LANGUAGE AND LITERACY CAMPAIGN AS A TOOL OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION, MODERN RUSSIA AND NIGERIA

Language and literacy initiatives have been core components of socio-cultural polities. The Russian state, in its varying metamorphosis, had deployed productive initiatives towards literacy campaigns, serving as a model especially after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Significantly, it has been observed from available literature that developing countries, Nigeria inclusive, have the greater number of illiterates, especially in the modern world. Consequent upon this assertion, governments and countries that find themselves in this precarious situation devote a lot of revenue, resources, energy, infrastructure and political campaigns, and manpower toward the eradication of this social menace which is a hindrance to nation-building, national development, and state stability. This paper therefore investigates the desired and necessary campaign(s) against mass illiteracy in the former multilingual and multi-ethnic Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R), especially in the aftermath of the  Socialist Revolution that reverberated all over the world because of its historical precedence. The historical method of research was used and the data were subjected to historical analysis. The study unwraps the unprecedented significance of the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 that marked a basic change in world history, trend, and transformation, especially the Bolsheviks campaign against mass illiteracy, which redesigned the historical destiny of Russia and explicated the reality of the subject matter. Proceeding from this Revolution, the Bolsheviks deployed the campaigns of “down with illiteracy”, “let one literate teach one illiterate” and ‘‘workers of the world unite’’ as strategies of gaining popular support and furthermore enhancing social, economic, and political progress, nation building and national hegemony in the Soviet Union that consequently transformed into the present Russian Federation. Nigeria and other developing countries can draw lessons and gain from this approach in relation to eradicating mass illiteracy and consolidating on nation-building and state cohesion.