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Introduction
Most records used in Russian research are written in Russian. You need not be fluent in Russian, but you will need some knowledge of Russian to understand Russian records. Reading Russian script in archived records can be very difficult since the old Russian script is unlike the modern Russian and script is always difficult to decipher.

For word lists see Word List

Russian is a Slavic language. The Slavic languages are divided into three groups.

1) East Slavic languages, which include:

Russian

Belorussian

Ukrainian

2) West Slavic languages, which include:

Polish

Czech

Slovak

3) South Slavic languages, which include:

Bulgarian

Serbo-Croatian

Slovenian

Macedonian

Russian is the language of the Russian Federation and was the official language of the Soviet Union and of the Russian Empire. It was also used in official records of Poland, Finland, and Alaska.

Variant Forms of Words
In Russian, the endings of most words vary according to gender, number, and usage in a sentence. Who—Whose—whom, or marry—marries—married are examples of words in English with variant forms. Many sources (word lists, dictionaries, etc.) give only the basic, or nominative and masculine form. As you read Russian records, be aware that almost all words vary with usage.

Gender

Russian words for persons, places, and things (nouns) are classified as masculine, feminine, or neuter. For example, брат (brother) is a masculine word, дочь (daughter) is a feminine word, and свидетельство (certificate) is a neuter word.

Words that describe persons, places or things (adjectives) will have either masculine, feminine, or neuter endings depending on what noun they are describing. For example, in Russian you would write старый брат (old brother), старая сестра (old sister), and старое свидетельство (old certificate). In dictionaries and in the “Russian Genealogical Word List” generally only the masculine form is given.

старый, старая, старое

(old) is listed only as старый

глухой, глухая

(deaf) is listed only as глухой

Plurals
Plural forms of Russian words usually end in ы, и, а, or я.

Thus:

отец—отцы

father—fathers

муж—мужья

husband—husbands

жена—жены

wife—wives

книга—книги

book—books

место—местa

place—places

замечание—замечания

remark—remarks

Again, usually in a dictionary the word is given in the singular, masculine form.

Grammatical Use
The endings of Russian words can also vary depending on the grammatical uses of the words. Russian grammar requires specific endings (called “cases”) on nouns used in the possessive, as the object of a verb, and with a preposition, among others.

Adjectives also must match the nouns they modify in gender, quantity, and grammatical form (case). Russian nouns fall into several classes, each with its own set of grammatical endings. Many dictionaries have grammatical sections which show complete noun and adjective endings.

The following table shows some examples of changing nouns:

Noun

Use

Translation

город

города

городе

Ø

мер города

Я жул в городе

City

Mayor of the city

I lived in the city

сын

сына

сыну

сыном

Ø

я крестил сына

я дал сыну

я ушёл с сыном

Son

I christened the son

I gave to the son

I left with the son

жена

жены

жену

жене

женой

жене

Ø

дом жены

я видел жену

я дал жене

я ушёл ц женой

я думал о жене

Wife

Home of the wife

I saw the wife

I gave to the wife

I left with the wife

I thought the wife

The changing of word endings is called “declension” and there are six different cases in Russian. For a more in-depth discussion on Russian grammar, see this source (find a source for this).

An important note is that it is essential to recognize when a name is written in a different form, and to avoid misinterpreting it as another name. For example, “the child of Ivon” would be “ребенок ивана.” That only means that “иван” is in a different case. It does NOT mean that is a feminine form of the name, that his name is different, that he has variant names, or that “ивана” is a different person than “иван.”

Words that show action (verbs) also vary depending on who and how many are doing the action and whether the action is past, present, or future. The variation for verbs is called “conjugation.”

For example, the Russian word жить (to live) will appear with various endings.

Present

я живу

I live

ты живёшь

you live (informal)

он/она/кто живёт

he/she/who lives

мы живём

we live

вы живёте

you live (formal)

они живут

they live

Past

жил

singular masculine

жила

singular feminine

жили

plural or you formal

Not all verb conjugations follow the same pattern.

Alphabetical Order and Spelling
Russian dictionaries and indexes list use the following alphabetical order:

Аа Бб Вв Гг Дд Ee Ёё Жж Зз Ии Йй Kk Лл Mм Нн Oo Пр Pp Сс Тт Уу Фф Хх Цц Чч Шш Щщ Ъъ Ыы Ьь Ээ Юю Яя

However, prior to 1918 when the Russian Academy of Sciences instituted spelling reforms, the alphabet and the spelling rules were different.

Here is a chart that has the printed and handwritten upper and lowercase letters and their English, Polish, and German transliterations. It also includes the letters before 1918 and where they fit in in the alphabet.

The spelling changes you will be most likely to see include:

з

Changed to (in certain positions)

c

i

Changed to

и

ъ

No longer used at the end of masculine words

ѣ

Changed to

e

θ

Changed to

ф

v

Changed to

и

Additional Resources
There are a variety of print and online resources to help you better understand the Russian language.

Useful books would include Jonathan Shea’s series In Their Words, which are translation guides for Polish, German, and Russian respectively, and A New Russian-English and English-Russian Dictionary by M. Golovinsky, which is from the 1940s and uses the old spelling rules. Available on microfilm at the Family History Library.

Other
Russian (русский язык tr.: russkiy yazyk, [ˈru.skʲɪj jɪˈzɨk]) is the most widely spoken language of Eurasia and the most widespread of the Slavonic languages.

Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages. Within the Slavic branch, Russian is one of three living members of the East Slavic group, the other two being Belarusian and Ukrainian.

Written examples of East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century onwards. While Russian preserves much of East Slavonic synthetic-inflectional structure and a Common Slavonic word base, modern Russian exhibits a large stock of borrowed international vocabulary for politics, science, and technology. A language of great political importance in the 20th century, Russian is one of the official languages of the United Nations.

Of Russia's estimated 150 million large population, it is thought that over 81% speak the official language of Russian as their first and only language. Most speakers of a minority language are also bilingual speakers of Russian. There are over 100 minority languages spoken in Russia today, the most popular of which is Tartar, spoken by more than 3% of the country's population.

Other minority languages include Ukrainian, Chuvash, Bashir, Mordvin and Chechen. Although few of these populations make up even 1% of the Russian population, these languages are prominent in key regional areas.

Although Russian is the only federally official language of the Russian Federation, there are several other officially-recognized languages within Russia's various constituencies. This is a list of languages that are official only in certain parts of Russia.

1. Abaza (in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic)

2. Adyghe (in the Republic of Adygea)

3. Altay (in the Altai Republic)

4. Bashkir (in the Republic of Bashkortostan)

5. Buryat (in Agin-Buryat Autonomous 6. Okrug, Buryat Republic, and Ust- Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug)

7. Chechen (in the Chechen Republic)

8. Chukchi (in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug)

9. Chuvash (in the Chuvash Republic)

10. Dolgan (in Taymyr Autonomous Okrug)

11. Erzya (in the Republic of Mordovia)

12. Evenk (in Evenk Autonomous Okrug)

13. Ingush (in the Republic of Ingushetia)

14. Kabardian (in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic and Karachay-Cherkess Republic)

15. Kalmyk (in the Republic of Kalmykia)

16. Karachay-Balkar (in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic and Karachay-Cherkess Republic)

17. Khakas (in the Republic of Khakassia)

18. Khanty (in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug)

19. Komi-Zyrian (in the Komi Republic)

20. Koryak (in Koryak Autonomous Okrug)

21. Mansi (in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug)

22. Mari (in the Mari El Republic)

23. Moksha (in the Republic of Mordovia)

24. Nenets (in Nenets Autonomous Okrug)

25. Nogai (in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic)

26. Ossetic (in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania)

27. Tatar (in the Republic of Tatarstan)

28. Tuvin (in the Tuva Republic)

29. Udmurt (in the Udmurt Republic)

30. Yakut (in the Sakha Republic)

31. Yiddish (in Jewish Autonomous Oblast)