Term Croatian considered in Russian context

Abstract

Term Croatian is considered in Russian context, i. e. context of Russian scientific material (which
is comparable to the unwritten situation in universities). Russian scientific texts connect term
Croatian, almost without an exception, with the term Serbian in words such as Serbo-Croatian.
This point of view is politically approved in the period untill 1990’s, but it exists in the 21st
century’s scientific material. The nature of the problem lays, at the same time, in politics, language
and society; thus, the question is: what is the reason of such a context in which Croatian language
is placed now? There are no arguments for it, especially if it is for Slovak language politically
based and language approved to be an entity – in comparison to the Czech language; for Ukrainian
(once Littlerussian) – at least in principle, in comparison to the Russian, or, more convincable,
Belorussian to Russian (the standard Belorussian language exists from 1905). The term Croatian
is independently, even in new books, connected with terms of soil, state, nation, but not language.
And though today, because of political reasons, exists an awareness of Croatian language without
its Serbian mirror reflexion, the term Serbo-Croatian stays. Thus, this paper looks through the
history concerning Croatian language in 19, 20 and 21st century’s Russian philology, including
Juraj Križanić and Vatroslav Jagić – innovators of the Croatian word in Russia.