Paper long abstract:

Soviet social scientists frequently noted that mixed families were more likely than mono-ethnic families to use Russian, the Soviet lingua franca, as their primary language. Examining the language usage of mixed families is illuminating because these families, unlike most Soviet families, were continually forced to make choices about their language use: which language would husband and wife speak to each other? How they would communicate with the in-laws? Perhaps most importantly, which language(s) would they speak with the children? Among Russian-speaking women who married Central Asian men in the 1940s and 1950s, most learned to speak the local language well. From the early 1960s on, the everyday language in mixed families was most often Russian. Use of Russian was especially common among those mixed families with one Russian parent, but was also widespread in families without either a Russian parent or one from the republic's titular nationality. There was a gendered aspect to language use. Russian wives were frequently the most forceful advocates of preserving the husband's culture, while Central Asian men often pushed the Russian language on their children, hoping to ensure their future success in Soviet society. The result was a disconnect between "official nationality" and language use for many ethnically mixed children: the children were expected to take their father's nationality in their passports, but not necessarily to speak his language.