Russian beet soup this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Russian language status and proficiency in the World.

It is the main language spoken in Russia. Russian, like other Slavic languages, is an Indo-European language. Written Russian does not use the Latin alphabet that English and the West Slavic languages do – some people do however, learn to write it in Latin letters. Russian is an official language of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. It first appeared at the beginning of the 18th century.

Peter the Great was then working to make the state more modern. Standard Russian grew out of the dialect of Russian that was spoken by people in and around Moscow. Mikhail Lomonosov wrote the first book on Russian grammar in 1755. The Russian Academy of Sciences published the first full dictionary of Russian in 1783. All of Russia began to use Russian as the language of literature, education, and official communication. Until the 20th century, only the upper classes and people in cities spoke the literary language. Russians from the countryside continued to speak their local dialects.

In the 20th century, all children were required to go to school. Many people had radios and televisions, which helped to spread Standard Russian. In Russian, a person’s name has three parts: the first name, the second name and the family name. Parents choose the first name for their child.

Some common Russian names for boys are Ivan, Vladimir, Mikhail and Nikolai. Some common Russian names for girls are Anna, Anastasia, Svetlana and Yekaterina. For example, a boy whose father is Ivan would havae as patronymic is Ivanovich. If a boy’s father is Nikolai, his patronymic is Nikolaevich.