Do practically everyone in the former Soviet Republics speak Russian?
Saturday, August 15th, 2009 at
9:34 am
Do practically everyone in the former Soviet Republics speak Russian as a native language or second language?
Is there specific data on the number of people who can speak it?
Thanks.
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Tagged with: former soviet republics • native language • second language
Filed under: Russian - Written and Spoken
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First of all one has to state that each former Soviet republic has a national language which is not Russian (in addition, there are lots of minority languages). Some of the countries (for example Belarus) still use Russian as an official language, others, including the Baltic countries do not. Of all those language, only Belarusian and Ukrainian are Slavic languages and therefore close to Russian. Estonian (Finno-Ugric language, close to Finnish), Latvian and Lithiuanian (Baltic languages), the Turkic languages spoken in many republics of Central Asia, Romanian (spoken in Moldova) or Georgian are not related to Russian at all. However, there are still minorities of varying sizes (almost 50 percent in Latvia, less in Estonia or Lithuania) of native Russian speakers in all those countries.
The acceptance of Russian as a means of communication is also different in each country. While in Belarus, for example, Russian is used far more frequently than Belarusian, the Baltic countries have adopted quite strict language policies. In the case of Latvia (and in the future probably also Estonia) this means that for example education is only available in Latvian (or Estonian).
While many nations where opposed to russification during Soviet times, Russian served as the lingua franca in the Soviet Union and therefore in the older generations one can assume that almost everyone has at least a passive knowledge of the language. This is not true of the younger generation, where in many countries English, and to a lesser degree also other languages, such as German, have become more popular.
well i certainly believe it is their 1st language.
Yes, Well some speak Ukrainian and a few other languages but I think even if they do speak another language that language is very close to Russian.
almost all post Soviet Union republics speak Russian as second language.
but you must consider that only people of Soviet era do so, people born after Soviet Union prefer other languages such as English.
specefic data is the same as population of the USSR when it splited.
Dear Asker,
you are the first person who asked this question.
My routs is from East of Russia. And every time I mention that, people think I speak Russian, but I speak a total different language that it called: Caucasian language
and these other language that I would like to call them – our home country friends -:
Abaza,
Abkhazian
Adyge,
Aghul,
Akhvakh,
Andi,
Archi,
Avar,
Bagvalal,
Bezhta,
Botlikh,
Chamalal,
Chechen,
Dargi,
Dido,
Ghodoberi,
Hinukh,
Hunzib,
Ingush,
Kabardian (Circassian),
Karata,
Khvarshi,
Lak,
Lezgi,
Rutul,
Tabasaran,
Tindi,
Tsakhur
Yes, they do. Russian is still used as a language of international communication. Parents who spoke it in the Soviet Union teach Russian to their children, tradition remains strong. Exept the Baltik states:)Knowledge of Russian helps, because links with Russia are still strong.