Contribution of Soviet Scientists to the Study and Popularization of the Pashto Language in the USSR and Afghanistan

Abstract

Scientific research into the Afghan language and literature in the USSR were developed within the framework of the Leningrad School of Afghan Studies. Prominent representatives of this school M.G. Aslanov, P.B Zudinov, K.A. Lebedev, V.A. Romodin and others published scientific works related to the Pashtun language and literature of Afghanistan. They also popularized Pashtun language in the USSR. V.V. Basov fruitfully studied the evolution of the Pashtun language from the perspective of his ethnic studies. The possibilities of scientific research in the field of Afghan studies and the potential

for popularization of the Pashtun language in foreign-language environments increased significantly with the beginning of teaching the Pashto language at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow in 1939. Since that time, broadcasts on Moscow radio began to be conducted in Pashto, and works of Russian literature in Afghanistan began to be translated and published in this language. This led to an increase in the number of interested users of the language on both sides of the state border. In order to strengthen its position in Afghanistan, the Soviet Union began to establish Pashto language training centers on its territory for its specialists, which also contributed to the expansion of Pashto language in Afghanistan itself. The author of the article made an attempt to trace the internal and spatial dynamics of the development of the Pashto language in modern times in the Afghan location and determine the role and place of the USSR in this process.