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Latinisation orlatinization (Russian:латиниза́ция,romanized: latinizatsiya[ɫətʲɪnʲɪˈzat͡sɨjə]) was a campaign in theSoviet Union to adopt theLatin script during the 1920s and 1930s. Latinisation aimed to replaceCyrillic and traditionalwriting systems for alllanguages of the Soviet Union with Latin or Latin-based systems, or introduce them for languages that did not have awriting system. Latinisation began to slow in the Soviet Union during the 1930s and aCyrillisation campaign was launched instead. Latinization had effectively ended by the 1940s. Most of these Latin alphabets are defunct and several (especially for languages in theCaucasus) contain multiple letters that do not haveUnicode support as of 2023.
Since at least 1700, some intellectuals in theRussian Empire had sought toLatinise theRussian language, written inCyrillic script, in their desire for closer relations with theWest.[1]
In the early 20th century, theBolsheviks had four goals: to break withTsarism, to spreadsocialism to the whole world, to isolate theMuslim inhabitants of the Soviet Union from theArabic–Islamic world and religion, and to eradicateilliteracy through simplification.[1] They concluded the Latin alphabet was the right tool to do so and, after seizing power during theRussian Revolution of 1917, they made plans to realise these ideals.[1]
Although progress was slow at first, in 1926, theTurkic-majorityrepublics of the Soviet Union adopted the Latin script, giving a major boost to reformers in neighbouringTurkey.[2] In 1928, when Turkish presidentMustafa Kemal Atatürk adopted the newTurkish Latin alphabet to break withArabic script, this in turn encouraged the Soviet leaders to proceed.[1] By 1933, it was estimated that among some language groups that had shifted from an Arabic-based script to Latin, literacy rates rose from 2% to 60%.[3]
After the Russian Revolution, as the Soviets looked to build a state that better accommodated the diverse national groups that had made up the Russian Empire, support for literacy and national languages became a major political project. Soviet nationalities policy called for conducting education and government work in national languages, which spurred the need for linguistic reform.[4] Among the Islamic and Turkic peoples ofCentral Asia, the most common literary script for their languages was based on Arabic orPersian script; however, these were considered a hindrance to literacy, particularly forTurkic languages because of its lack of scriptedvowels.
In the 1920s, efforts were made to modify the Arabic (such as theYaña imlâ alphabet developed forTatar), but some groups adopted Latin-based alphabets instead. Because of past conflict with tsarist missionaries, a Latin-based script was viewed as "less odious" than a Cyrillic one.[5] By the end of the decade, the move towards latinisation was in full swing. On 8 August 1929, theCentral Executive Committee and theCouncil of People's Commissars of the USSR issued thedecree "On the New Latinised Alphabet of the Peoples of the Arabic Written Language of the USSR", and thus the transition to the Latin alphabet was given an official status for all Turko-Tatar languages in the Soviet Union.[6]
Efforts then began in earnest to expand beyond replacing Arabic script and Turkic languages and to develop Latin-based scripts for all national languages in the Soviet Union. In 1929, the People's Commissariat of theRSFSR formed a committee to develop the question of the latinisation of theRussian alphabet, theAll-Union Committee for the New Alphabet [ru] (Russian:ВЦК НА, VTsK NA), led by ProfessorN. F. Yakovlev [ru] and with the participation oflinguists,bibliographers,printers, andengineers. By 1932, Latin-based scripts were developed for almost all Turkic,Iranian,Mongolic,Tungusic, andUralic languages, totalling 66 of the 72 written languages in the USSR.[7] There also existed plans to latiniseChinese,Korean, andRussian, along with otherSlavic languages.[8]
By mid-January 1930, the VTsK NA had officially completed its work. However, on 25 January 1930, General SecretaryJoseph Stalin ordered to halt the development of the question of the latinisation of the Cyrillic alphabet for Russian.[1]Belarusian andUkrainian were similarly placed off limits for latinisation.[9] Stalin's order led to a gradual slowdown of the campaign. By 1933, attitudes towards latinisation had shifted dramatically and all the newly romanised languages were converted to Cyrillic.[10] The only language without an attempt to latinise its script wasGeorgian.[11]
In total, between 1923 and 1939, Latin alphabets were implemented for 50 out of 72 languages of the USSR that were written, and Latin alphabets were developed for a number of previously exclusively oral languages. In theMari,Mordvinic andUdmurt languages, the use of the Cyrillic alphabet continued even during the period of maximum latinisation due in part to a growing body of literature written with the Cyrillic alphabet in those languages.[12][13]
In 1936, anew Cyrillisation campaign began to move all the languages of the peoples of the USSR to Cyrillic, which was largely completed by 1940.German,Georgian,Armenian andYiddish remained non-cyrillised from the languages common in the USSR, with the last three never being latinised either. Later,Polish,Finnish,Latvian,Estonian andLithuanian languages also remained un-cyrillised.
The following languages were latinised or adapted new Latin-based alphabets during the 1920s and 1930s:[14]
Projects were created and approved for the following languages, but were not implemented:
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