Russian Language

language · Eastern Europe · communication

Spoken by millions. Russian is the native language of the Russian people and is spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world. It was the main official language of the Soviet Union and remains official in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

Language bridge. Russian acts as a lingua franca, which means it's a common language people use to talk to each other even when it's not their native language. Many people in Ukraine, Moldova, Central Asia, and the Caucasus use Russian to communicate with speakers of other languages.

Ancient language family. Russian belongs to a family of languages called Indo-European, which includes English, Spanish, Hindi, and many others. It's specifically an East Slavic language, related to Ukrainian and Belarusian.

Official language. Besides Russia, Russian is an official language in several neighboring countries including Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. This shows how important and widespread the language became after the Soviet era.