Cover not available

Article published In: Linguistic Landscape
Vol. 10:1 (2024) ► pp.55–78

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

The Linguistic Landscape of the war

Minority languages, language activism, and contesting identities in Russia

ORCiD logo with link | Nordost-Institut (IKGN)
Published online: 11 September 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.23006.bar
Abstract
Being immersed in a covert conflict within a censored society, the Linguistic Landscape provides valuable insights into the dynamics of multilingual communication during war. Following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, political involvement among ethnic minority groups in Russia has experienced a surge. The use of minority languages signifies a hidden but significant form of protest, empowering ethnic minorities to assert their agency and political claims. Through an examination of anti- and pro-war signs in minority languages and interviews with language activists, this study explores how these languages are employed within the LL, revealing the motivations and attitudes of their authors. Minority languages in anti-war signs serve as secret codes while also personalizing protests and appealing to group solidarity. However, pro-war signs also evoke solidarity and ethnic values. Analysis of the anti- and pro-war signs illustrates their connection to other texts in minority languages, referencing discourses and ethnic symbols within the community of speakers of a minority language.
Pезюме
Языковой ландшафт отражает скрытый конфликт в обществе, подверженном цензуре, и поэтому дает представление о динамике многоязычной коммуникации во время войны. После полномасштабного вторжения России в Украину возросла политическая вовлеченность этнических меньшинств в России. Использование языков меньшинств представляет собой скрытую, но значимую форму протеста, позволяющую этническим меньшинствам заявить о своей независимости и политических требованиях. В данном исследовании на основе изучения антивоенных и провоенных знаков на языках меньшинств и интервью с языковыми активистами рассматривается использование этих языков в лингвистическом ландшафте, выявляются мотивы и установки их авторов. Языки меньшинств в антивоенных знаках служат секретными кодами, а также персонифицируют протест и взывают к групповой солидарности. Однако и в надписях, поддерживающих войну, также прослеживается солидарность и этнические ценности. Анализ антивоенных и провоенных знаков показывает их связь с другими текстами на миноритарных языках, отсылающими к дискурсам и этническим символам в сообществе носителей миноритарного языка.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Minority languages in Russia
  • 3.The Linguistic Landscape, protests, and language activism
  • 4.Methodology
  • 5.The Linguistic Landscape and discourses of anti-war protests
  • 6.The Pro-war Linguistic Landscape and performing multiculturalism
  • 7.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (47)
References
Alòs i Font, H. (2019). Russian, Chuvash and English: Мinority-language activism, tourism promotion and the evolution of municipal advertisements in Shupashkar/Cheboksary (2015–2018). In: A. Nikunlassi, E. Protassova (eds.) Russian language in the multilingual world. SLAVICA HELSINGIENSIA 521 (pp.68–86). Helsinki: University of Helsinki.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alpaut, R. (2021). Защитить себя родным языком [Defend oneself with the native language]. 16 February 2021. IdelReal. [URL]
Amendments to articles 11 and 14 of the Federal Low ‘On education in Russian Federation’, 3 Aug, 2018, N 317-ФЗ.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baranova, V. (2023). Языковая политика без политиков: Языковой активизм и миноритарные языки в России [Language policy without politicians: Language activism and minority languages in Russia]. Moscow: HSE Publishing House. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baranova, V. & Fedorova, K. (2020a). Overcoming aggressive monolingualism: prejudices and linguistic diversity in Russian megalopolises. Open Linguistics, 6(1): 672–689. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2020b). Регулирование языкового ландшафта в российских городах: многоязычие и неравенство [The Linguistic Landscape of Regulation in Russian Cities: Multilingualism and Inequality]. Журнал исследований социальной политики. [The Journal of Social Policy Studies], 18(4), 625–640Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bessudnov, A. (2022). Ethnic and regional inequalities in the Russian military fatalities in the 2022 war in Ukraine. SocArXiv Papers. Preprint. 〈[URL]〉
Blackwood, R. (2021). Linguistic Landscape activism as a means of community empowerment: Direct action, Ai’Ta and Breton in France. R. Blackwood & D. A. Dunlevy (eds.). Multilingualism in Public Spaces: Empowering and Transforming Communities (pp. 177–194). London: Bloomsbury Academic. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, J (2013). Ethnography, Superdiversity and Linguistic Landscapes: Chronicles of Complexity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, J. (2016). Meeting of Styles and the online infrastructures of graffiti. Applied Linguistics Review, 7(2), 99–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, J. & Maly, I. (2016). Ethnographic Linguistic Landscape Analysis and social change: A case study. In: K. Arnaut, J. Blommaert, B. Rampton & M. Spotti (eds.). Language and Superdiversity (pp. 191–211). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Korne, H. (2021). Language Activism. Imaginaries and Strategies of Minority Language Equality. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Federal Low (2023). Федеральный закон от 28.02.2023 № 52-ФЗ “О внесении изменений в Федеральный закон “О государственном языке Российской Федерации” [Federal low No. 52-FZ of 28 February 2023 on amendments to the Federal Act on the State Language of the Russian Federation]. [URL]
Ferguson, J. & Sidorova, L. (2018). What Language Advertises: Ethnographic Branding in the Linguistic Landscape of Yakutsk. Language Policy, (17), 23–54. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gabdrahmanova, G. F., Mahmutov, Z. A., & Sagdieva, J. A. (2015). Государственные языки Респукблики Татарстан в языковом ландшафте региона [The official languages of the Republic of Tatarstan in regional linguistic landscape]. Kazan: Artefakt.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Graber, K. E. (2020). Mixed Messages: Mediating Native Belonging in Asian Russian. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gorter, D. (Ed.) (2006). Linguistic Landscape: A New Approach to Multilingualism. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gorter, D., Marten, H. & Mensel van, L. (Eds.). (2012). Minority Languages in the Linguistic Landscape. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hornberger, N. H., Tapia, A. A., Hanks, D. H., Dueñas, F. K., & Lee, S. (2018). Ethnography of language planning and policy. Language Teaching, 51(02), 152–186. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaworski, A., & Thurlow, C. (2010). Introducing semiotic landscapes. In A. Jaworski & C. Thurlow (eds), Semiotic Landscapes: Image, Text, Space (pp. 1–40). London: Continuum. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kailuweit, R. & Quintana, A. (2020). The Language of Public Mourning – De- and Reterritorialization of Public Spaces as a Reaction to Terrorist Attacks. In: Malinowksi, D., Tufi, S. (Eds.). Reterritorializing Linguistic Landscapes. Questioning Boundaries and Opening Spaces (pp. 284–306). London: Bloomsbury. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaplan, I. (2020). Comrades in Arts: The Soviet Dekada of National Art and the Friendship of Peoples. RUDN Journal of Russian History, 19(1), 78–94. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kasanga, L. A. (2014). The linguistic landscape: mobile signs, code choice, symbolic meaning and territoriality in the discourse of protest. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2301, 19–44. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kazakova, O. (2022). В батальоне «Атӑл» будут служить только уроженцы Чувашии [Only natives of Chuvashia will serve in the Atӑl battalion]. Советская Чувашия [Soviet Chuvashia]. 3 июня 2022. [URL]
McCarthy, L.A., Rice, D., & Lokhmutov, A. (2023). Four Months of “Discrediting the Military”: Repressive Law in Wartime Russia. Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, 31 (2), 125–160.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobilized Russians Launch Strike to Protest Lack of Payment. The Moscow Times. Nov. 2, 2022. [URL]
Moriarty, M. (2014). Languages in motion: Multilingualism and mobility in the linguistic landscape. International Journal of Bilingualism, 18(5), 457–463. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Muth, S. (2014). War, language removal and self-identification in the linguistic landscapes of Nagorno-Karabakh. Nationalities Papers, 42(1), 63–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parry, O. & Mauthner, N. S. (2004). Whose Data Are They Anyway? Practical, Legal and Ethical Issues in Archiving Qualitative Research Data. Sociology, 38(1), 139–152. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Patino-Santos, A. (2020). Reflexivity. In: Tusting, K. (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Ethnography (pp. 213–228). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pietikäinen, S., Jaffe, A., Kelly-Holmes, H., & Coupland, N. (2016). Reflexivity and small languages: the ‘meta’ imperative in late modernity. In Pietikäinen, S., Jaffe, A., Kelly-Holmes, H., & Coupland, N. (Eds.). Sociolinguistics from the Periphery: Small Languages in New Circumstances (pp. 32–69). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Piller, I. (2015). Language ideologies. In K. Tracy, C. Ilie & T. Sandel (eds). The International encyclopedia of language and social interaction. Vol. 21. (pp. 917–927). West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Preda, C. (2017). Art and Politics under Modern Dictatorships: A Comparison of Chile and Romania. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rubdy, R. (2015). A Multimodal Analysis of the Graffiti Commemorating the 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attacks: Constructing Self-Understandings of a Senseless Violence. In Rubdy, R., Said, S. B. (Eds). Conflict, Exclusion and Dissent in the Linguistic Landscape. Language and Globalization (pp. 280–303). London: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rubdy, R. & Ben-Said, S. (Eds). Conflict, Exclusion and Dissent in the Linguistic Landscape. Language and Globalization. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Russian Population Census (2020). Всероссийская перепись населения 2020 года [Russian Population Census]. [URL]
Schools. (2022). Сведения об организации, осуществляющей подготовку по образовательным программам начального общего, основного общего, среднего общего образования на начало 2022/23 учебного года по данным на 20 сент. 2022» [Information on the organization providing education programmes for primary general, basic general, secondary general education at the beginning of the academic year 2022/23 as of 20 September 2022]. [URL]
Shohamy, E., Ben-Rafael, E. & Barni, M. (Eds.). (2010). Linguistic landscape in the city. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simon, M. E., Kokoeva, N. & Slinko, Y. (2022). Russia’s nationalities policy and the country’s Central Asian residents’ identity‑based activities. Dialectical Anthropology. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stroud, Ch., Peck, A. (2015). Skinscapes. Linguistic Landscape, 1 (1/2), 131–151.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Udoratin, N. (2020). Кыв тупкöм [Language ban]. 2.01.2020. 7 by 7. [URL] (in Komi).
Yusupova, G. (2022). How Does the Politics of Fear in Russia Work?: the Case of Social Mobilization in Support for Minority Languages. Europe-Asia Studies, 74 (4), 620–641. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2023). The Promotion of Minority Languages in Russia’s Ethnic Republics: Social Media and Grassroots Activities. In Morris, J., Semenov, A., Smyth, R. S. (Eds.). Varieties of Russian Activism: State-Society Contestation in Everyday Life (51–69). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zamyatin, K. (2018). Evaluating language revival policies of Russia’s Finno-Ugric republics: policy impact and its limits. Finnish-Ugrische Forschungen, 64 (1–3), 255–333. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Tusk, Julia
2025. Bilinguals’ visual attention in/of the Linguistic Landscape. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal DOI logo
Yusupova, Guzel
2025. The mechanisms of forced military enlistment amid the intersections of ethnicity, rurality and spatial mobility in Russia. Mobilities ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Baranova, Vlada
2024. DEBATE ON DECOLONIALITY AND SENSE OF BELONGING AMONG YOUNG KALMYKS AND BURYATS WHO FLED TO MONGOLIA AFTER 2022. Ethnologia Polona 45 ► pp. 149 ff. DOI logo
Baranova, Vlada
2025. Transformations in Russian Activism. Communist and Post-Communist Studies ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2025. Multilingualism and Linguistic Landscapes of Protest and Conflict. In The Handbook of Linguistic Landscapes and Multilingualism, ► pp. 127 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue