National and Language Policies in History of Russia

We give a broad excursus into the national and language policies of Russia, highlight their major stages and reveal cause-effect connections. We conclude that the national and language policies of Russia follow the pattern of dynamic fluctuations, dependent, in the first place, on the domestic political conditions and international situation – calm and prosperous times or the times of external / internal threats. These policies fluctuate from liberal, providing for democratic self-governance of national territorial units, use of national (ethnic) languages in education and administration, institutionalization of and financing structures for the development of national media, cultures, literatures and languages, to conservative, involving strengthening of the major national language and titular languages of autonomous republics, return to unifying patriotic ideology and education, civic consolidation, “convergence in a single nation” and etatism.