Unique unto itself among the languages spoken in East Asia, Russian derives from the larger family of Indo-European languages, which includes such diverse tongues as English, German, Norse, Latin, Greek, Irish, and Sanskrit. Within this broad group is the language family known as Balto-Slavic. The Baltic side of the family includes Latvian and Lithuanian, while the Slavic side includes South Slavic (Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, and Slovene), West Slavic (Polish, Czech, and Slovak), and East Slavic, which is represented primarily by Russian.

More than 6,700 living languages are spoken in 228 countries around the world. Approximately 97 of these languages are spoken in the Russian Federation, where Russian is the native tongue. About 294,000,000 people in Russia, the former Russian Republics, Israel, Mongolia, the United States of America, Canada, and China speak Russian.

The Russian language ranks with Chinese and English as one of the world's three major languages. It remains the common language of communication in many of the 15 independent states which were formerly part of the Soviet Union. Despite its reputation for being one of the world's most difficult languages to learn, the Russian people are usually patient and willing to help you along if you know only a little of their language .