Concerning the observance of bilingualism in document management in Kazakhstan in 1985–1991 years

Abstract

The article studies the problems of observance of bilingualism in document management in 1985–1991. At the beginning of perestroika, the intensification of the democratization processes of society led to a new upsurge of many unresolved problems including social, ethnic, etc. during the Soviet period. One of such acute problems for Kazakhs was the issue of the reduction of the Kazakh language in all spheres of public life. During the period under review, the top party leadership recognized the problems in language policy. G.V. Kolbin criticized the party organization of the republic for ignoring the problems of the Kazakh language and the necessity of equal use of the Kazakh and Russian languages in document management at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan in January 1987. The article is based on the archival materials of the Archive of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The author studies the resolutions “On improving the study of the Kazakh language in the Republic” and “On improving the study of the Russian language in the Republic”, which raised the issues of development and dissemination of Kazakh-Russian bilingualism in the Republic under consideration. The author concluded that the organization of work on the introduction of office work in the Kazakh language did not meet the demands of the Kazakh-speaking population. On the example of areas with a predominantly Kazakh population, the author shows that office work was conducted in Russian. The dominance of the Russian language in the most prestigious spheres of social activity often had negative socio-psychological consequences for Kazakhs.