Заметки по поводу дискуссии о русском языке
(Remarks on the discussions of the Russian language)

The article deals with problems connected with recent lexical shifts in Russian. Focus is on the penetration of lower-class social and profes- sional slang into standard spoken Russian. Changes in the language re- flect changes in the cultural status of new Russian elites, and the process of "democratization" of the language. The author argues that the lower cultural level of the new generation of employees in mass media has an influence on the language of the whole population and is accelerating the disintegration of the literary norms of standard Russian. These arguments are illustrated with quotations from the literary works of younger writers and from scholarly discussions. One of the main points is that discussion of language is integral to the search for a new national identity, and thus language has a great impact on society.