Historical Preconditions for the Development of Armenian-Russian Bilingualism and Its Current State

Key words: language policy, socio-cultural situation, globalization, linguistic and cultural environment, intercultural communication, state (official) language, bilingualism The present article examines the phenomenon of Armenian-Russian bilingualism from the perspectives of historical, sociolinguistic, and cultural processes. The main focus is on the historical preconditions, starting with the intensification of Armenian-Russian relations in the 18th and 19th centuries and the subsequent impact of the language policies of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. The research reveals the key phases of the formation and development of bilingualism in Armenia, including the institutionalization of the Russian language through educational and cultural systems, as well as its dominant role in intercultural communication during the Soviet era. The research’s methodological approach is founded on historical-genetic analysis to identify the factors influencing language development, as well as sociolinguistic and content analyses to study contemporary linguistic processes. According to the research, a variety of challenges are affecting Armenian-Russian bilingualism at the moment, such as demographic changes, globalization and which lead to a gradual decline in the role of the Russian language in certain social contexts. The scholarly significance of this work lies in the in-depth exploration of the mechanisms of bilingualism as crucial components of linguistic and cultural identity, as well as intercultural communication, within the context of changing geopolitical and socio-cultural conditions of the globalizing world.