Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
is one of the two
official language
An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...
s of
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
(the other being
Belarusian). Being dominant in the media, education and other areas of public life, Russian is ''de facto'' the main language of the country.
Distribution per 1897 census
After 1995
In 1995, according to the results of the
1995 Belarusian Referendum, the Russian language was declared the second official language. According to the
Belarus Census (2009), 41.5% of the Belarusian population declared Russian as their
mother language
A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...
and 70.2% declared Russian "the language spoken at home" (the second language-related question of the Census).
See also
*
Russians in Belarus
According to the 2019 census, there are 706,992 ethnic Russians in Belarus, which accounts for approximately 7.5 percent of the population of Belarus. Ten years earlier there were 785,084 ethnic Russians in Belarus, meaning that the Russian popu ...
*
Demographics of Belarus
The demographics of Belarus is about the demographic features of the population of Belarus, including population growth, population density, ethnicity, education level, health, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the ...
*
Russification of Belarus
The Russification of Belarus ( be, Расеізацыя Беларусі, Rasieizacyja Biełarusi; russian: Русификация Беларуси, translit=Rusyfikatsiya Byelarusi) is a policy of replacing the use of the Belarusian language and ...
References
External links
Калита И. В. Современная Беларусь: языки и национальная идентичность Ústí nad Labem, , 2010, 300 s.
Yu. Koryakov, A Typology of Linguistic Situations and Linguistic Situation in Belarus a Ph.D. thesis, 2002, Moscow State University
{{Russian language
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
Belarusian culture
Belarus–Russia relations
Russification
Russian language in Belarus