Home – Home – Jornals – "Philosophy of Education" 2018 number 1

The purpose of this article is to examine bilingualism as a tool for social interaction, because in modern conditions of geopolitics, when the issues related to the language of interethnic (international) communication becomes a priority, bilingualism draws attention as a social phenomenon. First of all, we are interested in the type of bilingualism in which it is important to know both the native language and the language of interethnic communication (Russian language), because this type of bilingualism is directly related to the security of the state. This is due to the fact that attempts by some national subjects of the Russian Federation to proceed to using mainly the language of the titular nation are connected with a danger of isolationism and the weakening of the role of the Federal government. Indicative in this situation are the words of U.S. Secretary of state Allen Dulles, who said in 1948 that «to destroy the Soviet Union, it is not necessary the atomic bomb, you only need to convince its people that they can do without the knowledge of the Russian language. Economic, cultural and other ties will be broken. The state will cease to exist». Based on this, one of the main tasks of the language policy of the state is the sustainable development of the national language in interaction with other languages of the peoples of Russia. If the government will not pay adequate attention to issues of regulating the status of national languages in relation to the state language in the context of bilingualism or multilingualism, as the examples above show, this can lead to different «colored» revolutions, and even to armed conflicts.