The language of the state-forming nation : on one amendment to the Russian constitution in the context of the mythological function of a legislative text

In the conditions of a rule-of-law state, the Constitution is the main reference point of its legal system, while in the realities of modern society living in a state governed by the rule of law, it may also have significant symbolic functions. The new wording of Article 68 of the Russian Constitution, proposed in the law of 2020 on the amendment to the Constitution, defines the state language - Russian - as "the language of the state-forming nation belonging to the multinational union of equal nations of the Russian Federation". In this article, this term is analysed as evidence of the strategy to impose mythological functions on the legislative text. In the case of the concept of “Russian language”, this strategy manifested itself as early as 2005 in the federal law on the State language, which established the status of the Russian language as a tool to “strengthen inter-ethnic relations in a unified multi-ethnic State”. The law on the amendment of the Russian Constitution goes beyond the introduction of mythological components into the legal text and presents a strategy to legitimize mythology through the act of a general vote