Post-colonial trade between Russia and former Soviet republics: back to big brother?

3.2.3 Migration and language ties
There was considerable migration between what are now the CIS+ republics before 
and during Soviet times. For example, even now each 10th citizen of Russia is Cen-
tral Asian (17.8 million) and each 10th Central Asian citizen is Russian (6.72 mil-
lion) (Central Intelligence Agency 
2018
). The majority of this migration occurred 
during the Soviet era, and was permanent enough for at least one generation to be 
born in their new adopted homes (Table 
2
). These migrant diasporas create long-
lasting social and cultural connections between the regions and have an important 
impact on the economic and political relationship between Russia and the Central 
Asian countries.
Despite earlier migration (Peyrouse 
2008
), it was during the Second World War 
and Khrushchev’s Virgin Lands Campaign that the Russian population in Central 
Asia rose from 20.6 to 42.7% (Anderson and Silver 
1990
), although after 1980—and 
especially after the Soviet collapse- this began to reverse. Between 1979 and 1999, 
the share of Russians in Kazakhstan dropped from 40.8 to 30%; in Kyrgyzstan from 
25.9 to 12.5%; in Uzbekistan from 10.8 to 3%; in Tajikistan from 10.4 to 1% and 
in Turkmenistan from 12.6 to 2%. These were mostly skilled, educated and young 
people. Since 2000, there has been emigration of indigenous Central Asians to Rus-
sia—mostly temporary workers from the poorer Central Asian countries. Accord-
ing to Sinitsina (
2012
), in the 2000s, 12.3 million migrated legally and 5–8 million 
illegally from the Central Asian countries to Russia, taking advantage of a visa-free 
border passage and contacts with existing diasporas.
In Ukraine, over 8 million people, or 17% of the population, identified themselves 
as ethnically Russian in the 2001 census, with the Russian population being concen-
trated in Crimea (since seized by Russia) and the Donbass region (now held by pro-
Russian rebels). Likewise, in Moldova, the Russian-speaking region of Transnistria 
is de facto independent. Oil-rich Azerbaijan traditionally had a large ethnic Russian 
population, although this declined sharply from 392,000 in 1989 to 142,000 a dec-
ade later and 199,000 in 2009 (see Azerbaijan State Statistical Committee, 2009).
Language In Central Asia, Russian is a lingua franca in diplomatic and busi-
ness meetings with Russians. Even though the Central Asians have their own titu-
lar languages, Russian is still popular in everyday life, the media, in education and 
employment, bringing the Central Asian nations closer to Russia. Currently, 70% of 
Central Asian citizens (Russians or indigenous Central Asians) make use of the Rus-
sian language in their daily life rather than other Central Asian languages; however, 
this percentage varies across countries. In 1989, the proportion speaking good Rus-
sian varied from 64% in Kazakhstan to 27% of the population of Uzbekistan.
After independence, local language policies aimed to reduce the use of the Rus-
sian language: especially in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. For instance, 
Turkmen schools that taught in the Russian language declined by 71% by the end of 
90s. By contrast, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have a relatively higher population of 
Economic Change and Restructuring (2021) 54:877–918
893

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1 3
Russians, 4.4 and 0.6 million, respectively, and both choose to have two official lan-
guages, titular and Russian language.
The Ukrainian and Belarussian languages are close to Russian. In Azerbaijan, 
there has been a strong decline in the use of the Russian language, which is discour-
aged by the Azerbaijani government
15
although it is still widely used in Baku, and 
there have been increases in the number of schoolchildren studying Russian since 
2013.
16