Udmurt Scholar Self-Immolates in Protest of Russian Language Laws

Acclaimed Udmurt scholar and activist Albert Razin died on September 10 after setting himself on fire in protest of a recent Russian law that discourages the teaching of indigenous languages. His suicide marks a new apex in the fight against the Russian government’s attempts to suppress and absorb ethnic minorities.

A native Udmurt, Razin had long campaigned against the suppression of his native tongue and was a leader among Udmurt language professors at Udmurt State University. Razin held two signs as he stood outside the regional parliament of Izhevsk before setting himself ablaze. One sign, which quoted Dagestani poet Rasul Gamzatov, read, “If my language dies tomorrow, then I’m ready to die today.” Weeks before his suicide, he signed an open letter addressed to the Udmurt parliament, urging members to withdraw support for a controversial law that would allow schools to terminate indigenous language studies.

The law, which passed with approval from President Vladimir Putin and the lower and upper houses of the Duma in December 2018, marks a new development in the Russification of minority groups. Minority groups have long faced persecution, particularly under the Soviet Union’s attempts to suppress non-Russian culture, and the number of speakers of indigenous languages has fallen precipitously following the conception of state-mandated Russian language lessons and proficiency exams.

According to a 2010 survey conducted by UNESCO, over 131 languages in Russia—including Udmurt—are endangered, with another 20 already considered dead. The number of Udmurt speakers fell by 30 percent between 2002 and 2010.

While the law claims to only withdraw the requirement to study indigenous languages, students have reported a new inability to take classes relating to their native languages. In some areas, indigenous language classes have been cut to an hour a week.

Despite condemnation from many human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and the Council of Europe, Russia continues to suppress indigenous languages and promote the Russification of minorities. “You cannot force a person to learn a language that is not native to him or her,” Putin said to a council on interethnic relations. Many minority students have begun to mark Russian as their native language in order to avoid taking tedious proficiency exams on their indigenous languages.

Razin’s burial saw an audience of hundreds, many of whom were supporters and fellow Udmurt language activists. “With his sacrificial death, Albert Razin has called on Russia and the whole world to pay attention to the catastrophic situation of the Udmurt language and to implement measures to save it, to create all conditions to protect and preserve it, ”wrote scholars in an open letter that called for a local day of mourning for Razin’s death. “Now, we cannot continue to ignore the Udmurt language's problems and remain indifferent to its death,” wrote the scholars on media platform VKontakte.