Russia, the largest country in the world, is home to over 143 million citizens, making it one of the most populated countries on Earth. The history of what is now Russia was first started by the Slavs, leading to the state of Rus being founded in the 9th Century. After falling to the Mongols, Rus underwent a series of changes, most of which were led by individual city-states, which were not to be unified until almost a thousand years later. Stretching from the Baltic Sea all the way to the Pacific Ocean, the USSR was disbanded only recently, but in the former Soviet states, Russian is still used by many of those peoples. With its vast mineral and natural wealth, Russia is poised to remain on the world’s stage, and those who are able to speak and write Russian will have their doors opened.
The Russian language uses an alphabet, but unlike most languages, it uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which is based on the Greek alphabet. Students who choose to learn Russian will become familiar with this alphabet and the challenges of acquiring a language that is neither Romance nor Germanic.