Learn Russian
Learn Russian, a language associated with a long and splendid history, and world-famous literature. The Russian language has importance in areas of business, academics, literature and travel. It has, for many years, served as a source of allure for scholars of all disciplines and backgrounds.
 After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia continues to be a major political and military power, and the scarcity of Russian linguists remains acute. Demand for Russian linguists and translators is, and will remain, strong. Students who learn Russian can look forward to immediate and rewarding employment upon graduation. For those seeking a future in business, Russia is full of possibilities for both the entrepreneur and language specialist. The Russian language will provide students with the necessary cultural and linguistic basis necessary for a future career in Russia’s business arena.
Learning Russian for personal growth and intellectual satisfaction should also be seriously considered. Russia has played a major role in world affairs. It has a fascinating history stretching from the formation of Kievskaya - Rus' to present economic reforms. The Russian people are widely known for their hospitality, their contributions to technological advancement, and for the creative arts. The golden age of Russian literature was a period unsurpassed in excellence with contributions from Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Gogol' and Turgenev among many others, embodying the finest collection of literature in existence. The fulfillment of reading such classic literature in its original language is beyond measure.
Russian Language Demographics
 Russian language, also called Great Russian, is a member of the East Slavic group of the Slavic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. About 170 million people worldwide speak Russian as a first language. It is used by at least an additional 100 million as a second language in countries throughout Eastern Europe. Closely related to Russian are the other East Slavic tongues, Ukrainian and Belarusian. Russian is the official language of Russia, and an official language of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Education in Russian is still a popular choice for many of the both native and RSL (Russian as a second language) speakers in Russia, and many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is also one of the chief languages of the world, and is officially used by the United Nations.
Russian Language History
The sixth century AD saw the gradual migration of the Slav people from old Poland until they occupied much of the Balkans. Four centuries later, three Slavonic language groups had emerged: Western, Southern and Eastern. Eastern Slavonic developed into the modern languages now known as Ukrainian, Belorussian and Russian. The three Slavonic language groups maintained many common characteristics which facilitated the use of one common written language. This language became known as Old Slavonic or Old Church Slavonic and was used only in its written form. In the ninth century, two missionaries, Constantine and Methodius, wrote down the scriptures in Old Church Slavonic and preached Christianity to the people of Moravia. Before they had set out for Moravia, Constantine invented a Slavonic alphabet. This is now known as the Cyrillic alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet has similar characteristics to the Greek alphabet, with 12 additional letters for Slavic sounds not found in Greek.
 In Russia, Cyrillic was first written in the early middle Ages in clear-cut, large, legible letters. When Peter the Great undertook to Westernize Russia in the early 18th century, the Russian language was subjected to Western influences and absorbed a number of foreign words. Peter was the first to regularize and simplify the Cyrillic alphabet used for Russian with some letters appropriate only to Greek being removed. Additional letters were expunged in 1918, leaving the alphabet as it is today.
Old Church Slavonic remained the written language in Russia until the middle of the eighteenth century. At this time, the need for a written language, which was closer to the educated spoken norm, became necessary. The famous M. V. Lomonosov, after which the Moscow State University is named, distinguished three styles:
- High Style - Church Slavonic, to be used for poetics and religion.
- Middle Style - to be used for prose, lyric poetry, and science.
 Low Style - to be used only in personal letters and in low comedy.
The Middle Style, which combined pieces of both East Slavonic and Church Slavonic, is the style which forms the basis of the modern standard language. During the mid 1800's, Standard Russian, based on the Moscow dialect, became the official language. At present, Russian is the most important of the Slavic languages and has become one of the major world languages.
Visit the below page for information on learning Russian in a Russian speaking country.
The content of this page is original and is copyright of Languages in Action. It has been researched and adapted from several respected sources of Russian language information such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language.
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