{"id":713617,"date":"2024-03-25T14:00:44","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T12:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devrri.freshlemon.ro\/?p=713617"},"modified":"2024-06-18T19:12:45","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T16:12:45","slug":"communism-and-linguistics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/features-and-reports\/the-history-show\/communism-and-linguistics-id713617.html","title":{"rendered":"Communism and linguistics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The communist regime tried to change not only <\/span><\/span>people\u2019s <\/span><\/span>deepest convictions, but also the way they expressed their thoughts, ideas and feelings. The language of communism was commonly known as \u201cwooden language\u201d and Joseph Stalin contributed to its creation. In the summer of 1950, <\/span><\/span>he<\/span><\/span> penned three articles in <\/span><\/span>Pravda<\/i><\/span><\/span>, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, under the title \u201cMarxism and Problems of Linguistics\u201d. <\/span><\/span>In these articles, he outlined new research directions in linguistics that cancelled everything that had been written before. In Romania, which had been under the occupation of the Soviet troops since 1944, Stalin\u2019s views were immediately adopted by the academic and research community, which was under the strict and brutal control of the ideological activists. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The translator and philologist Micaela Ghi\u021bescu, who also served time as a political prisoner under the communist regime, went to university in 1949, one year after the <\/span><\/span>education reform of 1948. The new education system introduced political education courses and favoured children coming from working-class backgrounds. In an interview for Radio Romania\u2019s Oral History Centre she gave in 2002, Micaela Ghi\u021bescu recalled how politics affected education in two ways:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOn the one hand, they would teach us Marxism-Leninism, which was a year-long course. But then, during the French class, we would talk about what they called \u2018topical issues\u2019. The French were at war in Indochina at the time, and we would discuss about this during our French class. I remember they used to tell us that the French soldiers were cannibals and that they ate Vietnamese prisoners. And we were supposed to accept this without asking any questions.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In 1948, Nikolay Yakovlevich Marr became the new star in linguistics, with his theory that all languages evolved from one original language gaining a lot of traction with linguists. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Micaela Ghi\u021bescu recalls how she first got acquainted with some of Marr\u2019s ideas that were turning upside down everything she and her generation had learnt in high school:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMarr\u2019s theory, which was taught in the general linguistics course, raised all kind of question marks. Marr used to say that language is a superstructure and that changes to the social structure and organisation will lead to a change in language. Another theory was that language adopts the character of the latest conquering people, of the people that are the last to occupy a given land. So, as the Slavs were the last to arrive in these parts, it meant that the Romanian language had a Slavic character and was no longer to be considered a Romance language.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Marr\u2019s linguistic theory, however, would be denounced by Stalin, who put the national language back in its pride of place. The national language was now no longer believed to have evolved out of a single original language and no longer an expression of superstructure, but the language of the working people. Micaela Ghi\u021bescu explains:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith the publication of Stalin\u2019s views on linguistics, Marr\u2019s theories fell out of favour. Stalin\u2019s theory focuses on the quality of a people\u2019s culture, and that\u2019s what gives the language of a given land its specific nature. The Latin culture being prevalent in Romania, Romanian again became a Romance language, overnight. It was just before an exam, and I didn\u2019t know what was going on. The exam was on the same day as the publication of what they described as \u2018comrade Stalin\u2019s outstanding contribution to linguistics\u2019 and which overturned everything we had learnt at the course of Prof. Graur. We were to give the written exam in the morning and the oral text in the afternoon. So, for the morning exam, the professor was late, and when he arrived he told us to write whatever we wanted. And for the oral exam in the afternoon he told us to read the newspaper carrying Stalin\u2019s views spread over several pages.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Stalin\u2019s text also sparked reactions among historians. In an interview from 1993, the archaeologist Petre Diaconu recounted how a colleague ended up in prison:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1953, when \u2018Marxism and Linguistics\u2019 was published, everyone, from party educators to university professors would now say that everything that had been written on the subject of language before was to be discarded. The work of reference was now Stalin\u2019s publication. During a public meeting at the History Institute, the then deputy director and also a party activist called Chere\u0219te\u0219 got up and started telling us what comrade Stalin had said. It was at this point that an archaeologist called Vladimir Dumitrescu also got up and said we\u2019d had enough of Stalin\u2019s theories. This was sometime in spring and he was arrested in July, but it was only later that I realised the connection.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Stalin\u2019s ambitions as a thinker on language lasted until his death in 1953. Although the language of communism continued to exist after his death and ideology to act as a straitjacket for free thought, a certain sense of relief was felt everywhere. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The communist regime tried to change not only people\u2019s deepest convictions, but also the way they expressed their thoughts, ideas and feelings. The language of communism was commonly known as \u201cwooden language\u201d and Joseph Stalin contributed to its creation. In the summer of 1950, he penned three articles in Pravda, the official newspaper of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":780272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41141],"tags":[32441,43893],"coauthors":[113318],"class_list":["post-713617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-history-show","tag-communism","tag-language"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCommunism and linguistics - Radio Romania International<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/features-and-reports\/the-history-show\/communism-and-linguistics-id713617.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Communism and linguistics - Radio Romania International\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The communist regime tried to change not only people\u2019s deepest convictions, but also the way they expressed their thoughts, ideas and feelings. 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