Kalbos norminimas sovietų Lietuvoje: institucijos, ideologija, mokslas
Language standardization in Soviet Lithuania: Institutions, ideology, science

Summary/Abstract: Lithuania has already been an independent state for twenty-two years. Full-scale regulation of the “correctness” of the national language, however, still thrives here. The origins of such a situation may lie in Soviet language policy. The article presents primary results of archival research. Even though it is officially acclaimed that active standardization of Lithuanian in Soviet era was a secret struggle against Russification for the survival, certain facts can attest this was, at least initially, a product of the planned command economy, initiated or inspired by Moscow. This can be confirmed by the resolutions and work of the State Language Commission, which gradually was gaining power and control. Unlike in pre-war Lithuania and the West European countries, where language norms are most often conceived as a product of usage, Soviet standardization of Lithuanian gave preference to systematicity of language dominated by scholars. The lingering contemporary approach of the need to centrally control all issues of standardization is an obvious and painful consequence of the Soviet ideology.

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