On Tuesday, November 5, a meeting of the Presidential Council on the Russian language was held in the Catherine’s Hall of the Kremlin. The body, created in 2014 to improve state policy in the field of development, protection and support of the Russian language, first gathered in an updated composition, which was approved on August 2. It included leading philologists and linguists of Russia, as well as representatives of the teacher community, historians of Russian literature, museum leaders, writers and publishers.

The agenda included issues related to the implementation of the law “On the state language of the Russian Federation”, support and popularization of the Russian language and literature abroad, as well as preparations for the celebration of the 225th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Pushkin.

The head of state promised that he would sign a decree celebrating the writer's anniversary in 2024. At the same time, the document, which was entrusted with preparing the adviser to the Russian leader Vladimir Tolstoy, will include initiatives to create the Pushkin Digital digital project to popularize Pushkin’s work. In addition, educational textbooks of a new type will be created.

At the same time, Vladimir Putin promised to assist in the restoration of the Pushkin museums in Gurzuf and Chisinau.

“There will be no problems with financing, the only question is how to organize this work. But I hope that we can do everything we can, ”the president emphasized.

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In addition, the head of state promised to provide financial assistance as part of the state program to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Fyodor Dostoevsky in 2021. During the meeting, writer Igor Volgin said that he had previously been refused a presidential grant to hold a congress on Russian literature in the year of the writer’s anniversary.

“Now we will not find the culprits, but there will be a grant,” Putin said.

New dictionaries and the Russian analogue of Wikipedia

Speaking about updating the language policy of Russia, Vladimir Putin emphasized that it should be “thought-out, balanced and relevant, meet modern trends, responsive and flexible to their changes”. Therefore, it is necessary to amend the laws “On the State Language of the Russian Federation” from 2005 and “On the Languages ​​of the Peoples of the Russian Federation” from 1991.

The purpose of the changes is the preservation and development of the Russian language and domestic literature both in Russia and in the world.

In addition, the head of state instructed to prepare a single corpus of dictionaries and reference books with the norms of the modern Russian language as the state language of Russia.

“They should become mandatory for use by all government agencies, whether it be the executive, judicial, legislative, schools, and the media,” Putin said.

However, he advocated replacing Wikipedia with an electronic version of the updated Great Russian Encyclopedia.

“This will be, in any case, reliable information in a good, modern, by the way, form,” the Russian leader added.

  • Vladimir Tolstoy, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Moldovan
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  • © Alexey Druzhinin

Education

During the meeting, Vladimir Putin expressed doubt about the appropriateness of dividing the teaching of school teachers into undergraduate and graduate programs. The head of state wondered if this makes sense in the context of the training of Russian language teachers.

The President of Russia noted that he has no final opinion on this issue. He emphasized that bachelor's and master's degrees are justified when studying in a number of specialties, primarily technical, but suggested thinking about returning to a five-year scheme in teaching Russian language teachers.

At the same time, the Russian leader considers it necessary to continue the implementation of measures to increase salaries, however, in this issue “imbalances should not be allowed”.

In addition, Putin criticized Mikhail Kotyukov, the Minister of Science and Higher Education, for a small number of budget places when recruiting groups for master's programs.

“Bad, it means that you are based on bare statistics, not understanding what is happening on earth, in life. Poorly! Then you need adjustments to your rules. If you have already introduced the rule that a group cannot be formed by less than 12 people, then give them 12 budget places, ”the president said, commenting on the situation at Voronezh State University, where there are only six budget places from 12.

The Russian leader called on the minister to correct existing shortcomings, “clean up”, and then report to him on the work done.

Vladimir Putin also noted that it is necessary to find a balance in the choice of the language of instruction. The President noted that knowledge of the national language is very important, but at the same time, there should not be any restrictions that may lead to a lack of knowledge of the Russian language.

“What if he wants to go to another region of the country, where in his chosen specialty he will have to speak Russian. And what should he do? ”The head of state asked.

He also called minor citizens of the country “the most reading part of our society” and called for an increase in the number of places in schools.

“We have a million more than we thought before, now it’s arising. The number of places in the school should be increased significantly, ”the president said.

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  • © Alexey Druzhinin

“Russian language is soft power”

Russia has an enormous responsibility for the preservation and dissemination of the Russian language and literature, but recently there have been attempts to artificially "reduce the space of the Russian language in the world, displacing it to the periphery," the president said. He added that "cave Russophobes, all kinds of marginals and aggressive nationalists" declared war on the Russian language.

“Unfortunately, in some countries this is becoming an official government policy. But behind it - and this should also be clear and understandable - all the same pressure, a direct violation of human rights, including the right to mother tongue, culture and historical memory, ”Putin added.

In this regard, two tasks have been set to preserve the Russian language in the world - this is to ensure its global competitiveness, which will occur with a decent level of knowledge and general literacy of the population of the Russian Federation, and the implementation of a support system for the Russian language environment abroad.

“It (Russian language. - RT ) serves as the basis for the spiritual and historical community of dozens of distinctive cultures and peoples. To a tremendous extent, it ensures sovereignty, unity and identity of the Russian nation, ”the Russian leader noted.

The head of state also called not to call the Russian language a weapon, since they will begin to fight it, as with a weapon.

“They are already fighting him, but for other reasons. Yes, it is a power to a certain extent, soft power. It seems to me that it’s quite enough, ”Putin said.