Paper long abstract:

The conflict in Ukraine has led to suspension of Russian immersion and study abroad programs in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. With such programs currently unavailable in these countries, South Caucasus and Central Asia should expand their study abroad programs to increase their presence in international education. Foreign Russian language teacher associations call for update of existing and development of new courses centered around individual post-Soviet states, their history, protest culture, cinema, and art. I argue that successful implementation of Russian study abroad programs in South Caucasus and Central Asia requires a critical approach to language instruction. In fact, focus on individual states, their culture and history to supplement Russian lessons represents stepping away from a grand cultural narrative and its prototypes with local (i.e., Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Uzbek) small-scale attempts at developing projects fitted to specific experiences and goals. A critical approach to teaching Russian in South Caucasus and Central Asia demands that the instruction reflects local culture and linguistic peculiarities and transforms teaching approaches and materials. Such transformation aims at no longer perpetuating language colonialism but giving voice to local communities and reflecting elements such as local culture and linguistic peculiarities. South Caucasus and Central Asian countries can provide Russian immersion conditions as they have culturally rich Russian-speaking communities, where Russian is a native, home, community, or heritage language. Its peculiarities could be studied in the classroom for intermediate and advanced Russian language learners. Baku Russian and other local dialects are worth researching further and could represent a selling point for advanced Russian language learners, who are also interested in South Caucasus and Central Asian history, political science, identity, and arts.