NATIVE LANGUAGES OF RUSSIAN GERMANS AND THE BOUNDARIES OF THEIR PERCEPTION

From birth, Russian Germans assimilate two cultures - their own people and the culture of the ethnic majority - Russians. This affects the difficult perception of the native language. In various ethnosociological studies, as well as in population censuses, Russian Germans indicate German, Russian, or both as their mother tongue. The article analyzes the concept of “native language”, as well as the perception of Russian Germans of their native language, the scope and conditions of use of two languages, the influence of the native language of Germans on their ethnic identity.