Russian Language Day

Established by UNESCO IN 2010, Russian Language Day marks the birthday of Aleksandr Pushkin, the founder of modern Russian literary language. Russian, an East Slavic language, is the official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and is spoken throughout the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Baltic states. The most geographically widespread language in Eurasia, 258 million people are estimated to speak Russian, making it the seventh-most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers. It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.