ABSTRACT
As such incidents attest, language, culture, religion, and national identity are clearly and inextricably connected in the mind of contemporary Georgians. If one accepts the premise that nations are transitory entities, it follows that their means of communication, languages, are no less ephemeral. Yet the 1970 census offered disturbing evidence that certain Soviet nationalities, particularly Islamic peoples of Central Asia, were being recalcitrant even about learning Russian as a second language. In 1958, for example, Khrushchev's notorious Thesis 19 suggested that the study of local languages by aliens, that is, Russian living in the non-Russian republics should be made optional. The adoption of Russian as a second language cannot in itself be construed either as assimilation or ethnic reidentification. The temptation has been to opt for ethnically "neutral" programming, a tactic that ignores or downplays the cultural and religious needs of the dominant nationality of the Soviet Union.
