the total number of Russian language speakers will fall from 300 million in 1990 to\u00a0150 million by 2025 \u2014 fifty percent in just 35 years \u2014 it doesn\u2019t mention one of the most obvious factors in that fall. \u00a0Or, if it does, it mentions it so passingly that I missed it:<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fertility rate required simply to maintain population stability is 2.01 children per woman. \u00a0But, in Russia (as of 2012), the birthrate per woman is only 1.59. \u00a0In other words, the Russian population \u2014 the population of Russian speakers \u2014 is failing to replace itself. \u00a0The death of Russian isn\u2019t occurring only through political disaffection among those who\u2019ve escaped the yoke of Soviet tyranny. \u00a0It\u2019s happening through demographic suicide.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vladimir Putin\u2019s dreams of restoring Holy Mother Russia are endangered by a looming lack of Russians to sustain them.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 It\u2019s a stunning thing \u2014 it won\u2019t likely make the headlines, but, historically speaking, it\u2019s far more significant than what typically does make the headlines \u2014 to witness the rapid decline of a major world language, a language that has contributed enormously to both science and world literature. \u00a0(Think of the Latin of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>