The State Duma has strengthened the sovereign vocabulary

The State Duma adopted government amendments to the legislation, correcting the norms for the use of the Russian language as the state language. Now the Russian language is mandatory for use in government bodies, in elections, in courts, in the preparation of documents, in the media and in some other cases, and the use of foreign words is permissible in the absence of “generally used analogues.” The amendments add “information for consumers of goods” to the list – for example, on labels – and oblige to comply with the “norms of the Russian literary language”, comparing them, like acceptable foreign words, with reference books (to be developed by the government). Some State Duma deputies hope that the amendments will at least help remove “fields, hills, forests and villages” from billboards, but the law still obliges ads to follow language rules.

Project amendments to the law “On the state language of the Russian Federation” was submitted to the State Duma in October 2022 by the government of the Russian Federation. Now in this law the Russian language is proclaimed the state language, and Art. 3 obliges it to be used in a number of areas, including in government bodies, in elections, in courts, when preparing documents and writing names of geographical objects, in the media, when showing films, and in other cases – for example, in notaries and radio communications in aircraft on territory of the Russian Federation. Art. 6 of the law does not allow the use of words and expressions that “do not correspond to the norms of the modern Russian literary language (including obscene language)”. The amendments propose to compare these norms with dictionaries and reference books (they are to be developed by a government commission).

Earlier, some Telegram channels and news agencies interpreted the bill as prohibiting “the use of foreign words, with the exception of those that do not have commonly used analogues in the Russian language.”

In fact, this provision is contained in Art. 6 of the law since at least 2013, while in 2014 a note was added to the document about the inadmissibility of obscenities in Russian when used as the state language.

At the same time, the bill only proposed to check the admissibility of foreign words with the same dictionaries. In the first reading, the document was adopted in December 2022. Deputy Minister of Education of the Russian Federation Tatyana Vasilyeva, who represented him in the State Duma, drew attention to the norm on mandatory linguistic expertise, which, with the adoption of amendments, all “draft legal acts” will have to pass, and expressed the hope that the document “will increase the level of general literacy of citizens.”

Presenting the amendments for the second reading, the head of the Duma Committee on Culture, Elena Yampolskaya, considered it important to add “information intended for consumers of goods (works, services)” to the list of areas where the use of the Russian language is mandatory. Calling it a “big victory,” Ms. Yampolskaya explained: “This is exactly the area where most of the outrageous things are happening in relation to the Russian language.”

In addition, Art. 11 of the law, a rule is introduced that inscriptions in Russian and foreign languages ​​must be not only identical “in content and design”, but also in size. Now, Ms. Yampolskaya believes, it will no longer be possible to “make such an inscription in English, and in Russian – in small print in the corner.”

State Duma deputy Nikolai Osadchiy asked whether the expansion of the list of areas for the mandatory use of the Russian language means that these rules will apply to advertising signs. Ms. Yampolskaya was “absolutely convinced that yes,” but stressed that this would require more amendments to the law “On Advertising.” However, the current legislation still obliges to comply with the norms of the Russian language in advertising. However, this did not prevent the head of the Duma Committee on Culture from expressing the hope that the amendments would help get rid of billboards with the words “clubs, houses, fields, hills, forests and villages”, calling them simply residential complexes.

“Russia has faced such a problem more than once, and we are not the first to be disappointed in a passion for strangers,” Ms. Yampolskaya said, quoting the poet Sergei Mikhalkov after him: “No, we told the Nazis, our people will not tolerate Russian fragrant bread called the word “brot” “.

Then the deputy nevertheless remembered that citizens now live “not in a Soviet country”, but noted that “the spirit of the people has not changed.” The amendments in the second and third readings were adopted unanimously, although during the first reading the deputies had “great doubts” about the bill’s feasibility.

Alexander Voronov