Russian area

Until 19 17, Russian was the only official language in Russia. However, during the period of Soviet socialism and League of Nations, every member and country had its own official language, and Russian became the comprehensive role language of Russia. After the drastic changes in Eastern Europe in 1989 and the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 199 1, independent countries encouraged their mother tongue, thus reversing the dominant position of Russian, but its role as a communication between most Eastern European and Central Asian countries has not changed.

In Latvia, there are more than one third of the Russian population, mainly immigrants from Russia and the Soviet Union before the two world wars. The use of Russian in class is still controversial. In Estonia, Soviet-era immigrants and their descendants account for about a quarter of the country's current population.

In Lithuania, the Russian-speaking population accounts for less than one tenth of the total population. However, about 80% of the population in the Baltic region can talk in basic Russian. In Finland, once a part of Russia, there are still several Russian-speaking communities.

In the 20th century, Russian was widely used in schools in Warsaw Pact countries, including Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Albania. However, the younger generation is usually not fluent because Russian is no longer used in schools. In addition, influenced by the Soviet Union, some Asian countries, such as Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Mongolia, are still teaching Russian. Russian is still used as a lingua franca in several tribes in Afghanistan.

In Israel, at least 750,000 Soviet Jewish immigrants use Russian (1999 census). Israeli news, websites and publications often use Russian.

In North America, there is a considerable Russian-speaking community, especially in urban areas of the United States and Canada, such as new york, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Miami, Chicago and Richmond Heights in the suburb of Cleveland. The Russian population in new york and Los Angeles alone is estimated to be 500,000. They publish their own newspapers and live in self-sufficient areas (especially immigrants who started in the 1960s).

According to the U.S. census in 2000, Russian is spoken by 1.50% of the population in the United States, which is about 4.2 million people, ranking 10th among American languages.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, there have been many Russian-speaking immigrants in Europe. There are 3 million Russian-speaking communities in Germany, Britain, Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, Greece and Turkey.

In China, it is mainly distributed in Ili, Tacheng and Altay regions of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Manzhouli and Ergon of Hulunbeier City of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and Russian is used.