Transformatsiia kul’turno-yazykovogo samosoznaniia rossiiskikh nemtsev v Germanii

Abstract

Some 25 years ago, a large-scale repatriation of Russian Germans began. As a result, more than 2,5 million people that grew up in the USSR, Russia, or other post-Soviet states, became German citizens who had native or near-native command of the Russian language. The uncomfortable differences they exhibited in comparison to those who were supposed to accept them as equals, yet failed to do so, compelled them to search for self-designations that would accommodate their new identity and to bond together to form a new minority. The authors examine the attempts of Soviet/Russian Germans to redefine their ethnic identity in terms of not just blood but also language and culture, focusing on two particular cases: the use of the name Rusak in the internet forums of the repatriated immigrants; and the linguisticcultural practices of the older generation of immigrants.