ABSTRACT
National language is probably the single most important component of national identity. It helps define national uniqueness, and its preservation is generally perceived as being critical to the preservation of the distinctiveness of the nation itself. Some of the most heated disputes in Soviet nationality relations have focused on Soviet language policy. The protests against language policy were concealed, and there were few public signs of discord concerning the encouragement of Russian-language bilingualism for the non-Russian population. The local educational officials were given responsibility for promoting national language training among the Russian population. The goal of introducing national-language proficiency among the nonindigenous populations of the various republics puts an enormous additional strain on the educational system, already struggling with the longstanding official commitment to achieve Russian-language proficiency in the indigenous population. An area of longstanding official neglect, as the notice from Turkmenistan reproduced suggests, the necessary curricular materials are nonexistent and qualified teachers are in extremely short supply.
