L.: Hurst and Company, 2001. 260 p.* (c) 2002 The book by renowned Turkologists J. Landau (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) and B. Kellner-Heinkele (Institute of Turkology at the Free University, Berlin) is devoted to contemporary sociolinguistic problems of six post - Soviet Muslim states-Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. One cannot help but regret that there is still not a single book or generalizing work on this problem, as well as on many similar ones, in Russia. The peer-reviewed study is based on a large number of publications, including those published in the studied countries, as well as on the authors ' own impressions, who visited five of these countries (except Tajikistan) in 1997 and 1998. The introductory part of the book - "Language and the Search for identity" - provides a general analysis of ethno-linguistic processes in the modern world, especially in the countries under consideration. The authors rightly point out that almost everywhere in the world now ethnic problems are becoming more noticeable (p. 1). Many peoples strive to maintain or develop a national identity, and one of its most important components is language. In this regard, the book's assessments of the ethnolinguistic situation in the USSR by the end of its existence are important. The authors point out that in the six Muslim union republics of the USSR, as in other parts of the state, cultural assimilation did not occur; all these peoples clearly felt their difference from the Russians, including cultural and civilizational ones (p.3-4). Each of the union republics was like a proto-state: without control over many spheres of life, but with its own name, border, and administrative apparatus, * Landau Ya., Kellner-Heinkele B. Language policy in post-Soviet Muslim states. London: Hurst & Company, 2001. 260 p. page 204 the political and cultural elite. All this facilitated the formation of new independent states. Among other national slogans ... Читать далее