Languages of Russia facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Languages of Russia
Memorial in Vyborg in Finnish, Russian, Swedish and German.
Official	Russian
Semi-official	Thirty-five languages
Minority	Dozens of languages of the Indo-European, Northeast Caucasian, Northwest Caucasian, Uralic, Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic and Paleosiberian language families
Foreign	13–20% have foreign language knowledge English (71% out of all foreign language speakers or 15% of the population; 30% to some degree. German (16%) Ukrainian (9%) Azerbaijani, Turkish & French (3%) Others (20%)
Signed	Russian Sign Language
Keyboard layout	Russian keyboard

Russia is a huge country with many languages! The main language is Russian, which is the only official language for the whole country. But in different parts of Russia, there are 25 other languages that are also official. These include languages like Ossetic, Ukrainian, Buryat, and Tatar. Besides these, there are over 100 other languages spoken by smaller groups of people across Russia.

History of Languages in Russia

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian lost its official status in many new countries. However, in Russia itself, the Russian language remained very important. Today, most students in Russia's public schools (about 97%) learn mostly or only in Russian. This is true even though about 20% of Russia's population belongs to other ethnic groups.

Learning Languages: The Russification Policy

On June 19, 2018, the Russian government, through its State Duma (a part of the parliament), passed a new law. This law made learning languages other than Russian optional in schools. Before this, some regions had laws that made learning their local languages mandatory. The new law meant that minority languages might only be taught for two hours a week.

Some people, like those writing in Foreign Affairs, felt this law was part of a policy called Russification. This means making things more Russian, including language and culture.

When the law was being discussed, many people who spoke minority languages worried it would harm their languages and traditional cultures. This law came after a court case in 2017. In that case, a Russian mother said her son was "harmed" by having to learn the Tatar language. Around the same time, President Vladimir Putin said it was wrong to force anyone to learn a language that isn't their own. This "language crackdown" was also seen as a way for Putin to build a stronger Russian identity.

Many groups protested the new law. People from regions like Tatarstan, Chuvashia, and Chechnya spoke out against it. Even though some politicians from these regions didn't oppose the law, many people in the North Caucasus were very upset. They worried the law could cause problems between different ethnic groups and even restart nationalist movements. The International Circassian Organization asked for the law to be stopped. Twelve of Russia's ethnic regions, including five in the Caucasus, also asked for the law to be blocked.

Between 2002 and 2010, the number of people speaking languages like Udmurt, Mari, and Chuvash dropped a lot. For example, Udmurt speakers went from 463,000 to 324,000. This decline is happening because teaching in local languages is slowly being stopped in cities and even in rural areas. Also, local news and governments are using Russian more and more.

In the North Caucasus, opportunities to learn local languages in schools have dropped by more than half over the last ten years. This is due to less money for schools and efforts by the government to reduce the role of languages other than Russian. During this time, many local languages in the North Caucasus saw big drops in the number of speakers. This happened even when the number of people from those ethnic groups increased. This has led to fears that these languages might be replaced by Russian. For example, the number of Ossetian, Kumyk, and Avar speakers decreased significantly. As of 2018, there are almost no schools in the North Caucasus that teach mainly in native languages. Only one school in North Ossetia and a few in rural Dagestan still do. Even in areas like Chechnya and Ingushetia, where Chechen and Ingush are still used daily, experts worry these languages will decline compared to Russian.

In 2020, some changes were made to the Russian constitution. One change was to call Russian the "language of the state-forming nationality" and the Russian people as the ethnic group that created the nation. Many of Russia's minority groups criticized this change. They argued it goes against the idea that Russia is a country with many different nationalities and will make them feel even more left out.

Official Languages in Russia

While Russian is the only official language for all of Russia, many other languages are officially recognized in different parts of the country. Article 68 of the Constitution of Russia allows the different republics of Russia to have their own official languages besides Russian.

Here is a list of languages that are official in some of Russia's republics, along with how many people speak them (mostly from the 2010 Census):

Language	Language family	Federal subject(s)	Speakers in Russia	Source
Abaza	Northwest Caucasian	Karachay-Cherkessia	37,831 (2010 Census-2014)
Adyghe	Northwest Caucasian	Adygea	128,000 (2015)
Avar	Northeast Caucasian	Dagestan	800,000 (2010 Census)
Altai	Turkic	Altai Republic	55,720 (2010 Census)
Bashkir	Turkic	Bashkortostan	1,152,404 (2010 Census)	see also regional law
Buryat	Mongolic	Buryatia	265,000 (2010 Census)
Chechen	Northeast Caucasian	Chechnya  Dagestan	1,354,705 (2010 Census)
Chuvash	Turkic	Chuvashia	1,042,989 (2010 Census)
Crimean Tatar	Turkic	Republic of Crimea	308,000 (2010 Census) 228,000 (2019)
Erzya	Uralic	Mordovia	36,726 (2010 Census)
Ingush	Northeast Caucasian	Ingushetia	305,868 (2010 Census)
Kabardian	Northwest Caucasian	Kabardino-Balkaria  Karachay-Cherkessia	590,000 (2010 Census)
Kalmyk	Mongolic	Kalmykia	80,546 (2010 Census)
Karachay-Balkar	Turkic	Kabardino-Balkaria  Karachay-Cherkessia	305,364 (2010 Census)
Khakas	Turkic	Khakassia	43,000 (2010 Census)
Komi-Zyrian	Uralic	Komi Republic	160,000 (2010 Census)
Hill Mari, Meadow Mari	Uralic	Mari El	470,000 (2012)
Moksha	Uralic	Mordovia	130,000 (2010 Census)
Nogai	Turkic	Karachay-Cherkessia  Dagestan	87,119 (2010 Census)
Ossetian	Indo-European (Iranian)	North Ossetia–Alania	451,431 (2010 Census)
Tatar	Turkic	Tatarstan	4,280,718 (2010 Census)
Tuvan	Turkic	Tuva	280,000 (2010)
Udmurt	Uralic	Udmurtia	324,338 (2010 Census)
Ukrainian	Indo-European (Slavic)	Republic of Crimea	1,129,838 (2010 Census)
Yakut	Turkic	Sakha	450,140 (2010 Census)

The Constitution of Dagestan says that "Russian and the languages of the peoples of Dagestan" are state languages. However, it doesn't give a full list. Fourteen of these languages (including Russian) are written languages. So, they are usually seen as the official languages of Dagestan. These are: Aghul, Avar, Azerbaijani, Chechen, Dargwa, Kumyk, Lak, Lezgian, Nogai, Rutul, Tabasaran, Tat, and Tsakhur. All of these, except Russian, Chechen, and Nogai, are official only in Dagestan.

The Karelia is the only Russian republic where Russian is the only official language. But there is a special law to support and protect the Karelian, Vepsian, and Finnish languages in that republic.

Other Recognized Languages

Some regions in Russia have passed their own laws to protect and keep minority languages alive. For example, the government of Bashkortostan has a "Law on the Languages of Nations." This law helps protect the rights of people to use and develop their native language. It also allows for names of places and signs to be written in local languages where many speakers live. Similar laws exist in Mari El, Tatarstan, Udmurtia, Khakassia, and the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.

A federal law called "On the languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation" also allows regions to make other languages official in areas where minority groups live. Here are 15 languages that get different levels of recognition in various regions under this law:

• Buryat in the Agin-Buryat Okrug
• Chukchi in Sakha
• Dolgan in Sakha
• Even in Sakha
• Evenki in Sakha
• Finnish in Karelia
• Karelian in Karelia
• Kazakh in Altai
• Khanty in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
• Komi-Permyak in the Komi-Permyak Okrug
• Mansi in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug
• Nenets in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
• Selkup in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
• Veps in Karelia
• The Yukaghir languages in Sakha

Languages from Other Countries

Many people from former Soviet republics, especially from the Caucasus and Central Asia, have moved to Russia for work. Because of this, many languages that are not native to Russia are now spoken there. For example, in 2014, millions of people from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan came to Russia.

Here's a comparison of how many people from these groups live in Russia (according to the 2010 Russian Census):

Endangered Languages in Russia

Many languages in Russia are in danger of disappearing. Some are very close to extinction and are on a list of endangered languages in Russia. Some may have already disappeared since the last time data was collected. However, some languages can survive even with only a few speakers.

Some languages have old data, like Serbian, whose information is based on a 1959 census. Since 1994, languages like Kerek, Aleut, Medny Aleut, Akkala Sami, and Yugh have become extinct.

Languages Near Extinction

Here are some languages that are very close to disappearing, with the number of speakers (mostly from 1995 data):

• Enets (70 speakers)
• Ingrian
• Negidal
• Orok (30–82 speakers)
• Sami, Ter (2 speakers)
• Tofalar (25–30 speakers)
• Udege (100 speakers)
• Votic (8 native speakers, 60 non-native)
• Ket (20 speakers) (2019)
• Yukaghir, Northern (30–150 speakers)
• Yukaghir, Southern (10–50 speakers)
• Yupik

Foreign Languages in Russia

This sign at a company headquarters shows how international the oil industry is. It's in Russian, Ukrainian, English, German, Polish, French, Hebrew, Georgian, Chinese, and Tatar.

Surveys show that some Russians know a foreign language. In 2015, a survey found that about 30% of Russians could speak English to some degree. About 6% could speak German, and 1% could speak French or Spanish.

Knowing a foreign language is more common among younger and middle-aged people. For example, among those aged 18–24, 38% can read and translate with a dictionary, and 11% can speak freely. This knowledge is also more common in big cities like Moscow, where it can be as high as 35%. People with more education and higher social status are also more likely to know a foreign language.

English Language Knowledge

Here's a closer look at how well Russians know English:

History of Foreign Languages

In the 18th and 19th centuries, French was a very popular language among the upper class in Russia. This started when Peter the Great wanted Russia to be more like Europe. It became even more popular after the French Revolution. However, after Russia fought France in the Napoleonic Wars, Russians became less interested in French.

Languages Used in Education

The Russian Ministry of Education and Science keeps track of the languages used in schools. In the 2014/2015 school year, most students (about 13.1 million, or 96%) learned in Russian. About 1.6 million students (12%) also studied their native language (a non-Russian one) as a subject. The most popular native languages studied were Tatar, Chechen, and Chuvash.

The most popular foreign languages studied in schools in 2013/2014 were:

See also

• Demography of Russia
• List of languages of Russia
• Languages of the Caucasus
• Russian Academy of Sciences, the language regulator in Russia