Russian Language Facts

• Russian is spoken by approximately 285 million people worldwide in more than 16 countries.
• It’s one of the 10 most spoken languages in the world and one of the 6 official languages of the United Nations.
• 60-70% of all world information is published in English and Russian languages. Over a quarter of the world’s scientific literature is published in Russian.
• Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe.
• Russian shares much in common with other Slavic languages such as Ukrainian, Belarusian, and, to a lesser extent, even Serbian. If you learn Russian, it will be easier for you to learn other Slavic languages in the future. You already know a Germanic language (English) so you can learn a Slavic language like Russian to balance your self out.
• In many if not all of those states (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kirgystan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia) Russian is widely spoken by people who are not themselves ethnic Russians, and it is also spoken by many people in the other countries of the former Warsaw Pact.  In other words, it offers a key to the parts of Europe which will be most changed by economic development in XXI century.  And Russia itself has enormous reserves of valuable natural resources and an extremely well-educated populace  in other words, it has great potential for economic growth. 

• Russia is the largest country in the world, and one of the most enigmatic, complex, and difficult countries. Several stereotypical impressions of Russia are imprinted on our psyche  be it an unsmiling babushka in a thin, shabby coat and headscarf or a glamorous model swathed in furs; the echoing crunch of boots on parade in Red Square, or the feather light grace of ballerinas in Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker; the gold Rolex of a nouveau riche, or the shining domes of the Sergiyev Posad Lavra. Everything in Russia is about contradictions, from Eurasian geographical position and extremes of climate to its changing economic regimes and conflicting modern value. The Russian Language helps to approach the mysterious Russian soul!

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