122-492: The Karelian National Movement ( Russian : Карельское национальное движение , romanized : Karelskoye natsional'noye dvizheniye ; Finnish : Karjalan kansallinen liike ; Karelian : Karjalan kanšallin liikeh ), officially KKL-Stop the Occupation of Karelia is an umbrella term for two organizations that split from each other in 2023. The organization led by the original creator, Dmitry Kuznetsov, who also goes by
244-649: A constitutional referendum on whether to adopt Russian as a second official language. According to the Central Election Commission, 74.8% voted against, 24.9% voted for and the voter turnout was 71.1%. Starting in 2019, instruction in Russian will be gradually discontinued in private colleges and universities in Latvia, and in general instruction in Latvian public high schools. On 29 September 2022, Saeima passed in
366-465: A market economy from a command economy in 1990–1991 and made efforts to rebuild and restructure their economic systems, often following neoliberal shock therapy policies, with varying results. In all, the process triggered severe economic declines, with gross domestic product (GDP) dropping by more than 40% overall between 1990 and 1995. This decline in GDP was much more intense than the 27% decline that
488-510: A new education law which requires all schools to teach at least partially in Ukrainian, with provisions while allow indigenous languages and languages of national minorities to be used alongside the national language. The law faced criticism from officials in Russia and Hungary. The 2019 Law of Ukraine "On protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language" gives priority to
610-540: A pan-nationalist pan-Finnic movement. The Karelian National Movement wishes for the restoration of Karelian independence and with the creation of comfortable living conditions for the indigenous peoples, the Karelians, Vepsians , Sami and the Pomors . They wish to secure rights for the indigenous peoples to do traditional activities, such as fishing and hunting. They also wish to promote Karelian language and promote rights for
732-731: A roadmap for future integration and established the Eurasian Economic Commission (modelled on the European Commission ). The Eurasian Economic Commission serves as the regulatory agency for the Eurasian Customs Union, the Single Economic Space and the Eurasian Economic Union. The Eurasian Economic Union is an economic union of post-Soviet states. The treaty aiming for the establishment of
854-542: A formula with V standing for the nucleus (vowel) and C for each consonant, the maximal structure can be described as follows: (C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C) Post-Soviet states The post-Soviet states , also referred to as the former Soviet Union ( FSU ) or the former Soviet republics , are the independent sovereign states that emerged/re-emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Prior to their independence, they existed as Union Republics , which were
976-508: A free trade area, but the agreements were never signed. On 19 October 2011, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Ukraine signed a free trade agreement. Uzbekistan joined the free trade area in 2013. The Eurasian Economic Community (EURASEC), formerly the CIS Customs Union, was established by Russia , Belarus , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan . Ukraine and Moldova have observer status in
1098-479: A language that "belongs to the European cultural space". The financing of Russian-language content by the state will cease, which the concept says create a "unified information space". However, one inevitable consequence would be the closure of public media broadcasts in Russian on LTV and Latvian Radio, as well as the closure of LSM's Russian-language service. In Lithuania , Russian has no official or legal status, but
1220-572: A lesser extent the languages to the south and the east: Uralic , Turkic , Persian , Arabic , and Hebrew . According to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California , Russian is classified as a level III language in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers, requiring approximately 1,100 hours of immersion instruction to achieve intermediate fluency. Feudal divisions and conflicts created obstacles between
1342-607: A minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities . 30% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 2% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. In Azerbaijan , Russian has no official status, but is a lingua franca of the country. 26% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 5% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. In Georgia , Russian has no official status, but it
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#17328513856511464-672: A narrative that Karelia wants to break away from Russia. Some Finnish politicians and journalists believe that the organization was created by the Federal Security Service of Russia in order to stir up revanchism and nationalism in Finland . Finnish Security Intelligence Service believe that the movement doesn't pose a terrorist threat. Stop the Occupation of Karelia seeks the creation of an independent Karelian state for Karelians, Finns , Vepsians , Pomors , Samis , Kola Norwegians based on traditional Nordic values. The Stop
1586-1121: A number of multinational organizations such as: Regarding political freedom in the former Soviet republics, Freedom House 's 2021 report listed the following: Similarly, the Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders in 2022 recorded the following as regards press freedom : It has been remarked that several post-Soviet states did not change leadership for decades since their independence, such as Nursultan Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan until his surprise resignation in 2019, and Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan, until his death in September 2016. All of these had originally more limited terms but through decrees or referendums prolonged their stay in office (a practice also followed by Presidents Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus and Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan). Askar Akayev of Kyrgyzstan had likewise served as President since its independence until he
1708-673: A pressure for democracy. This is one of the few social disasters that the church has survived, in which it was not the cause. But if successful politically, it faces economic challenges beyond its grasp." The Central Asian states ( Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan , Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan ) plus Azerbaijan in the Southern Caucasus are Muslim , except for their dwindling Russian and other European minorities. The Baltic countries are historically Western Christian ( Protestant and Roman Catholic ), which adds another layer of pro-Western orientation to those countries, although
1830-516: A qualitatively new entity can be said to emerge—the general language of the working class... capitalism has the tendency of creating the general urban language of a given society. In 2010, there were 259.8 million speakers of Russian in the world: in Russia – 137.5 million, in the CIS and Baltic countries – 93.7 million, in Eastern Europe – 12.9 million, Western Europe – 7.3 million, Asia – 2.7 million, in
1952-475: A successful transition to capitalism and more democracy." Commenting on Milanović's report in 2021, Kristen Ghodsee says this view is "essentially correct" and perhaps underestimates "the negative impacts of transition by focusing only on GDP, inequality and democratic consolidation" whereas Mitchell A. Orenstein says this view is "overly pessimistic" and notes that "Poland had done spectacularly well and living standards had increased in many countries." Most of
2074-627: Is Pro-western and wishes to secure relations with the Nordic countries upon the achievement of independence. Russian language Russian is an East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family . It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is the native language of the Russians . It was the de facto and de jure official language of
2196-527: Is Belarusian, among ethnic Belarusians this share is 28.5%; the highest share of those who speak Belarusian at home is among ethnic Poles — 46.0%. In Estonia , Russian is spoken by 29.6% of the population, according to a 2011 estimate from the World Factbook, and is officially considered a foreign language. School education in the Russian language is a very contentious point in Estonian politics, and in 2022,
2318-504: Is a closely related organization. Observer countries include Armenia , Bulgaria and Poland . Just like GUAM before it, this forum is largely seen as intending to counteract Russian influence in the area. This is the only international forum centered in the post-Soviet space in which the Baltic countries also participate. In addition, the other three post-Soviet states in it are all members of GUAM. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO),
2440-475: Is a co-official language per article 5 of the Constitution of Kyrgyzstan . The 2009 census states that 482,200 people speak Russian as a native language, or 8.99% of the population. Additionally, 1,854,700 residents of Kyrgyzstan aged 15 and above fluently speak Russian as a second language, or 49.6% of the population in the age group. In Tajikistan , Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication under
2562-401: Is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian , and a moderate degree of it in all modern Slavic languages, at least at the conversational level. Russian is written using a Cyrillic alphabet. The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The following table gives their forms, along with IPA values for each letter's typical sound: Older letters of
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#17328513856512684-593: Is a post-posed definite article -to , -ta , -te similar to that existing in Bulgarian and Macedonian. In the Southern Russian dialects , instances of unstressed /e/ and /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable are not reduced to [ɪ] (as occurs in the Moscow dialect), being instead pronounced [a] in such positions (e.g. несл и is pronounced [nʲaˈslʲi] , not [nʲɪsˈlʲi] ) – this
2806-485: Is being used less frequently by Russian-speaking typists in favor of the extension of Unicode character encoding , which fully incorporates the Russian alphabet. Free programs are available offering this Unicode extension, which allow users to type Russian characters, even on Western 'QWERTY' keyboards. The Russian language was first introduced to computing after the M-1 , and MESM models were produced in 1951. According to
2928-613: Is called yakanye ( яканье ). Consonants include a fricative /ɣ/ , a semivowel /w⁓u̯/ and /x⁓xv⁓xw/ , whereas the Standard and Northern dialects have the consonants /ɡ/ , /v/ , and final /l/ and /f/ , respectively. The morphology features a palatalized final /tʲ/ in 3rd person forms of verbs (this is unpalatalized in the Standard and Northern dialects). During the Proto-Slavic (Common Slavic) times all Slavs spoke one mutually intelligible language or group of dialects. There
3050-456: Is composed of China and five post-Soviet states, namely Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The organization was founded in 2001, though its predecessor, the Shanghai Five grouping, has existed since 1996. Its aims revolve around security-related issues such as border demarcation, terrorism and energy. Apart from above, the former Soviet republics also hold membership in
3172-563: Is more spoken than English. Sizable Russian-speaking communities also exist in North America, especially in large urban centers of the US and Canada, such as New York City , Philadelphia , Boston , Los Angeles , Nashville , San Francisco , Seattle , Spokane , Toronto , Calgary , Baltimore , Miami , Portland , Chicago , Denver , and Cleveland . In a number of locations they issue their own newspapers, and live in ethnic enclaves (especially
3294-564: Is odd") – чу́дно ( chúdno – "this is marvellous"), молоде́ц ( molodéts – "well done!") – мо́лодец ( mólodets – "fine young man"), узна́ю ( uznáyu – "I shall learn it") – узнаю́ ( uznayú – "I recognize it"), отреза́ть ( otrezát – "to be cutting") – отре́зать ( otrézat – "to have cut"); to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words, especially personal and family names, like афе́ра ( aféra , "scandal, affair"), гу́ру ( gúru , "guru"), Гарси́я ( García ), Оле́ша ( Olésha ), Фе́рми ( Fermi ), and to show which
3416-402: Is recognized as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities . Russian is the language of 9% of the population according to the World Factbook. Ethnologue cites Russian as the country's de facto working language. In China , Russian has no official status, but it is spoken by the small Russian communities in the northeastern Heilongjiang and
3538-569: Is sometimes considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. Also, Russian has notable lexical similarities with Bulgarian due to a common Church Slavonic influence on both languages, but because of later interaction in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bulgarian grammar differs markedly from Russian. Over the course of centuries, the vocabulary and literary style of Russian have also been influenced by Western and Central European languages such as Greek, Latin , Polish , Dutch , German, French, Italian, and English, and to
3660-576: Is spoken by 14.2% of the population according to an undated estimate from the World Factbook. In 2005, Russian was the most widely taught foreign language in Mongolia, and was compulsory in Year 7 onward as a second foreign language in 2006. Around 1.5 million Israelis spoke Russian as of 2017. The Israeli press and websites regularly publish material in Russian and there are Russian newspapers, television stations, schools, and social media outlets based in
3782-518: Is the stressed word in a sentence, for example Ты́ съел печенье? ( Tý syel pechenye? – "Was it you who ate the cookie?") – Ты съе́л печенье? ( Ty syél pechenye? – "Did you eat the cookie?) – Ты съел пече́нье? ( Ty syel pechénye? "Was it the cookie you ate?"). Stress marks are mandatory in lexical dictionaries and books for children or Russian learners. The Russian syllable structure can be quite complex, with both initial and final consonant clusters of up to four consecutive sounds. Using
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3904-532: Is the successor state to both the Ukrainian SSR and the Soviet Union as a whole. The question of whether Russia or Ukraine succeeded the Soviet Union in 1991 arose due to a comprehensive dispute between the two countries over what had been collective Soviet state-owned properties. The Union Republics of the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) were the first to break away from the Soviet Union by proclaiming
4026-464: Is usually shown in writing not by a change of the consonant but rather by changing the following vowel. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels . Stress , which is often unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically , though an optional acute accent may be used to mark stress – such as to distinguish between homographic words (e.g. замо́к [ zamók , 'lock'] and за́мок [ zámok , 'castle']), or to indicate
4148-461: The 2011 Lithuanian census , Russian was the native language for 7.2% of the population. In Moldova , Russian was considered to be the language of interethnic communication under a Soviet-era law. On 21 January 2021, the Constitutional Court of Moldova declared the law unconstitutional and deprived Russian of the status of the language of interethnic communication. 50% of the population
4270-860: The Apollo–Soyuz mission, which first flew in 1975. In March 2013, Russian was found to be the second-most used language on websites after English. Russian was the language of 5.9% of all websites, slightly ahead of German and far behind English (54.7%). Russian was used not only on 89.8% of .ru sites, but also on 88.7% of sites with the former Soviet Union domain .su . Websites in former Soviet Union member states also used high levels of Russian: 79.0% in Ukraine, 86.9% in Belarus, 84.0% in Kazakhstan, 79.6% in Uzbekistan, 75.9% in Kyrgyzstan and 81.8% in Tajikistan. However, Russian
4392-544: The Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations which aims to forge closer integration. The Community of Democratic Choice (CDC) was formed in December 2005 at the primary instigation of Ukraine and Georgia, and composed of six post-Soviet states (Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and three other countries of Eastern and Central Europe ( Slovenia , Romania and North Macedonia ). The Black Sea Forum (BSF)
4514-413: The Constitution of Tajikistan and is permitted in official documentation. 28% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 7% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. The World Factbook notes that Russian is widely used in government and business. In Turkmenistan , Russian lost its status as the official lingua franca in 1996. Among 12% of the population who grew up in
4636-1077: The Estonian SSR , the Georgian SSR , the Kazakh SSR , the Kirghiz SSR , the Latvian SSR , the Lithuanian SSR , the Moldavian SSR , the Russian SFSR , the Tajik SSR , the Turkmen SSR , the Ukrainian SSR , and the Uzbek SSR . In Russia, the term " near abroad " ( Russian : ближнее зарубежье , romanized : bližneye zarubežye ) is sometimes used to refer to the post-Soviet states other than Russia. Following
4758-538: The Partnership for Peace and Individual Partnership Action Plan program include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Four member states, namely Georgia , Ukraine , Azerbaijan and Moldova , established the GUAM group that was largely seen as intending to counter Russian dominance in the region. Notably, these four nations do not participate in any of
4880-575: The Ukrainian language in more than 30 spheres of public life: in particular in public administration , media, education, science, culture, advertising, services . The law does not regulate private communication. A poll conducted in March 2022 by RATING in the territory controlled by Ukraine found that 83% of the respondents believe that Ukrainian should be the only state language of Ukraine. This opinion dominates in all macro-regions, age and language groups. On
5002-694: The United States Census , in 2007 Russian was the primary language spoken in the homes of over 850,000 individuals living in the United States. Russian is one of the official languages (or has similar status and interpretation must be provided into Russian) of the following: The Russian language is also one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station – NASA astronauts who serve alongside Russian cosmonauts usually take Russian language courses. This practice goes back to
Karelian National Movement - Misplaced Pages Continue
5124-519: The breakup of Yugoslavia . Stop the Occupation of Karelia also claims territories lost by Finland after the Winter War , including the city of Vyborg to be belonging to an independent Karelian state. Their claims also include Kandalaksha , the southeast of the Kola peninsula and the towns of Onega , Tikhvin and Vytegra and Kirishi . The Karelian National Movement is a member of Suur-Suomen sotilaat ,
5246-463: The dissolution of the Soviet Union . Only organizations that are mainly (or completely) composed of post-Soviet states are listed in this section; organizations with wider memberships are not discussed. The 15 post-Soviet states are divided in their participation to the regional blocs: The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) consists of 10 former Soviet Republics that differ in their membership status. As of December 2010, 9 countries have ratified
5368-543: The end of the Cold War , the international community de facto recognized Russia as the successor state to the Soviet Union as a whole, rather than to just the Russian SFSR. In contrast, the other post-Soviet states were recognized as successors only to their corresponding Union Republics. However, Russia's status as the sole legitimate successor in this capacity has been disputed by Ukraine, which has proclaimed by law that it
5490-550: The fourth most widely used language on the Internet . Russian is written using the Russian alphabet of the Cyrillic script ; it distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without—the so-called "soft" and "hard" sounds. Almost every consonant has a hard or soft counterpart, and the distinction is a prominent feature of the language, which
5612-520: The native peoples of Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union . In 2023 the Oleynik wing of the organization created a new organization named Suur-Suomen sotilat ( Finnish : Soldiers of Greater Finland ), aimed at dividing Russia into multiple Finno-Ugric republics, the new organization has close ties with Far-right groups in Finland . In spring 2024, the movement was designated as an ' undesirable organization ' in Russia. In January 2023
5734-405: The 2000s, many EU officials have stressed the importance of establishing EU Association Agreements with the other post-Soviet states. Ukraine and Georgia have actively sought NATO membership due to increasingly hostile Russian interference in their internal affairs . Due to the post-Soviet conflicts , several disputed states with varying degrees of international recognition have emerged within
5856-508: The 20th century, Russian was a mandatory language taught in the schools of the members of the old Warsaw Pact and in other countries that used to be satellites of the USSR. According to the Eurobarometer 2005 survey, fluency in Russian remains fairly high (20–40%) in some countries, in particular former Warsaw Pact countries. In Armenia , Russian has no official status, but it is recognized as
5978-465: The Belarusian society the Russian language prevails, so according to the 2019 census 6,718,557 people (71.4% of the total population) stated that they speak Russian at home, for ethnic Belarusians this share is 61.4%, for Russians — 97.2%, for Ukrainians — 89.0%, for Poles — 52.4%, and for Jews — 96.6%; 2,447,764 people (26.0% of the total population) stated that the language they usually speak at home
6100-456: The CIS charter and are full CIS members (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan), one country (Turkmenistan) is an associate member and two countries (Georgia, Ukraine) left the organization in 2009 and in 2018. In 2014, Ukraine declined its CIS chairmanship and considered withdrawal from the organization. In 1994, the CIS countries agreed to create
6222-656: The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), this being an expansion of the previous Collective Security Treaty (CST). Uzbekistan which (alongside Georgia and Azerbaijan) withdrew from the CST in 1999, joined GUAM. Then in 2005, it withdrew from GUAM and joined the CSTO in 2006. On 28 June 2012, Uzbekistan suspended its membership in the CSTO. Three former Soviet states are members of NATO: Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania . Georgia, where both public opinion and
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#17328513856516344-822: The EAEU was signed on 29 May 2014 by the leaders of Belarus , Kazakhstan and Russia , and came into force on 1 January 2015. Treaties aiming for Armenia 's and Kyrgyzstan 's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union were signed on 9 October 2014 and 23 December respectively. Armenia's accession treaty came into force on 2 January 2015. Kyrgyzstan ratified its accession's treaty in May 2015, and it came into force in August 2015. Moldova and Tajikistan are prospective members. Seven CIS member states, namely Russia , Belarus , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan , Uzbekistan and Armenia , have enhanced their military cooperation, establishing
6466-500: The Georgian language. While the Soviet system placed severe restrictions on religious intellectual life, traditions continued to survive. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Islamic movements have emerged alongside ethnic and secular ones. Vitaly Naumkin gives the following assessment: "Throughout the time of change, Islam has served as a symbol of identity, a force for mobilization, and
6588-519: The Great and developed from the Moscow ( Middle or Central Russian ) dialect substratum under the influence of some of the previous century's Russian chancery language. Prior to the Bolshevik Revolution , the spoken form of the Russian language was that of the nobility and the urban bourgeoisie. Russian peasants, the great majority of the population, continued to speak in their own dialects. However,
6710-468: The Institute of Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an optional acute accent ( знак ударения ) may, and sometimes should, be used to mark stress . For example, it is used to distinguish between otherwise identical words, especially when context does not make it obvious: замо́к ( zamók – "lock") – за́мок ( zámok – "castle"), сто́ящий ( stóyashchy – "worthwhile") – стоя́щий ( stoyáshchy – "standing"), чудно́ ( chudnó – "this
6832-419: The Karelian National Battalion. But Vladislav Oleynik later resumed their cooperation. Some Finnish and Karelian politicians and journalists called into question the legitimacy of the organization, seeing it as a part of the information warfare during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Russian side believes that the organization was founded in order to stir up conflicts in the Republic of Karelia and create
6954-413: The Karelian National Liberation Movement of Kuznetsov was renamed back to Stop the Occupation of Karelia. The movement became active again after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and changed its name to the current one. It gained new members, many of whom were parts of right-wing movements, as Vladislav Oleynik, the administrator of a right-wing online group called "Væringjavegr ᛝ Fennoscandia ". He became
7076-407: The Karelian National Movement organized a volunteer battalion that became a part of the International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine . Due to ideological differences on the position of the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Free Russia Legion in the Belgorod Incursions , on 7 June 2023, Dmitry Kuznetsov announced the cessation of communication between itself and the remaining members of
7198-414: The Karelian National Movement was registered in Tartu , Estonia as a non-profit organization . On 20 July 2023, the Karelian National Movement was dissolved as a solid entity after an internal conflict within the organization. On 15 November 2023, the Karelian National Movement of Oleynik demanded Kuznetsov to stop the conflict and to return control of the original Telegram channel , after that demand
7320-411: The Middle East and North Africa – 1.3 million, Sub-Saharan Africa – 0.1 million, Latin America – 0.2 million, U.S., Canada , Australia, and New Zealand – 4.1 million speakers. Therefore, the Russian language is the seventh-largest in the world by the number of speakers , after English, Mandarin, Hindi -Urdu, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Portuguese. Russian is one of the six official languages of
7442-415: The Occupation of Karelia movement considered Russians to be the occupiers of Karelia and support their involvement in the movement, which is why they refused to cooperate with the Karelian Republican Movement , due to their more moderate position in 2010s. Stop the Occupation of Karelia opposed partisan activities in Karelia and expects the development of a scenario following the example of Slovenia during
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#17328513856517564-418: The Republic of Karelia. The KKL considers the Pomors one of the most related peoples, therefore they work closely with the organization "Pomoṙska Slobóda" (pomor. Помо́рьска Слобо́да), which advocates the independence of Pomorie [ ru ] . On 9 May 2023, the KKL became one of the founding members of the Alliance of Indigenous Peoples, which advocates for implementation of "full sovereignty" for
7686-807: The Russian alphabet include ⟨ ѣ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ е ⟩ ( /je/ or /ʲe/ ); ⟨ і ⟩ and ⟨ ѵ ⟩ , which both merged to ⟨ и ⟩ ( /i/ ); ⟨ ѳ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ ф ⟩ ( /f/ ); ⟨ ѫ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ у ⟩ ( /u/ ); ⟨ ѭ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ ю ⟩ ( /ju/ or /ʲu/ ); and ⟨ ѧ ⟩ and ⟨ ѩ ⟩ , which later were graphically reshaped into ⟨ я ⟩ and merged phonetically to /ja/ or /ʲa/ . While these older letters have been abandoned at one time or another, they may be used in this and related articles. The yers ⟨ ъ ⟩ and ⟨ ь ⟩ originally indicated
7808-458: The Russian principalities before and especially during Mongol rule. This strengthened dialectal differences, and for a while, prevented the emergence of a standardized national language. The formation of the unified and centralized Russian state in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the gradual re-emergence of a common political, economic, and cultural space created the need for a common standard language. The initial impulse for standardization came from
7930-421: The Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). On the other hand, the three Baltic states pursued a policy of near-total disengagement with the Russian-dominated post-Soviet sphere, instead focusing on integrating themselves with the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). They successfully attained NATO membership and were granted EU membership in 2004. Since
8052-403: The Soviet Union occurred against a backdrop of economic stagnation and regression within the economy of the USSR . This period marked the breakdown of the Gosplan , the state planning agency responsible for economic planning and inter-republic economic connections, exacerbating the effects on the economies of the post-Soviet states. Most of the formerly Soviet states began the transition to
8174-405: The Soviet era can speak Russian, other generations of citizens that do not have any knowledge of Russian. Primary and secondary education by Russian is almost non-existent. In Uzbekistan , Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication. It has some official roles, being permitted in official documentation and is the lingua franca of the country and the language of the elite. Russian
8296-403: The United Nations. Education in Russian is still a popular choice for both Russian as a second language (RSL) and native speakers in Russia, and in many former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics. In Belarus , Russian is a second state language alongside Belarusian per the Constitution of Belarus . 77% of
8418-403: The United States suffered in the wake of the Great Depression between 1930 and 1934. The reconfiguration of public finance in compliance with capitalist principles resulted in dramatically reduced spending on health, education and other social programs, leading to a sharp increase in poverty and economic inequality . The economic shocks associated with wholesale privatization resulted in
8540-483: The anti-Akayev climate that led to his overthrow. Economic, political, national, military and social problems have all been factors in separatism in the post-Soviet space. In many cases, problems due to factors such as ethnic divisions existed before the fall of the Soviet Union, and upon the fall of the union were brought into the open. Such territories and resulting military conflicts have so far been: Civil wars unrelated to separatist movements have occurred twice in
8662-434: The broader Russian invasion of Ukraine . In the political language of Russia and some other post-Soviet states, the term near abroad ( Russian : ближнее зарубежье , romanized : blizhnee zarubezhe ) refers to the independent republics that emerged after the dissolution of the Soviet Union . Increasing usage of the term in English is connected to assertions of Russia's right to maintain significant influence in
8784-403: The broader sense of expanding the use of Russian alongside or in favour of other languages. The current standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language ( современный русский литературный язык – "sovremenny russky literaturny yazyk"). It arose at the beginning of the 18th century with the modernization reforms of the Russian state under the rule of Peter
8906-637: The community; however, Ukraine has declared its desire not to become a full member state. Because having common borders with the rest of the community is a prerequisite for full membership, Moldova is barred from seeking it. Uzbekistan applied for membership in October 2005, when the process of merging Central Asian Cooperation Organization and the Eurasian Economic Community began; it joined on 25 January 2006. Uzbekistan subsequently suspended its membership in 2008. On 10 October 2014 an agreement on
9028-730: The countries has been rising. The constitutional background for taxation is similar. Central banks are often independent state institutions, which possess the monopoly on managing and implementing a state's or federation's monetary policy. Besides monetary policy, some of them also perform the supervision of the financial intermediary system . Change in gross domestic product (GDP) in constant prices, 1991–2015 *Economy of most Soviet republics started to decline in 1989–1990, thus indices for 1991 do not match pre-reform maximums. **The year when GDP decline switched to GDP growth ***World bank publishes GDP data for Estonia only from 1995 onwards. Figures for Estonia are relative to 1995 GDP. List of
9150-562: The country. There is an Israeli TV channel mainly broadcasting in Russian with Israel Plus . See also Russian language in Israel . Russian is also spoken as a second language by a small number of people in Afghanistan . In Vietnam , Russian has been added in the elementary curriculum along with Chinese and Japanese and were named as "first foreign languages" for Vietnamese students to learn, on equal footing with English. The Russian language
9272-570: The emergence of Russian-backed states in Ukraine in 2014: the Republic of Crimea in southern Ukraine briefly proclaimed independence before being annexed by Russia in 2014 ; and the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic , both located in Ukraine's Donbas , were occupied and subsequently declared independence in 2014 before being formally annexed by Russia in 2022 , amidst
9394-469: The excess deaths of roughly 1 million working age individuals throughout the former Soviet bloc in the 1990s. A study by economist Steven Rosefielde asserts that 3.4 million Russians died premature deaths from 1990 to 1998, partly as the result of the shock therapy policies imposed by the Washington Consensus . The initial transition decline was eventually arrested, and after 1995 the economy in
9516-413: The factory and the industrial plant their local peasant dialects with their phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary, and the very process of recruiting workers from peasants and the mobility of the worker population generate another process: the liquidation of peasant inheritance by way of leveling the particulars of local dialects. On the ruins of peasant multilingual, in the context of developing heavy industry,
9638-451: The final reading amendments that state that all schools and kindergartens in the country are to transition to education in Latvian . From 2025, all children will be taught in Latvian only. On 28 September 2023, Latvian deputies approved The National Security Concept, according to which from 1 January 2026, all content created by Latvian public media (including LSM ) should be only in Latvian or
9760-643: The former Soviet Union . Russian has remained an official language of the Russian Federation , Belarus , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , and Tajikistan , and is still commonly used as a lingua franca in Ukraine , Moldova , the Caucasus , Central Asia , and to a lesser extent in the Baltic states and Israel . Russian has over 258 million total speakers worldwide. It is the most spoken native language in Europe ,
9882-617: The generation of immigrants who started arriving in the early 1960s). Only about 25% of them are ethnic Russians, however. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union , the overwhelming majority of Russophones in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn in New York City were Russian-speaking Jews. Afterward, the influx from the countries of the former Soviet Union changed the statistics somewhat, with ethnic Russians and Ukrainians immigrating along with some more Russian Jews and Central Asians. According to
10004-480: The government bureaucracy for the lack of a reliable tool of communication in administrative, legal, and judicial affairs became an obvious practical problem. The earliest attempts at standardizing Russian were made based on the so-called Moscow official or chancery language, during the 15th to 17th centuries. Since then, the trend of language policy in Russia has been standardization in both the restricted sense of reducing dialectical barriers between ethnic Russians, and
10126-615: The head of international relations of the organization. The movement also became part of the Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum . The KKL was in a conflict with the Finnish Karjalan Liitto organization, which represents Karelian evacuees in Finland , due to their refusal to cooperate with the KKL to "return” Karelia . The movement tried to establish contacts with Karelian organizations in
10248-824: The indigenous peoples, and give the indigenous peoples their own autonomous areas within Karelia. The Karelian National Movement is in favour of working with other movements in Karelia and Russia to secure independence for the Finno-Ugric peoples and republics of Russia . The Karelian National Movement is also affiliated with the Conservative People's Party of Estonia and other Finnish pan-Finnic and conservative movements and organizations, such as: Uralin Lapset and Fight Club. The Karelian National Movement claims to be "anti- Neo-Bolshevik " and anti-Communist . The Karelian National Movement
10370-416: The language lost its status in other post-Soviet states after the end of the Soviet Union. It maintains semi-official status in all CIS member states, because it is the organisation's official working language, but in the three Baltic states, the Russian language is not recognized in any official capacity. Georgia, since its departure from the CIS in 2009, has begun operating its government almost exclusively in
10492-471: The most spoken Slavic language , as well as the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia . It is the world's seventh-most spoken language by number of native speakers , and the world's ninth-most spoken language by total number of speakers . Russian is one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station , one of the six official languages of the United Nations , as well as
10614-627: The name Miteri Panfilov, is called Stop the Occupation of Karelia ( Finnish : Lopeta Karjalan Valtaus ); it was previously known as the Karelian National Liberation Movement. The organization led by Vladislav Oleynik is called the Karelian National Movement . Both of the organizations are far-right Karelian separatist groups, dating back to 2012 under the name Stop the Occupation of Karelia. Some Finnish and Russian journalists and politicians believe that
10736-409: The new states' constitutions define directly or indirectly the economic system of the countries parallel to the democratic transition of the 1990s, emphasising the free market economy . The average government debt in these countries is nearly 44%, but the deviation is great, because the lowest figure is close to 10% but the highest is 97%. The trend shows that the sovereign debt-to-GDP ratio in most of
10858-516: The northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region . Russian was also the main foreign language taught in school in China between 1949 and 1964. In Kazakhstan , Russian is not a state language, but according to article 7 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan its usage enjoys equal status to that of the Kazakh language in state and local administration. The 2009 census reported that 10,309,500 people, or 84.8% of
10980-521: The organization was used in information warfare . The movement was founded in 2012 under the name Stop the Occupation of Karelia by Dmitry Kuznetsov. In 2014 a website under the same name was created that advocated for the full independence of Karelia . The website was banned by Roskomnadzor in 2015. In 2016 Dmitry Kuznetsov gained political asylum in Spain after being prosecuted in Russia for separatism . At
11102-515: The other hand, before the war, almost a quarter of Ukrainians were in favour of granting Russian the status of the state language, while after the beginning of Russia's invasion the support for the idea dropped to just 7%. In peacetime, the idea of raising the status of Russian was traditionally supported by residents of the south and east . But even in these regions, only a third of the respondents were in favour, and after Russia's full-scale invasion , their number dropped by almost half. According to
11224-549: The other regional organizations that sprang up in the region since the dissolution of the Soviet Union (other than the CIS). The Union State of Russia and Belarus was originally formed on 2 April 1996 under the name Commonwealth of Russia and Belarus , before being tightened further on 8 December 1999. It was initiated by the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko . On paper, the Union of Russia and Belarus intends further integration, beyond
11346-455: The other three languages in the East Slavic branch. In many places in eastern and southern Ukraine and throughout Belarus, these languages are spoken interchangeably, and in certain areas traditional bilingualism resulted in language mixtures such as Surzhyk in eastern Ukraine and Trasianka in Belarus. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect , although it vanished during the 15th or 16th century,
11468-446: The parliament approved a bill to close up all Russian language schools and kindergartens by the school year. The transition to only Estonian language schools and kindergartens will start in the 2024-2025 school year. In Latvia , Russian is officially considered a foreign language. 55% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 26% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 18 February 2012, Latvia held
11590-453: The peasants' speech was never systematically studied, as it was generally regarded by philologists as simply a source of folklore and an object of curiosity. This was acknowledged by the noted Russian dialectologist Nikolai Karinsky , who toward the end of his life wrote: "Scholars of Russian dialects mostly studied phonetics and morphology. Some scholars and collectors compiled local dictionaries. We have almost no studies of lexical material or
11712-663: The point of prosecution, he had already been living in Spain for more than 2 years. The leader of the Karelian Republican Movement , Vadim Shtepa , refused to cooperate with the KNM, citing their ethnocentrism as the reason. He also stated that the Karelian National Movement has no future due to their extreme nationalism and complete misunderstanding of the current situation in the Republic of Karelia . On 6 June 2023,
11834-586: The politics of some post-Soviet States. Heydar Aliyev , after constructing an extensive and ongoing cult of personality , handed the Presidency of Azerbaijan to his son, Ilham Aliyev . Theories about the children of other leaders in Central Asia being groomed for succession abound. The participation of Akayev's son and daughter in the 2005 Kyrgyz parliamentary elections boosted fears of dynastic succession being used in Kyrgyzstan as well, and may have contributed to
11956-455: The population aged 15 and above, could read and write well in Russian, and understand the spoken language. In October 2023, Kazakhstan drafted a media law aimed at increasing the use of the Kazakh language over Russian, the law stipulates that the share of the state language on television and radio should increase from 50% to 70%, at a rate of 5% per year, starting in 2025. In Kyrgyzstan , Russian
12078-418: The population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 67% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2019 Belarusian census , out of 9,413,446 inhabitants of the country, 5,094,928 (54.1% of the total population) named Belarusian as their native language, with 61.2% of ethnic Belarusians and 54.5% of ethnic Poles declaring Belarusian as their native language. In everyday life in
12200-546: The post-Soviet states began to recover, with GDP switching from negative to positive growth rates. By 2007, 10 of the 15 post-Soviet states had recovered their 1991 GDP levels. According to economist Branko Milanović , in 2015 many former Soviet republics and other former communist countries still have not caught up to their 1991 levels of output, including Bosnia-Herzegovina , Georgia , Kyrgyzstan , Moldova , Serbia , Tajikistan and Ukraine . He concluded that "only 1 out of 10 people living in 'transition' countries have seen
12322-449: The present gross domestic product (GDP) (figures are given in 2023 United States dollars for the year 2023 according to the IMF ) The post-Soviet states listed according to their Human Development Index scores in 2021: Very High Human Development: High Human Development: Medium Human Development: A number of regional organizations and cooperating blocs have sprung up since
12444-475: The pronunciation of ultra-short or reduced /ŭ/ , /ĭ/ . Because of many technical restrictions in computing and also because of the unavailability of Cyrillic keyboards abroad, Russian is often transliterated using the Latin alphabet. For example, мороз ('frost') is transliterated moroz , and мышь ('mouse'), mysh or myš' . Once commonly used by the majority of those living outside Russia, transliteration
12566-466: The proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names. Russian is an East Slavic language of the wider Indo-European family . It is a descendant of Old East Slavic , a language used in Kievan Rus' , which was a loose conglomerate of East Slavic tribes from the late 9th to the mid-13th centuries. From the point of view of spoken language , its closest relatives are Ukrainian , Belarusian , and Rusyn ,
12688-548: The region. The concept has been compared to the Monroe Doctrine , central to American grand strategy in the 20th century. The AP Styleguide recommends avoiding use of the shorthand "former Soviet republic(s)" unless relevant to the story. The 15 states may be divided into four subregions . Not included in these categories are the several de facto independent states presently lacking international recognition (read below: Separatist conflicts ). The dissolution of
12810-487: The region: Since 2003, a number of (largely) peaceful " colour revolutions " have happened in some post-Soviet states after disputed elections, with popular protests bringing into power the former opposition. There is a significant Russophone population in most of the post-Soviet states, whose political position as an ethnic minority varies from country to country. While Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, in addition to Russia, have kept Russian as an official language,
12932-491: The respondents), while according to the 2002 census – 142.6 million people (99.2% of the respondents). In Ukraine , Russian is a significant minority language. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 14,400,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 29 million active speakers. 65% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 38% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 5 September 2017, Ukraine's Parliament passed
13054-481: The restoration of their national independence in 1990; they cited legal continuity from the original Baltic states , asserting that Baltic sovereignty had continued on a de jure basis due to the belligerent nature of the 1940 Soviet annexation . Subsequently, the 12 remaining Union Republics seceded, with all of them jointly establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and most of them later joining
13176-584: The ruling government favor NATO membership, is in the Intensified Dialogue program with NATO. Ukraine also declared joining NATO as its geopolitical goal once again in 2017 (the first time being right after the Orange Revolution and in the beginning of presidency of Viktor Yushchenko ), after the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych , during which the government officially declared non-alignment status and ceased to seek NATO membership. Other states in
13298-515: The scope of mere cooperation, including the introduction of the rouble as a common currency. The Economic Cooperation Organization was originally formed in 1985 by Turkey , Iran and Pakistan but in 1992 the organization was expanded to include Afghanistan and the six primarily Muslim former Soviet republics: Azerbaijan , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan , Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan . The post-Soviet disputed states of Abkhazia , South Ossetia and Transnistria are all members of
13420-626: The survey carried out by RATING in August 2023 in the territory controlled by Ukraine and among the refugees, almost 60% of the polled usually speak Ukrainian at home, about 30% – Ukrainian and Russian, only 9% – Russian. Since March 2022, the use of Russian in everyday life has been noticeably decreasing. For 82% of respondents, Ukrainian is their mother tongue, and for 16%, Russian is their mother tongue. IDPs and refugees living abroad are more likely to use both languages for communication or speak Russian. Nevertheless, more than 70% of IDPs and refugees consider Ukrainian to be their native language. In
13542-459: The syntax of Russian dialects." After 1917, Marxist linguists had no interest in the multiplicity of peasant dialects and regarded their language as a relic of the rapidly disappearing past that was not worthy of scholarly attention. Nakhimovsky quotes the Soviet academicians A.M Ivanov and L.P Yakubinsky, writing in 1930: The language of peasants has a motley diversity inherited from feudalism. On its way to becoming proletariat peasantry brings to
13664-698: The termination of the Eurasian Economic Community was signed in Minsk after a session of the Interstate Council of the EAEC. The Eurasian Economic Community was terminated from 1 January 2015 in connection with the launch of the Eurasian Economic Union . Russia , Belarus , Kazakhstan created a customs union that entered into force in July 2010. Ukraine , Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan indicated interest in joining at
13786-471: The territory of the former Soviet Union. These include: Transnistria , an unrecognized Russian-backed state in eastern Moldova; and Abkhazia and South Ossetia , two partially recognized Russian-backed states in northern Georgia. The United Nations (UN) has historically considered Russian-backed states in the "near abroad" to be illegitimate and instead views them as constituting Russian-occupied territories . The aftermath of Ukraine's Maidan Revolution saw
13908-589: The time. Russia has been eager for Armenia , Moldova and Ukraine to join the custom union instead of the European Union , and the Moldovan break-away state of Transnistria has supported this. In 2013, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia announced plans to seek membership, but division over the issue in Ukraine led to the Revolution of Dignity after the Ukrainian government backed out of an EU Eastern Partnership in favor of
14030-636: The top-level constituents of the Soviet Union . There are 15 post-Soviet states in total: Armenia , Azerbaijan , Belarus , Estonia , Georgia , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Latvia , Lithuania , Moldova , Russia , Tajikistan , Turkmenistan , Ukraine , and Uzbekistan . Each of these countries succeeded their respective Union Republics: the Armenian SSR , the Azerbaijan SSR , the Byelorussian SSR ,
14152-770: The two. Others divide the language into three groupings, Northern , Central (or Middle), and Southern , with Moscow lying in the Central region. The Northern Russian dialects and those spoken along the Volga River typically pronounce unstressed /o/ clearly, a phenomenon called okanye ( оканье ). Besides the absence of vowel reduction, some dialects have high or diphthongal /e⁓i̯ɛ/ in place of Proto-Slavic * ě and /o⁓u̯ɔ/ in stressed closed syllables (as in Ukrainian) instead of Standard Russian /e/ and /o/ , respectively. Another Northern dialectal morphological feature
14274-472: The union. In 2014, voters in the Moldovan autonomous region of Gagauzia rejected closer ties to the EU in favor of the union. On 1 January 2012, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus established the Single Economic Space which ensures the effective functioning of a single market for goods, services, capital and labour, and to establish coherent industrial, transport, energy and agricultural policies. The agreement included
14396-506: The use of the language has some presence in certain areas. A large part of the population, especially the older generations, can speak Russian as a foreign language. However, English has replaced Russian as lingua franca in Lithuania and around 80% of young people speak English as their first foreign language. In contrast to the other two Baltic states, Lithuania has a relatively small Russian-speaking minority (5.0% as of 2008). According to
14518-405: Was first introduced in North America when Russian explorers voyaged into Alaska and claimed it for Russia during the 18th century. Although most Russian colonists left after the United States bought the land in 1867, a handful stayed and preserved the Russian language in this region to this day, although only a few elderly speakers of this unique dialect are left. In Nikolaevsk, Alaska , Russian
14640-421: Was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 19% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2014 Moldovan census , Russians accounted for 4.1% of Moldova's population, 9.4% of the population declared Russian as their native language, and 14.5% said they usually spoke Russian. According to the 2010 census in Russia , Russian language skills were indicated by 138 million people (99.4% of
14762-511: Was forced to resign as a result of the Kyrgyz revolution of 2005 . Saparmurat Niyazov in Turkmenistan ruled from independence until his death in 2006, creating a personality cult around himself. His successor, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, has maintained a personality cult of his own that has replaced the worshipping of Niyazov. The issue of dynastical succession has been another element affecting
14884-402: Was the sixth-most used language on the top 1,000 sites, behind English, Chinese, French, German, and Japanese. Despite leveling after 1900, especially in matters of vocabulary and phonetics, a number of dialects still exist in Russia. Some linguists divide the dialects of Russian into two primary regional groupings, "Northern" and "Southern", with Moscow lying on the zone of transition between
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