Distribution and status Languages of the Soviet Union

a 1947 (1957 issue) one-rouble bill, denomination marked in 15 languages: Один рубль (russian), Один карбованець (ukrainian), Адзін рубель (belarusian), Бир сўм/bir so‘m (uzbek), Бiр сом (kazakh), ერთი მანეთი /erti maneti/ (georgian), Бир Манат/bir manat (azeri), vienas rublis (lithuanian), О рублэ/o rublă (moldovan), viens rublis (latvian), Бир Сом (kyrgyz), Як сўм (tajik), Մեկ ռուբլի/mek rrubli/ (armenian), Бир Манат/bir manat (turkmen), Üks rubla (estonian)

east slavic languages (russian, belarusian , ukrainian) dominated in european part of soviet union, baltic languages lithuanian , latvian, , finnic language estonian used next russian in baltic region, while moldovan (the romance language in union) used in southeast region. in caucasus alongside russian there armenian, azeri , georgian. in russian far north, there several minority groups spoke different uralic languages; of languages in central asia turkic exception of tajik, iranian language.

the ussr multilingual state, on 120 languages spoken natively. although discrimination on basis of language illegal under soviet constitution, de facto status of these languages differed.

although ussr did not have de jure official language on of history, until 1990, , russian merely defined language of interethnic communication (russian: язык межнационального общения), assumed de facto role of official language. role , influence in ussr, see russification.

on second level languages of other 14 union republics. in line de jure status in federal state, had small formal role @ union level (being e.g. present in coat of arms of ussr , banknotes) , main language of republic. effective weight, however, varied republic (from strong in places in armenia weak in places in byelorussia), or inside it.

of these fourteen languages, 2 considered varieties of other languages: tajik of persian, , moldovan of romanian. promoted use of cyrillic in many republics however, combined lack of contact, led separate development of literary languages. of former soviet republics, independent states, continue use cyrillic alphabet @ present (such kyrgyzstan), while others have opted use latin alphabet instead (such turkmenistan , moldova – although unrecognized transnistria officially uses cyrillic alphabet).

the autonomous republics of soviet union , other subdivision of ussr lacked de jure autonomy, , languages had virtually no presence @ national level (and often, not in urban areas of republic itself). were, however, present in education (although @ lower grades).

some smaller languages dwindling small communities, livonian, neglected, , weren t present either in education or in publishing.

several languages of non-titular nations, german, korean or polish, although having sizable communities in ussr, , in cases being present in education , in publishing, not considered soviet languages. on other hand, finnish, although not considered language of ussr, official language of karelia , predecessor soviet republic. yiddish , romany considered soviet languages.