Thread: Which ex-Soviet Turkic republic is the most Russified?

I wonder what people think about the russification level of the five ex-Soviet Turkic republics.

Originally Posted by Ilkay

I wonder what people think about the russification level of the five ex-Soviet Turkic republics.

I voted Kazakhstan. I lived there for several years in late 1970s, and visted it many times after that, both before and after the fall of the Soviet Union. Back then, Russians together with Russian-speaking Ukranians and Germans etc outnumbered ethnic Kazakhs. Besides, Kazakh intelligentsia was predominantly Russian-speaking. The situation started to change rapidly after 1991. Most ethnic Germans and their families left for Germany, and a good deal of Russians moved to Russia, so Kazakhs are now the majority in their own country, according to the last census results that I saw. However, Russian langugage is still very important in Kazakhstan, and many ethnic Kazakhs speak it better then their own language (although the government encourages learning Kazakh).

I think that Kazakhstan is. At least I am more than sure about speaking Russian there.

I've heard that Kyrgyzstan is pretty much russified, especially the capital - Bishkek. Btw Russian is of the two official languages there.

Russians always told me it was Kazakhstan. As a previous poster said, it had a huge proportion of Russians/Russian-speakers.