Russian[e] is an East Slavic language, spoken primarily in Russia. It is the native language of the Russians and belongs to the Indo-European language family. It is one of four living East Slavic languages,[f] and is also a part of the larger Balto-Slavic languages. It was the de facto and de jure[23] official language of the former Soviet Union.[24] Russian has remained an official language in independent Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, and is still commonly used as a lingua franca in Ukraine, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and to a lesser extent in the Baltic states and Israel.[25][26][27][28]
Russian has over 258 million total speakers worldwide.[29] It is the most spoken Slavic language,[30] and the most spoken native language in Europe,[31] as well as the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia.[30] It is the world's seventh-most spoken language by number of native speakers, and the world's ninth-most spoken language by total number of speakers.[32] Russian is one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station,[33] as well as one of the six official languages of the United Nations.[34]
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Russian is an East Slavic language of the wider Indo-European family. It is a descendant of Old East Slavic, a language used in Kievan Rus', which was a loose conglomerate of East Slavic tribes from the late 9th to the mid-13th centuries. From the point of view of spoken language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn,[36] the other three languages in the East Slavic branch. In many places in eastern and southern Ukraine and throughout Belarus, these languages are spoken interchangeably, and in certain areas traditional bilingualism resulted in language mixtures such as Surzhyk in eastern Ukraine and Trasianka in Belarus. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although it vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is sometimes considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. Also, Russian has notable lexical similarities with Bulgarian due to a common Church Slavonic influence on both languages, but because of later interaction in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bulgarian grammar differs markedly from Russian.[37] In the 19th century (in Russia until 1917), the language was often called "Great Russian" to distinguish it from Belarusian, which was then called "White Russian", and Ukrainian, then called "Little Russian" in the Russian Empire.[citation needed]
The vocabulary (mainly abstract and literary words), principles of word formations, and, to some extent, inflections and literary style of Russian have been also influenced by Church Slavonic, a developed and partly Russified form of the South Slavic Old Church Slavonic language used by the Russian Orthodox Church. However, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with many different meanings.[citation needed]
Over the course of centuries, the vocabulary and literary style of Russian have also been influenced by Western and Central European languages such as Greek, Latin, Polish, Dutch, German, French, Italian, and English,[38] and to a lesser extent the languages to the south and the east: Uralic, Turkic,[39][40] Persian,[41][42] Arabic, and Hebrew.[43]
According to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, Russian is classified as a level III language in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers, requiring approximately 1,100 hours of immersion instruction to achieve intermediate fluency.[44] It is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a "hard target" language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in U.S. world policy.[citation needed]
Feudal divisions and conflicts created obstacles between the Russian principalities before and especially during Mongol rule. This strengthened dialectal differences, and for a while, prevented the emergence of a standardized national language. The formation of the unified and centralized Russian state in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the gradual re-emergence of a common political, economic, and cultural space created the need for a common standard language. The initial impulse for standardization came from the government bureaucracy for the lack of a reliable tool of communication in administrative, legal, and judicial affairs became an obvious practical problem. The earliest attempts at standardizing Russian were made based on the so-called Moscow official or chancery language, during the 15th to 17th centuries.[45] Since then, the trend of language policy in Russia has been standardization in both the restricted sense of reducing dialectical barriers between ethnic Russians, and the broader sense of expanding the use of Russian alongside or in favour of other languages.[45]
Mikhail Lomonosov compiled the first book of Russian grammar aimed at standardization in 1755. The Russian Academy's first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared in 1783. In the 18th and late 19th centuries, a period known as the "Golden Age" of Russian Literature, the grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation of the Russian language in a standardized literary form emerged.[citation needed]
After 1917, Marxist linguists had no interest in the multiplicity of peasant dialects and regarded their language as a relic of the rapidly disappearing past that was not worthy of scholarly attention. Nakhimovsky quotes the Soviet academicians A.M Ivanov and L.P Yakubinsky, writing in 1930:
Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a popular choice for both Russian as a second language (RSL) and native speakers in Russia, and in many former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics.[52]
In Estonia Russian is spoken by 29.6% of the population according to a 2011 estimate from the World Factbook,[56] and is officially considered a foreign language.[53] School education in the Russian language is a very contentious point in Estonian politics and as of 2022 the parliament has approved to close up all Russian language schools and kindergartens by the school year. The transition to only Estonian language schools/kindergartens will start in the school year.[57]
In Latvia, Russian is officially considered a foreign language.[53] 55% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 26% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.[54] On February 18, 2012, Latvia held a constitutional referendum on whether to adopt Russian as a second official language.[58] According to the Central Election Commission, 74.8% voted against, 24.9% voted for and the voter turnout was 71.1%.[59] Starting in 2019, instruction in Russian will be gradually discontinued in private colleges and universities in Latvia, and in general instruction in Latvian public high schools.[60][61] On 29 September 2022, Saeima passed in the final reading amendments that state that all schools and kindergartens in the country are to transition to education in Latvian. From 2025, all children will be taught in Latvian only.[62][63] On 28 September 2023, Latvian deputies approved The National Security Concept, according to which from January 1, 2026, all content created by Latvian public media (including LSM) should be only in Latvian or a language that "belongs to the European cultural space". The financing of Russian-language content by the state will cease, which the concept says create a "unified information space". However, one inevitable consequence would be the closure of public media broadcasts in Russian on LTV and Latvian Radio, as well as the closure of LSM's Russian-language service.[64]
In Lithuania, Russian has no official or legal status, but the use of the language has some presence in certain areas. A large part of the population, especially the older generations, can speak Russian as a foreign language.[65] However, English has replaced Russian as lingua franca in Lithuania and around 80% of young people speak English as their first foreign language.[66] In contrast to the other two Baltic states, Lithuania has a relatively small Russian-speaking minority (5.0% as of 2008).[67] According to the 2011 Lithuanian census, Russian was the native language for 7.2% of the population.[68]
In Moldova, Russian was considered to be the language of interethnic communication under a Soviet-era law.[53] On 21 January 2021, the Constitutional Court of Moldova declared the law unconstitutional and deprived Russian of the status of the language of interethnic communication.[69][70] 50% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 19% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.[54] According to the 2014 Moldovan census, Russians accounted for 4.1% of Moldova's population, 9.4% of the population declared Russian as their native language, and 14.5% said they usually spoke Russian.[71]
Significant Russian-speaking groups also exist in Western Europe. These have been fed by several waves of immigrants since the beginning of the 20th century, each with its own flavor of language. The United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Norway, and Austria have significant Russian-speaking communities.[citation needed]
In Armenia, Russian has no official status, but it is recognized as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.[53] 30% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 2% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.[54]
In Azerbaijan, Russian has no official status, but is a lingua franca of the country.[53] 26% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 5% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.[54] ff782bc1db