The state programme “Preservation, study and development of state languages of the Republic of Tatarstan and other languages in the Republic of Tatarstan” in 2023 was funded 12.5% less than planned.
Kommersant writes about this regarding the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Tatarstan, which was signed by the Prime Minister of the region Alexey Pesoshin.
Initially, officials planned to spend 126.8 million rubles from the regional treasury on the implementation of this document, but it was financed by almost 111 million rubles. Thus, the programme budget was reduced by 15.8 million rubles or 12.5%.
In particular, it was planned to spend almost 28 million rubles on “Creating a favourable language environment in the Internet space and popularizing native languages in the media,” but in the end, 23.3 million rubles were spent. The difference is 4.7 million rubles.
In particular, the authorities did not spend money on replenishing the children’s electronic library “Bala”, on methodological support for the educational publication “Miras”, on holding competitions for journalists “Tatar Rukhy Khem Kalam” and on distributing printed products aimed at preserving the state languages of the republic. Also, no money was spent on creating children’s short films in the Tatar language and the animated film “The Heritage of Our People.” In addition, they refused to allocate budget funds for the localization of programme projects. Thus, the authorities planned to spend 0.7 million rubles on the support and development of the Tatar keyboard for Android and iOS, as well as on supporting updates to the mobile application of the republic’s public services portal.
About 2 million rubles were not spent on some “major socially significant events” aimed at popularizing the languages of Tatarstan in the republic and abroad. So, last year, expenses were excluded for organizing a youth festival dedicated to Russian Language Day, as well as for holding competitions “Tatar Kyzy”, “Tatar Egete”, “Pretty Maiden” and “Good Well Done”.
For the task “Development of an integrated system for studying the Tatar and Russian languages, other languages of the nations of the Republic of Tatarstan,” 45 million rubles were spent, 3.6 million rubles less.
Expenses for organizational, legal and analytical support of the programme were halved (to 0.77 million rubles). Supporting parity in the functioning of Russian and Tatar as state languages cost the treasury of Tatarstan last year 5.45 million rubles. (it was planned to spend 5.66 million rubles).
According to the head of the Azatlyk Union of Tatar Youth, Nail Nabiullin, the amount of funding for this programme “shows how formal the authorities of the republic are towards the issue of developing these languages themselves, in particular the Tatar language.”
— The figure of 127 million rubles a year is simply a mockery of common sense. Our football and hockey players receive much higher salaries. “It’s not just disheartening, it’s even insulting,” he said.
The programme for the preservation of state languages in Tatarstan was adopted for the first time in 2013 for 10 years. It assumed “maintaining a sustainable balance of national-linguistic interests of representatives of the people” living in the region, and achieving “parity in the functioning of the Tatar and Russian languages as the state languages of the republic.” Over the entire period, the total amount of financing amounted to 1.39 billion rubles. A second such programme is currently in operation. Its budget for 2024–2026 should be 391.4 million rubles. As part of the programme, it is planned to duplicate road signs and labels of various goods in Tatar. It is planned to digitize the written heritage of the Tatars and Russians, as well as the creation of electronic dictionaries.
- In 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that forcing children to learn a foreign language is unacceptable, and then corresponding amendments were adopted to the education law. The State Council of Tatarstan initially opposed, but then unanimously supported the voluntary study of the state Tatar language.
- In 2018, the Russian Federation adopted a new “Law on Education”, according to which the study of the state languages of the national republics was no longer mandatory. A new subject “mother tongue” has appeared in the school curriculum, in which parents themselves choose which language their children will study. You can also choose Russian as your native language.
