The language of the sword. How the Soviet empire spoke
Evgenia Kuznetsova
This book is an attempt to answer the question: Why is our relationship with languages exactly the way it is? Why are there still people who are ashamed to speak the language of their own parents or grandparents? Why are we sometimes ashamed of our native dialects? Why do some of us still believe that language is a neutral thing in itself, and that it is normal not to know the language of our own country? Why are so many languages dying in modern Russia right now? Why does one language seem superior to someone, and another to someone inferior? The Sword Language describes the linguistic reality of the USSR in a hundred small chapters. You can start reading the book from any chapter. This is a popular science publication for a wide range of readers about language relations against the backdrop of the Soviet period.
Language as a Sword is not a call to arm oneself with language as with a sword. This book describes how Russian became a sword in the Soviet Union. The native language should become a shield in the fight against empires.
