Russian
Russian
(русский)
is a Indo-European language
with approximately 154M speakers speakers.
It is written using the
Cyrillic
script.
Its BCP 47 language code is ru.
Russian (русский язык) is a Slavic language and the most widely spoken native language in Europe. It is the official language of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, and is used as a second language throughout the former Soviet republics.
Russian is written in the Cyrillic alphabet (33 letters) and is known for its complex morphology with six grammatical cases, three genders, and an extensive aspect system for verbs. Russian literature — with figures like Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov — is among the most celebrated in the world.
Writing Systems Used for Russian
Frequently Asked Questions
What alphabet or script does Russian use?
What direction is Russian written?
How many people speak Russian?
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What is the language code for Russian?
Language Facts
- BCP 47 Code
- ru
- ISO 639-3
- rus
- Status
- living
- Speakers
- 154M speakers
- Language Family
- Indo-European
- Scripts
- 1
- Primary Script
- Cyrillic
Other Cyrillic Languages
Data sourced from Unicode CLDR and ISO 639-3. Last updated April 20, 2026.