Have far left governments (communist countries, the First French Republic and its client states, etc.) attempted to eliminate the informal/formal distinctions in speech? For example, French and Russian both have formal and informal second-person pronouns (vous/vy vs tu/ty, where vous and vy are used to address social superiors and tu and ty are used to address social equals and inferiors), and many other languages have something similar. Did the First French Republic, the USSR, or other far left governments ever try to eliminate the formal forms from the language as part of their efforts to eliminate social hierarchies?
In Russia this did not happen; in the early 20th century addressing each other as tu/ty would have been seen as a class distinction (sort of as a form of a lord addressing a lower peasant) also use of tu/ty in formal settings would have been a bit rude; initially vous/vy was reserved for the higher ups - as it was an influence from the french language [4] (however the Russian People would petition the Tsar in 1905 as tu/ty - go figure)
in East Germany party members were supposed to address each other as Du [1] (which is the equivalent of tu/ty); this seems to have been a German tradition among members of the Social democratic party that preceded the rule of the SED as such (in the German Social Democratic Party SPD they also address each other as Du [2] [3]). However this only applied to members of the party, and not to the wider public.
Funny that among opposition circles in east germany it was common to address each other exclusively as Sie (vous/Vy) - all out of opposition to this SED practice [1]
(so much for sapir whorf - usually there are just too many choices available, so actual usage can play out any way)
" Alle, die noch in der DDR sozialisiert wurden, tragen die alte Anredekultur in sich. Das hängt mit der Politik zusammen: Das Genossen-Du ist ja eine linke Tradition, so war das auch unter SED-Mitgliedern. Leute, die nicht in der Partei waren, wollten das betonen - indem sie konsequent siezten. Bis heute halten sie länger am Sie fest, wenn sie jemanden neu kennenlernen, als etwa in Westdeutschland üblich wäre."
[2] http://www.dw.com/de/sag-einfach-du-zu-mir/a-16459103
"Ein weiteres, ganz besonderes Du ist das Genossen-Du, also die Anrede unter Anhängern der Sozialdemokratie: Man duzt sich, denn man ist Teil einer eingeschworenen Gemeinschaft Gleichgesinnter. Einer Anekdote zufolge traute sich einst ein schüchterner Parteigenosse nicht, den inzwischen verstorbenen, für seine bärbeißige Art bekannten Herbert Wehner ganz unfeierlich zu duzen. Also fragte er ihn, ob er ihn duzen dürfte. Die Antwort Wehners war wenig hilfreich: "Das können Sie halten, wie Du willst."
[3] http://www.jusos-birkenfeld.de/spdbuch/organisation/14traditionen/141dasgenossendu.html