Where outside the former Soviet Union is the Russian language widely used?

Question

Where, outside the former Soviet Union, is the Russian language so widely used that the knowledge of the other language in practically not required for traveller etc.?

In Ukraine, for example, Russian is so widely used that most of the books are in Russian, and in talk-shows people answer the question asked in Ukrainian in Russian. I don't say it's good, but the Russian-speaking traveller would have no communication problems. But this is the former Soviet Union, where knowing Russian was practically a must.

Are there any countries, that were not in Soviet Union, in which the Russian language is so widely used, that one can expect that almost everyone will be able to answer questions in Russian, etc.?

Answer 1

Technically, Russian is commonly understood in any country that used to be part of the USSR: Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. This differs from place to place, and in more rural areas the use of their native language was much heavier than that of the official Russian, but generally people born as late as the 80's are bound to understand Russian.

Outside of the former USSR, Russian is understood by older people from countries that used to belong to the Soviet Bloc - Hungary, former Eastern Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and more so and even by some younger people in those where the the main local language and alphabet is similar to Russian, like Bulgaria, and where there is more trade and interaction with Russians today (near Kaliningrad, on the Black Sea coast, and in Prague and Karlovy Vary). There are parallel dynamics within the former non-aligned bloc of former Yugoslavia - Russian is most understand in Orthodox areas and on the Montenegrin coast.

However, in those places, as in some places within the former USSR, speaking Russian has political symbolism, depending on the exact context, that can be positive or negative.

There are also other favourite destinations of Russian-speaking tourists - places in Egypt, Tunisia, the Emirates and Turkey - where it is possible to visit using only Russian. In some neighbourhoods in Istanbul where many traders organise exports to the former Soviet Union, it is a lingua franca.

Unrelated to this, about a seventh of the population of Israel is made up of Russian-speaking immigrants and their children. You can visit Israel using only a working knowledge of Russian. There are significant Russian-speaking populations in New York, San Francisco, Seattle and many other places around the world, but the tourist infrastructure is not really oriented around Russian speakers in those places.

Answer 2

For what it's worth, Russian language has been established as one of the official languages in the state of New York in 2009. All election documents must be translated into Russian and you can complete your driving license exam without knowing a single word in English.

Answer 3

Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union (I was born in Ukraine). Also, it's quite a unique place in that the Eastern part is very much Russian-oriented, while the Western-part is much more nationalistic. While it's not uncommon at all to meet people in Kharkiv that don't even speak Ukrainian, it's not uncommon at all to meet people in Uzhgorod that don't speak Russian.

As for the main question, you can easily get away with only Russian in certain parts of Turkey, especially the sea resorts, especially Black Sea resorts, but not everywhere. Same with Egypt: Russian will be just fine in the resorts but not in rural area half-way between Aswan and Luxor (trust me, I've been there). You may easily be able to get away with only Russian in Bulgaria, because Bulgarian language is very similar to Russian (both written and spoken).

Other than that, in almost any country you will find concentrated Russian-speaking communities where Russian will be more than enough, for example, the (in)famouse Brighton Beach in New York, or Coolidge Corner in Boston. However on a more global scale you'd be hard pressed if Russian where all you knew.

Answer 4

About a tenth of total population of Israel can speak Russian, especially in East Jerusalem and other disputed territories where Israeli government settles the new immigrants. In some shops and supermarkets the staff is required to know Russian.

Russian is also widespead in many Arab countries, especially, Egypt and Syria but also Jordan and the Palestine territories. Several factors had contributed to this: the cooperation with the Soviet Union, the Soviet staff and advisers to these countries, the fact that many of the specialists of those countries were studying in Soviet universities.

Also many Russian women dream of a marriage with an Arab man. Only in Syria there are up to 10000 Russian women married local men (with about a total of 30000 Russian citizens living in the country not counting the staff of the Russian naval base in Tartus). The number possibly as high in Egypt. In Jordan and the Palestinian territories the number is also high.

Other women go for sex tourism for which the preferred destinations are again Egypt and Turkey.

In general in many other tourist destinations you will be able to encounter services or other tourists speaking in Russian. It is quite common in Thailand for the staff of hotels and restaurants speak Russian and provide a Russian menu.

Answer 5

To answer the question exactly: the only country outside of the former Soviet Union where you can simply ask almost anybody a question in Russian is Bulgaria. (The answer, however, will probably not be in perfect Russian.) In Serbia, Montenegro, Republika Srpska and Macedonia there is also some hope. (This is because the language and alphabet are similar, and politically the connotations are not too negative.)

In all the other cases outside of the former Soviet Union, we cannot speak of general knowledge across the country, and certainly it will be less than in those cases. In terms of similarity of language, the other Slavic countries can compete, but there, as in Hungary or Romania, there is also non-nil risk of a negative reaction.