (Moscow: Finansy i statistika, 1988), pp. 142, 191.Google Scholar

11. This is a serious discrepancy between the Uzbek- and Russian-language texts of the law.Google Scholar

12. Even prior to the LSL most children in RLG's were supposed to study the Uzbek language; however, the language was treated as an unimportant subject, and most non-Uzbek children completing their education in RLG's had weak Uzbek skills or none at all.Google Scholar

13. In July 1992 I was shown a copy of the draft that was being prepared.Google Scholar

14. Ozbekistan avazi, 22 October 1992.Google Scholar

15. Abdumazhidov, G., Kommentarii k Zakonu Uzbekskoi SSR o gosudarstvennom iazyke (Tashkent: Ozbekistan, 1990), p. 37.Google Scholar

16. “ 'Ozbekistan SSRning davlat tili haqida'gi qanuni amalga ashirishning Davlat programmasi” (mimeograph copy).Google Scholar

17. Pravda Vostoka, 13 February 1990.Google Scholar

18. Ibid. Google Scholar

19. The report of inactivity is contained in an interview with Adil Yaqubov (Turkistan, 15 August 1992).Google Scholar

20. Khalq sozi, 18 June 1992.Google Scholar

21. Turkistan, 15 August 1992.Google Scholar

22. For a description of the work of the commission at Samarkand State University see Ma”rifat (12 August 1992).Google Scholar

23. Personal communication by Anvar Jabbarov, June 1992.Google Scholar

24. Ozbekistan Sovet Sotsialistik Jumhuriyati Vazirlar kengashi huzuridagi jumhuriyat Atamashunaslik qomitasi, Ozbek tili atamashunasligi akhbarat (henceforth, Oz. tili. atamashunasligi akhbarat), Vols. 3-4 (1990), pp. 5-8.Google Scholar

25. Turkistan, August 15 1992.Google Scholar

26. Oz. tili. atamashunasligi akhbarat, Vols. 3-4, pp. 13–15.Google Scholar

27. Ozbekistani adabiyati va san”ati, 19 October 1990.Google Scholar

28. Pravda Vostoka, 29 June 1991.Google Scholar

29. Oz. tili. atamashunasligi akhbarat, Vols. 5-6 (1992), p. 12. Among the other organizations working on terminology is a Committee on Terminology working under the Ministry of Higher Education (Khalq sozi, 9 February 1993).Google Scholar

30. Communication from Sergei Zinin, summer 1992.Google Scholar

31. Pravda Vostoka, 31 July 1991.Google Scholar

32. Pravda Vostoka, 29 June 1991.Google Scholar

33. Khalq sozi, 9 February 1993. It is not clear what the relation is between the individual educational institutions' committees and those of the Ministry of Higher Education and the committee under the Council of Ministers.Google Scholar

34. For discussions of such activity see, for example, Pravda Vostoka, 24 May 1990; Oqituvchilar gazetasi, 8 January 1991; Ma”rifat, 12 August 1992.Google Scholar

35. The head of the organization is Iristay Qochqartayev (Ozbekistani adabiyati va san”ati, 19 July 1992).Google Scholar

36. “Ilmiy-amaliiy konferentsiia dasturi,” (Printed program).Google Scholar

37. , See, for example, Ozbekistan avazi, 16 and 19 March 1992 and 21 May 1992.Google Scholar

38. communication, Personal, summer 1992. There were, at least in 1992, published proposals to put the alphabet question to a referendum (Ozbekistan avazi, 17 June 1992).Google Scholar

39. Pravda Vostoka, 14 September 1991.Google Scholar

40. Ozbekistani adabiyati va san”ati, 1 June 1990.Google Scholar

41. One of the most interesting changes is the renaming of Tashkent's central thoroughfare Lenin Boulevard, which now bears the name of Sharaf Rashidov. Rashidov was the first secretary of the CPUz for almost twenty-five years!Google Scholar

42. Tashkent haqiqati, 11 February 1991. The Uzbek version of foreign geographical names has also changed, although generally this is a matter of bringing the names into accordance with Uzbek pronunciation, e.g., “Maskav” and “Amirqa” instead of “Moskva” and “Amerika.”Google Scholar

43. Ozbekistan avazi, 19 September 1992.Google Scholar

44. Khalq sozi, 11 March 1993. For a few other examples of articles concerning renaming, see Yash leninchi, 1 November 1991; Ozbekistani adabiyati va san”ati 29 November 1991; Ozbekistan avazi, 7 January 1992.Google Scholar

45. Oqituvchilar gazetasi, 1 September 1990. It is, of course, impossible to judge how many schools offer their students the number of hours of instruction mandated in the curriculum.Google Scholar

46. Sovet Ozbekistani, 26 August 1990.Google Scholar

47. Following the law's passage, when Uzbekistan's curriculum still maintained 1,258 hours for Russian language, this was still 340 hours more than the minimum recommended by the USSR State Committee on Education (Oqituvchilar gazetasi, 1 September 1990 and 24 November 1990). The figure of 900 was provided by Sergei Zinin in July 1992.Google Scholar

48. Oqituvchilar gazetasi, 1 September 1990 and 24 November 1990.Google Scholar

49. Sovet Ozbekistani, 26 August 1990.Google Scholar

50. Pravda Vostoka, 26 April 1989.Google Scholar

51. Oqituvchilar gazetasi, 8 January 1991. According to an article published in the spring of 1992, although the curriculum for Russian-language groups in technical higher educational institutions included obligatory Uzbek lessons, the curriculum for analogous Uzbek groups did not (Khalq sozi, 3 April 1992, cited in Oz. tili. atamashunasligi akhbarat, Nos. 7-8 1992, p. 9).Google Scholar

52. Khalq sozi, 29 October 1992.Google Scholar

53. ‘“Ozbekistan SSRning davlat tili haqida'gi qanuni amalga ashirishning Davlat programmasi” (mimeograph copy). No figures are available for the total number of Uzbek language teachers in Uzbekistan, but this figure represents more than three-quarters of 1% of the entire population!Google Scholar

54. Komsomolets Uzbekistana, 1 July 1989.Google Scholar

55. Yash leninchi, 14 February 1990.Google Scholar

56. Pravda Vostoka, 16 March 1989.Google Scholar

57. Pravda Vostoka, 7 April 1989.Google Scholar

58. Pravda Vostoka, 29 June 1991.Google Scholar

59. Some of the change may be accounted for by fewer students coming from other republics, a larger proportion of whom would presumably study in Russian groups. According to the official who provided these data, Russian textbooks were still being used in the Uzbek groups for many subjects which had no textbooks available in Uzbek.Google Scholar

60. Yash leninchi, 22 September 1990.Google Scholar

61. Sovet Ozbekistani, 10 August 1991.Google Scholar

62. Pravda Vostoka, 8 February 1990. A report in a less authoritative source—an interview in the republic Komsomol paper—indicates much more Uzbekization of office business; according to the other report, already 57 of 142 raion committees conducted office work in Uzbek in late 1989 (Komsomolets Uzbekistana, 4 October 1989).Google Scholar

63. Sovet Ozbekistani, 10 August 1991.Google Scholar

64. It is unclear what language(s) were being used in the remaining 8 committees, but given the official role for Karakalpak, it seems likely that some of these committees used that language.Google Scholar

65. Sovet Ozbekistani, 10 August 1991.Google Scholar

66. Pravda Vostoka, 8 February 1990.Google Scholar

67. Sovet Ozbekistani, 10 August 1991.Google Scholar

68. Ozbekistani adabiyati va san”ati, 28 July 1990.Google Scholar

69. Tashkent aqshami, 1 January 1993.Google Scholar

70. Khalq sozi, 29 October 1992.Google Scholar

71. Ozbekistan avazi, 30 July 1992.Google Scholar

72. Ozbekistan avazi, 5 May 1992.Google Scholar

73. Ozbekistan avazi, 19 September 1992.Google Scholar

74. Pravda Vostoka, 11 June 1992. This same problem is reported in Turkistan, 1 August 1992.Google Scholar

75. Tashkent haqiqati, 30 January 1993.Google Scholar

76. Ozbekistan avazi, 30 July 1992.Google Scholar

77. Turkistan, 30 January 1993.Google Scholar

78. Such mixed-language records are reported in Tashkent aqshami, 4 February 1993.Google Scholar

79. In one typical course, employees at an institute were scheduled for 100 hours of instruction spread out over 25 weeks (Oqituvchilar gazetasi, 8 January 1991).Google Scholar

80. Ma”rifat, 6 May 1992.Google Scholar

81. Pravda Vostoka, 13 February 1990. See discussion above on books and journals.Google Scholar

82. , See, for example, Ma”rifat, 6 May 1992 and Khalq sozi, 12 February 1993.Google Scholar

83. For an example of this attitude even before the passage of the law, see Komsomolets Uzbekistana, 19 July 1989.Google Scholar

84. See Oqituvchilar gazetasi, 8 January 1991; Ma”rifat, 15 August 1991, 30 January and 16 December 1992.Google Scholar

85. Oz. tili. atamashunasligi akhbarat, Nos. 7-8, pp. 12–13. In June 1992, Anvar Jabbarov reported that paper was holding up publication of fourteen terminological dictionaries.Google Scholar

86. Yaqubov, Adil, chairman of the Terminological Committee has referred to this problem (Turkistan, 15 August 1992).Google Scholar

87. In this regard, the creation of an Uzbekistan “Russian cultural center” in January 1994 is significant on two counts. The first is the fact of the creation itself—a sign of sensitivity to the wishes of Russian leaders in Russia and Russian-speakers in Uzbekistan. The second is the late date of organization of this center, long after analogous centers had been created for other ethnic and linguistic groups. For an interview with the director of the new center see Vechernii Tashkent, 1 February 1994.Google Scholar

88. Khalq sozi, 12 October 1993.Google Scholar

89. Davlat tili haqidagi qanunni amalga ashirishning dalzarb muammalari mavzuidagi respublika ilmiy-amaliy konferentsiiasi tezislari (Navoi: n.p., 1993).Google Scholar