The world marked the Russian Language Day on June 6th. The day was founded by the UN in 2010. A year later a decree, which was signed by the president, officially recognized June 6th as a memorable day in Russia.
The Russian Language Day coincides with the birthday of the great Russian writer and poet Alexander Pushkin -- the founder of the Russian literary language. Pushkin praised the expressiveness, sonority and flexibility of the Russian language. He once said that the Slavic Russian language had the indisputable advantage over all European languages.
Nowadays, Russian is one of ten most widely spread languages in the world. The language took the 7th and the 8th position during the recent years.
Russian is a native language for nearly 164 million people in the world. 114 million others speak Russian as their foreign language. These people are presumably citizens of post-Soviet republics.
The Russian language is one of the six languages of the UN. This is a mandatory language to study for the astronauts of the International Space Station.
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