| Over the last century, language and translation policy in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation has been dependent on the ideologies and opinions of the leadership. These laws greatly affect the lives of Russian citizens who speak a minority or indigenous language, especially if that language is endangered. In this study, the influence of the translation and language policy of the Soviet Union and Russia on current translation activity and language vitality will be examined. The endangered languages of three indigenous groups, the Kalmyk, Mari and Yakut, will be featured in a case study with the goal of demonstrating the effects of history and policy on a selection of languages that represent various families, geographic regions and levels of endangerment. An analysis of language policy and statistics will be conducted with the support of the theories of several scholars in both Translation Studies and Linguistics, including Michael Cronin, Maria Tymoczko, Edwin Gentzler, Tejaswini Niranjana, and Joshua Fishman. |
