In the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, latinisation or latinization (russian: латиниза́ция, ') was the name of the campaign during the 1920s–1930s which aimed to replace traditional

writing system A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable form ...

s for all languages of the Soviet Union with systems that would use the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...

or to create Latin-script-based systems for languages that, at the time, did not have a writing system.

History

Background

Since at least 1700, some Russian intellectuals have sought to Latinise the

Russian language Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the First language, native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European langua ...

in their desire for close relations with the West. The early 20th-century

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

had four goals: to break with

Tsarism Tsarist autocracy (russian: царское самодержавие, transcr. ''tsarskoye samoderzhaviye''), also called Tsarism, was a form of autocracy (later absolute monarchy) specific to the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states th ...

, to spread

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

to the whole world, to isolate the Muslim inhabitants of the Soviet Union from the Arabic–Islamic world and religion, and to eradicate

illiteracy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

through simplification. They concluded the Latin alphabet was the right tool to do so, and, after seizing power during the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

of 1917, they made plans to realise these ideals. Although progress was slow at first, in 1926, the Turkic-majority republics of the Soviet Union adopted the Latin script, giving a major boost to reformers in neighbouring Turkey. When

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, or Mustafa Kemal Pasha until 1921, and Ghazi Mustafa Kemal from 1921 Surname Law (Turkey), until 1934 ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish Mareşal (Turkey), field marshal, Turkish National Movement, re ...

adopted the new

Turkish Latin alphabet The Turkish alphabet ( tr, ) is a Latin-script alphabet used for writing the Turkish language, consisting of 29 letters, seven of which ( Ç, Ğ, I, İ, Ö, Ş and Ü) have been modified from their Latin originals for the phonetic requirem ...

in 1928, this in turn encouraged the Soviet leaders to proceed. By 1933, it was estimated that among some language groups that had shifted from an Arabic-based script to Latin, literacy rates rose from 2% to 60%.

Procedure

Almost all Turkic,

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

Uralic The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...

and several other languages were

romanised Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

, totalling nearly 50 of the 72 written languages in the USSR. There also existed plans to Latinise Russian and other

Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Ear ...

as well, but in the late 1930s the latinisation campaign was cancelled, and all newly romanised languages were converted to

Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...

. In 1929 the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR formed a committee to develop the question of the romanisation of the

Russian alphabet The Russian alphabet (russian: ру́сский алфави́т, russkiy alfavit, , label=none, or russian: ру́сская а́збука, russkaya azbuka, label=none, more traditionally) is the script used to write the Russian language. I ...

, led by Professor and with the participation of linguists, bibliographer, printers, and engineers. The Commission completed its work in mid-January 1930. However, on 25 January 1930, General Secretary

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

ordered to halt the development of the question of the romanisation of the Cyrillic alphabet for the Russian language. The following languages were latinised or adapted new Latin-script alphabets: # Abaza (1932) # Abkhaz (

Abkhaz alphabet Abkhaz and Abkhazian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Abkhazia, a de facto independent region with partial recognition as a sovereign state, otherwise recognized as part of Georgia * Abkhaz people or Abkhazians, persons from Abkh ...

) (1924) # Adyghe (1926) # Altai (1929) #

Assyrian Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyrian ...

(1930) # Avar (1928) # Azerbaijani (

Azerbaijani alphabet The Azerbaijani alphabet ( az, Azərbaycan əlifbası, , ) has three versions which includes the Arabic alphabet, Perso-Arabic, Latin alphabet, Latin, and Cyrillic alphabet, Cyrillic alphabets. Azerbaijani language, North Azerbaijani, the offic ...

) (1922) # Balochi ( Balochi Latin) (1933) # Bashkir (1927) #

Bukhori Bukharian (autonym: Bukhori, Hebrew script: בוכארי, Cyrillic: бухорӣ, Latin: ''Buxorī'') is a Judeo-Persian dialect historically spoken by Bukharan Jews of Central Asia. It is a Jewish dialect derived from —and largely mutually in ...

(1929) # Buryat (1929) # Chechen (1925) #

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

(

Latinxua Sin Wenz Latinxua Sin Wenz (; also known as Sin Wenz "New Script", Zhungguo Latinxua Sin Wenz "China Latinized New Script", Latinxua "Latinization") is a historical set of romanizations for Chinese languages, although references to Sin Wenz usually refe ...

) (1931) # Chukchi ( Chucki Latin) (1931) # Crimean Tatar ( First Latin) (1927) # Dargin (1928) #

Dungan Dungan may refer to: * Donegan, an Irish surname, sometimes spelled Dungan * Dungan people, a group of Muslim people of Hui origin ** Dungan language ** Dungan, sometimes used to refer to Hui Chinese people generally * Dungan Mountains in Sibi Dist ...

(1928) #

Eskimo Eskimo () is an exonym used to refer to two closely related Indigenous peoples: the Inuit (including the Alaska Native Iñupiat, the Greenlandic Inuit, and the Canadian Inuit) and the Yupik peoples, Yupik (or Siberian Yupik, Yuit) of eastern Si ...

(1931) #

Even Even may refer to: General * Even (given name), a Norwegian male personal name * Even (surname) * Even (people), an ethnic group from Siberia and Russian Far East ** Even language, a language spoken by the Evens * Odd and Even, a solitaire game w ...

(1931) # Evenki ( Evenki Latin) (1931) # Ingrian ( Ingrian alphabet) (1932) # Ingush (1923) #

Itelmen The Itelmens (Itelmen: Итәнмән, russian: Ительмены) are an indigenous ethnic group of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The Itelmen language is distantly related to Chukchi and Koryak, forming the Chukotko-Kamchatkan language ...

(1931) #

Juhuri Judeo-Tat or Juhuri (''cuhuri'', , ) is the traditional language of the Mountain Jews of the eastern Caucasus Mountains, especially Azerbaijan and Dagestan, now mainly spoken in Israel. The language is a dialect of Persian which belongs to the s ...

(1929) # Kabardiano-Cherkess (1923) # Kalmyk (1930) #

Karachay-Balkar Karachay-Balkar (, ), or Mountain Turkic (, ), is a Turkic language spoken by the Karachays and Balkars in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay–Cherkessia, European Russia, as well as by an immigrant population in Afyonkarahisar Province, Turkey. ...

(1924) # Karaim (1928) # Karakalpak (1928) # Karelian (

Karelian alphabet The Karelian language is spoken in Russia, mostly in the Karelian Republic and in a small region just north of Tver, though most residents there were expelled in 1939. Karelian has seen numerous proposed and adopted alphabets over the centuries, bo ...

) (1931) # Kazakh (

Kazakh alphabet Kazakh, Qazaq or Kazakhstani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Kazakhstan *Kazakhs, an ethnic group *Kazakh language *The Kazakh Khanate *Kazakh cuisine *Qazakh Rayon, Azerbaijan *Qazax, Azerbaijan *Kazakh Uyezd, administrative distr ...

) (1928) # Ket (1931) #

Khakas The Khakas (also spelled Khakass; Khakas: , ''khakas'', , ''tadar'', , ''khakastar'', , ''tadarlar'') are a Turkic indigenous people of Siberia, who live in the republic of Khakassia, Russia. They speak the Khakas language. The Khakhassian ...

(1929) #

Khanty The Khanty (Khanty: ханти, ''hanti''), also known in older literature as Ostyaks (russian: остяки) are a Ugric indigenous people, living in Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, a region historically known as "Yugra" in Russia, together ...

(1931) # Komi (1932) # Komi-Permyak (1932) # Koryak (1931) # Krymchak (1928) #

Kumandin The Kumandins (natively, Kumandy, Kuvandy(g)) are a Turkic indigenous people of Siberia. They reside mainly in the Altai Krai and Altai Republic of the Russian Federation. They speak the Northern Altai Kumandin language. According to the 1926 ...

(1932) # Kumyk (1927) #

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

(

Kurdish alphabets The Kurdish languages are written in either of two alphabets: a Latin alphabet introduced by Celadet Alî Bedirxan in 1932 called the Bedirxan alphabet or Hawar alphabet (after the '' Hawar'' magazine) and a Perso-Arabic script called the Sorani ...

) (1929) #

Kyrgyz Kyrgyz, Kirghiz or Kyrgyzstani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Kyrgyzstan *Kyrgyz people *Kyrgyz national games *Kyrgyz language *Kyrgyz culture *Kyrgyz cuisine *Yenisei Kirghiz *The Fuyü Gïrgïs language in Northeastern China ...

(

Kyrgyz alphabets The Kyrgyz alphabets ( ky, Кыргыз алфавити, translit=Kyrgyz alfaviti, , Yañalif: ''Qьrƣьz alfaviti'', ) are the alphabets used to write the Kyrgyz language. The Kyrgyz language uses the following alphabets: *The Cyrillic script ...

) (1928) # Lak (1928) # Laz (1930) # Lezgin (

Lezgin alphabets The Lezgin language has been written in several different alphabets over the course of its history. These alphabets have been based on three scripts: Arabic script, Latin script, and Cyrillic script. History Until 1928, Lezgin language, Lezgin wa ...

) (1928) #

Mansi Mansi may refer to: People * Mansi people, an indigenous people living in Tyumen Oblast, Russia ** Mansi language * Giovanni Domenico Mansi Gian (Giovanni) Domenico Mansi (16 February 1692 – 27 September 1769) was an Italian prelate, theolog ...

(1931) # Moldovan (name used in the USSR for

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

; Moldovan alphabet) (1928) #

Nanai language The Nanai language (also called Gold, Goldi, or Hezhen) is spoken by the Nanai people in Siberia, and to a much smaller extent in China's Heilongjiang province, where it is known as Hezhe. The language has about 1,400 speakers out of 17,000 ethn ...

(1931) #

Nenets languages Nenets (in former work also Yurak) is a pair of closely related languages spoken in northern Russia by the Nenets people. They are often treated as being two dialects of the same language, but they are very different and mutual intelligibility i ...

(1931) #

Nivkh language Nivkh (; occasionally also Nivkhic; self-designation: Нивхгу диф, ''Nivxgu dif'', ), or Gilyak (), or Amuric, is a small language family, often portrayed as a language isolate, of two or three mutually unintelligible languages spoken b ...

(1931) #

Nogai language Nogai (; ''Ногай тили, Nogay tili, Ногайша, Nogayşa'') also known as Noğay, Noghay, Nogay, or Nogai Tatar, is a Turkic language spoken in Southeastern European Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania and in T ...

(1928) #

Ossetic language Ossetian (, , ), commonly referred to as Ossetic and rarely as Ossete (), is an Eastern Iranian language that is spoken predominantly in Ossetia, a region situated on both sides of the Greater Caucasus. It is the native language of the Ossetia ...

(1923) #

Persian alphabet The Persian alphabet ( fa, الفبای فارسی, Alefbâye Fârsi) is a writing system that is a version of the Arabic script used for the Persian language spoken in Iran ( Western Persian) and Afghanistan (Dari Persian) since the 7th cent ...

(1930) #

Sami language Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise net ...

(1931) #

Selkup language Selkup language is the language of the Selkups, belonging to the Samoyedic group of the Uralic language family. It is spoken by some 1,570 people (1994 est.) in the region between the Ob and Yenisei Rivers (in Siberia). The language name ''Selku ...

(1931) #

Shor language The Shor language (endonym: шор тили, тадар тили) is a Turkic language spoken by about 2,800 people in a region called Mountain Shoriya, in the Kemerovo Province in Southwest Siberia, although the entire Shor population in this a ...

(1931) #

Shughni language Shughni or Khughni (in the local language: tr. ; Tajik: , fa, شغنانی), is one of the Pamir languages of the Southeastern Iranian language group.Karamšoev, Dodchudo K. (1988–99). ''Šugnansko-russkij slovar''. 3 vols. Moskva: Nauka. ...

(1932) #

Yakut language Yakut , also known as Yakutian, Sakha, Saqa or Saxa ( sah, саха тыла), is a Turkic language spoken by around 450,000 native speakers, primarily the ethnic Yakuts and one of the official languages of Sakha (Yakutia), a federal republic ...

(1920/1929) #

Tabasaran language Tabasaran (also written Tabassaran) is a Northeast Caucasian language of the Lezgic branch. It is spoken by the Tabasaran people in the southern part of the Russian Republic of Dagestan. There are two main dialects: North (Khanag) and South Tabas ...

(1932) #

Tajik alphabet The Tajik language has been written in three alphabets over the course of its history: an adaptation of the Perso-Arabic script, an adaptation of the Latin script and an adaptation of the Cyrillic script. Any script used specifically for Tajik ...

(1928) #

Talysh language The Talysh language (زبان تالشی, Tolışə Zıvon, Tолышә зывон), is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken in the northern regions of the Iranian provinces of Gilan and Ardabil and the southern regions of the Republic of Azer ...

(1929) # Tat language (1933) #

Tatar language Tatar ( or ) is a Turkic languages, Turkic language spoken by Volga Tatars, Tatars mainly located in modern Tatarstan (European Russia), as well as Siberia. It should not be confused with Crimean Tatar language, Crimean Tatar or Siberian Tat ...

(

Yañalif Jaꞑalif, Yangalif or Yañalif (Tatar: jaꞑa əlifba/yaña älifba → jaꞑalif/yañalif, , Cyrillic: Яңалиф, "new alphabet") is the first Latin alphabet used during the latinisation in the Soviet Union in the 1930s for the Turkic languag ...

) (1928) #

Tsakhur language Tsakhur ( az, Saxur dili; russian: Цахурский язык) is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by the Tsakhurs in northern Azerbaijan and southwestern Dagestan (Russia). It is spoken by about 11,700 people in Azerbaijan and by about 10, ...

(1934) #

Turkmen alphabet The Turkmen alphabet ( tk, Türkmen elipbiýi / / ) refers to variants of the Latin alphabet, Cyrillic alphabet, or Arabic alphabet used for writing of the Turkmen language. The modified variant of the Latin alphabet currently has an official ...

(1929) #

Udege language The Udege language (also Udihe language, Udekhe language, Udeghe language) is the language of the Udege people. It is a member of the Tungusic family. History Previously an oral language, in 1931 an alphabet was created for writing Udege as a par ...

(1931) #

Udi language The Udi language, spoken by the Udi people, is a member of the Lezgic branch of the Northeast Caucasian language family. It is believed an earlier form of it was the main language of Caucasian Albania, which stretched from south Dagestan to cur ...

(1934) #

Uyghur language The Uyghur or Uighur language (; , , , or , , , , CTA: Uyğurçä; formerly known as Eastern Turki), is a Turkic language written in a Uyghur Perso-Arabic script with 8-11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xin ...

(1928) #

Uzbek language Uzbek (''Oʻzbekcha, Oʻzbek tili or Ўзбекча, Ўзбек тили''), formerly known as ''Turki'' or ''Western Turki'', is a Turkic language spoken by Uzbeks. It is the official, and national language of Uzbekistan. Uzbek is spoken as ei ...

(1927) #

Vepsian language Veps, also known as Vepsian (Veps: ' or '), is a Finnic language from the Uralic language family, that is spoken by Vepsians. The language is written in the Latin script, and is closely related to Finnish and Karelian. According to Soviet st ...

(1932) Projects were created and approved for the following languages, but were not implemented: #

Aleut language Aleut () or ''Unangam Tunuu'' is the language spoken by the Aleut living in the Aleutian Islands, Pribilof Islands, Commander Islands, and the Alaska Peninsula (in Aleut , the origin of the state name Alaska). Aleut is the sole language in the ...

Arabic language Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

Korean language Korean ( South Korean: , ''hangugeo''; North Korean: , ''chosŏnmal'') is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (geographic ...

Udmurt language Udmurt is a Permic language spoken by the Udmurt people who are native to Udmurtia. As a Uralic language, it is distantly related to languages such as Finnish, Estonian, Mansi, Khanty, and Hungarian. The Udmurt language is co-official with Russi ...

On August 8, 1929, by the decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "On the new Latinised alphabet of the peoples of the Arabic written language of the USSR" the transition to the Latin alphabet was given an official status. The transition to a new alphabet of newspapers and magazines, publishing houses, educational institutions began. In 1930, a new stage of romanisation began: the transition to a new alphabet of peoples of other language groups. In total, between 1923 and 1939, Latin alphabets were created for 50 out of 72 languages of the USSR that were written. In the Mari, Mordovian and Udmurt languages, the use of the Cyrillic alphabet continued even during the period of maximum Latinisation. However, in 1936, a new campaign began to translate all the languages of the peoples of the USSR into

, which was largely completed by 1940 (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

and

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

remained non-cyrillised from the languages common in the USSR; the last three were also not Latinised). Later,

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

, Latvian,

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

and Lithuanian languages also remained uncyrillised.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Latinisation in the Soviet Union Soviet internal politics Soviet culture Romanization 1920s in the Soviet Union 1930s in the Soviet Union