Abstract: The linguistic behavior of the titular nationalities of the five Central Asian union republics of the Soviet Union illustrates that when groups with distinctive languages and cultural traditions come into contact with one another, very complex linguistic adjustments can occur.' This essay examines the relationship between the continued use of the nion-Russian languages as mother tongues and the spread of Russian as a second language among Central Asians. Central Asians display an interesting response to the conflicting pressures to learn Russian as an aid to upward social mobility and to maintain traditional languages as a sign of identity with the ethnic group. While remainilng strongly attached to their national languages, they are simultaneously moderately attracted to Russian as a second language. My central thesis is that the advent of widespread bilingualism does not herald the eventual abandonment of the national languages for Russian, but may be viewed instead as a stable form of accommodation between ethnic groups. To explore this thesis I shall rely upon Soviet census data to examine patterns of language use within broad social categories defined by urban-rural residence, age, sex, and levels of interethnic contact of the local populations. I shall examine the extent to which segments of the Central Asian nationalities nominate Russian or their traditional national languages as "inative language" and "second language." All Soviet censuses have asked the respondent to designate which language he considers to be "native" (rodnoi iazyk). The meaning of the term "enative language" has been questioned by some Soviet scholars; and there has been some change over time in how census officials have interpreted it. In keeping with the most common Soviet interpretations, I shall assume here that the census respondent's "native language" is the language that he prefers or uses most frequently.2 Unlike earlier censuses, the 1970 Soviet census asked