Explores the cultural and ethnic aspects of the early Soviet era, focusing on the way the Bolsheviks and other groups used language. Covers the divided speech communities of the late imperial and early Soviet eras, how linguists contributed to Soviet cultural and national policies during the 1920s and 30s, the successes and failures of the major language reform projects during the 1920s, and the period between 1932 and 1953 when the party state imposed new standards of russification on the country as a whole. The author concludes that while the opportunities and constraints of language reform may have given Soviet leaders their most enduring insights into relations, they learned that language was an essential tool of the dialectical process of history and also a troublesome and treacherous dimension of the human experience. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE brings to students, researchers and practitioners in all of the social and language-related sciences carefully selected book-length publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications. It approaches the study of language in society in its broadest sense, as a truly international and interdisciplinary field in which various approaches, theoretical and empirical, supplement and complement each other. The series invites the attention of linguists, language teachers of all interests, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, historians etc. to the development of the sociology of language.

'Politics and the Theory of Language in the USSR 1917-1938' provides ground-breaking research into the complex interrelations of linguistic theory and politics during the first two decades of the USSR. The work examines how the new Revolutionary regime promoted linguistic research that scrutinised the relationship between language, social structure, national identity and ideological factors as part of an attempt to democratize the public sphere. It also looks at the demise of the sociological paradigm, as the isolation and bureaucratization of the state gradually shifted the focus of research. Through this account, the collection formally acknowledges the achievements of the Soviet linguists of the time, whose innovative approaches to the relationship between language and society predates the emergence of western sociolinguistics by several decades. These articles are the first articles written in English about these linguists, and will introduce an Anglophone audience to a range of materials hitherto unavailable. In addition to providing new articles, the volume also presents the first annotated translation of Ivan Meshchaninov's 1929 'Theses on Japhetidology', thereby providing insight into one of the most controversial strands within Soviet linguistic thought.

This anthology offers a rich array of documents, short fiction, poems, songs, plays, movie scripts, comic routines, and folklore to offer a close look at the mass culture that was consumed by millions in Soviet Russia between 1917 and 1953. Both state-sponsored cultural forms and the unofficial culture that flourished beneath the surface are represented. The focus is on the entertainment genres that both shaped and reflected the social, political, and personal values of the regime and the masses. The period covered encompasses the Russian Revolution and Civil War, the mixed economy and culture of the 1920s, the tightly controlled Stalinist 1930s, the looser atmosphere of the Great Patriotic War, and the postwar era ending with the death of Stalin. Much of the material appears here in English for the first time. A companion 45-minute audio tape (ISBN 0-253-32911-6) features contemporaneous performances of fifteen popular songs of the time, with such favorites as "Bublichki," "The Blue Kerchief," and "Katyusha." Russian texts of the songs are included in the book.

A Critical Examination of Language and Community is the sixth volume of the Readings in Language Studies series published by the International Society for Language Studies, Inc. Edited by Paul Chamness Miller, Brian G. Rubrecht, Erin A. Mikulec, and Cu-Hullan Tsuyoshi McGivern, volume six sustains the society’s mission to organize and disseminate the work of its contributing members through peer-reviewed publications. The book presents international perspectives on language and community through a variety of themes. A resource for scholars and students, A Critical Examination of Language and Community represents the latest scholarship in new and emergent areas of inquiry. Readings in Language Studies, Volume 6: A Critical Examination of Language and Community features international contributions that represent state-of-the-field reviews, multi-disciplinary perspectives, theory-driven syntheses of current scholarship, reports of new empirical research, and critical discussions of major topics centered on the intersection of language and community. Consistent with the mission of ISLS, the collection of 14 chapters in this volume seeks to “bridge arbitrary disciplinary territories and provide a forum for both theoretical and empirical research, from existing and emergent research methodologies, for exploring the relationships among language, power, discourses, and social practices.”

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE brings to students, researchers and practitioners in all of the social and language-related sciences carefully selected book-length publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications. It approaches the study of language in society in its broadest sense, as a truly international and interdisciplinary field in which various approaches, theoretical and empirical, supplement and complement each other. The series invites the attention of linguists, language teachers of all interests, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, historians etc. to the development of the sociology of language.