An East Slavic language and the most widely spoken Slavic tongue — official across the Russian Federation and a key second language throughout the former Soviet sphere.
Where it’s spoken
Russian is the official language of the Russian Federation and co-official in Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. It functions as a lingua franca across Central Asia and the South Caucasus, with substantial communities in the Baltics, Ukraine, Israel, Germany, and the United States. It is one of six UN official languages.
What it sounds like
Russian features palatalized (“soft”) versus non-palatalized (“hard”) consonant pairs — a contrast that distinguishes many words. Unstressed vowels reduce dramatically (akanye and ikanye), and word stress is unpredictable and unmarked in standard writing. Consonant clusters can be impressive (vstrecha, “meeting”).
How it’s written
Russian uses 33 Cyrillic letters, descended from the Old Church Slavonic alphabet attributed to Saints Cyril and Methodius. The 1918 spelling reform dropped four letters and simplified orthography. The script is highly phonemic once stress is known.
History
Modern literary Russian was shaped by Pushkin in the 19th century, combining Church Slavonic vocabulary with vernacular grammar. Soviet language policy spread Russian as a second language across 14 republics; that legacy persists.
Find more languages by letter
Russian starts with R and ends with N. Browse other languages along the same letter.
Languages that contain a letter from "Russian":