ABSTRACT
The main issue associated with second language and bilingualism in Soviet Georgia is the question of the Russian language, a vehicle of colonial policy. In Georgian villages, where the tendency is for men to travel and for women to be stationary, it has always been the men who have had to use their knowledge of Russian in daily life, and women have not needed it at all. The role of women in bilingual environments such as that of rural Soviet Georgia has been significant. Women travel less and are more integrated into local indigenous life than men, who have more encounters with all-Union institutions such as the army or migratory seasonal labour drives. Thus women are less likely to practise their Russian language knowledge even if they studied relatively well in school. In Soviet Georgia as in some other colonial cases, women’s role was crucial in maintaining the high standards of indigenous language teaching and practice in a bilingual environment.
