Abstract:
Within the framework of the project "Functioning of languages
in the Abkhazian ASSR in the context of Soviet policy (the
30s of XX century)" (code -OTG-I-22-232) funded by the Shota
Rustaveli National Science Foundation in 2022, it is envisaged
the description and analysis of the language regulations of the
constitutions of the Transcaucasian Federation, Soviet Union,
Georgian SSR, Abkhazian ASSR.
The Constitution of the Transcaucasian Federal Republic
was adopted on December 13, 1922. It is known that the mentioned
political union operated until 1936, and accordingly, the countries
united in it were obliged to protect and fulfill various legal
requirements in the Constitution. An important place in the provisions of the key law is occupied by the separate articles
reflecting the use of languages, which describe in detail where
and how languages of the republic, state languages, languages
of national minorities, local/regional main languages, etc. should
be used.
The Constitution of the Transcaucasian Federation regulated
the following fields in terms of language use: 1. State institutions;
2. Departments of railways and highways; 3. Railway and
highway lines; 4. Army divisions and institutions. In order to better
control the linguistic environment of each of them, relevant
decrees and regulations were created, in which separate issues
of language functioning were described in detail. These documents
show that the Russian language was used in communication
between the highest governing bodies, all the main documents
were to be drawn up in this language only, and any economic,
technical and money-related information was to be written
in Russian only. To justify this fact, the legislators pointed
out that there was no suitable scientific-technical terminology
in the languages of the allied republics, so they had to use the
Russian language.
The languages of the Allied Republic (Georgian, Armenian
and Azerbaijani) and the languages of national minorities should
be used after Russian or together with Russian in communication
with local organizations, and not in the union.
The language regulations reflected in the Constitution of
the Transcaucasian Federation are a kind of illustration of the
Soviet language policy, according to which the Russian language
should be the dominant and leading language in all spheres of
the various allied republics and especially in their strategic objects.
