Celebrating Russian Language Day
7th June 2022
June the 6th celebrates one of the most spoken languages in Europe, Russian.
Russian Language Day was established by UNESCO in 2010. The day coincides with the birthday of the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin who was considered the father of modern Russian literature.
Russian Language Day was established to celebrate cultural diversity and multilingualism, as well as promoting equal use of all six official working languages of the UN: English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and French.
Interesting FAQs about the Russian language:
- Russian is a Slavic language, whose closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian and Rusyn (Ukraine and Slovenia).
- There are roughly 153 million native Russian speakers in the world, making it the most spoken language in Europe and the eighth most spoken language across the globe.
- Russian is the official language of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
- Russian is also the primary language of former Soviet countries which include Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia and Tajikistan.
- In the 19th century, what we now classify as modern Russian was known as “Great Russian.” Belarusian was called “White Russian” and Ukrainian was “Little Russian”.
- The Russian alphabet has 33 letters and 500,000 words. Of these 500,000 words only about 2,500 are used frequently.
- Russian is called an “International Language of Space” and astronauts need to learn the language on the international space station.
How to observe Russian Language Day
- Attend a local event celebrating the language and the works of Aleksandr Pushkin. Fans of the famous writer gather and read Pushkin’s poems and stories.
- Read Russian literature and familiarise yourself with famous works by Aleksandr Pushkin including Dubrovsky, Eugene Onegin, The Queen of Spades and The Captains’ Daughter.
- Learn Russian words.
- Throw a Russian themed dinner party with plenty of Russian vodka at hand.
- Learn about Russian customs, traditions and culture.
