This article compares the relationship between dominant polit ical ideologies and language policies—Jacobinism and French; Zionism and Hebrew; and socialism-communism and Russian—and analyzes the use of superordinate languages as state-building instruments. It examines the policies pursued, and the political rationales invoked, by France to suppress Breton and other "peripheral" languages; by Israel to discourage the use of Yiddish; and by the Soviet Union to undermine or Sovietize non- Slavic languages. Finally, the article poses the question whether alterna tive approaches were feasible and whether these policies have served or should serve as models for other countries.
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