Interesting facts about the language

Russian is a Slavic language and is most closely related to Ukrainian and Belarusian, with which it forms the group of East Slavic languages. Russian is by far the most widely spoken of all the Slavic languages: more than 160 million people speak it as their native language. Almost 70 million people also speak it as a second language, meaning they also use Russian in everyday life but speak a different native language. Besides the Russian Federation, most Russian-speaking people live in the other countries of the former Soviet Union, primarily in Ukraine (with around eleven million native speakers), Kazakhstan (six million), the Baltic states, and Belarus. Until the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1989, Russian was also taught as the first foreign language in schools in the Warsaw Pact countries.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, however, it was quickly replaced by English in schools. But even on the international political level, Russian has lost much of the importance it once enjoyed during the existence of the Soviet Union. With the collapse of the former trade, economic, and military alliances, it also lost its function as a common language between the allies. Recently, however, the importance of the Russian language has increased again in other areas. Due to Russia's economic upswing, the status of Russian has increased significantly, particularly in the global finance and tourism sectors, as well as in the trade of luxury goods. According to estimates, up to three million native Russian speakers live in the Federal Republic of Germany today – most of them are ethnic German repatriates and their families (just under two million), as well as Russian Jews (around 200,000). Larger Russian-speaking communities outside the former Soviet Union also exist in other countries of Western Europe, as well as in North America, Australia, and Israel.

English has had the greatest influence on the Russian language in recent times. As you learn Russian, you will often encounter words originally from English that have found their way into Russian as loanwords. Not only in the technical field, but also in many other areas of social life, you will encounter terms that will sound familiar and thus help you understand.