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Kursk Oblast

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94-410: Kursk Oblast ( Russian : Курская область , romanized :  Kurskaya oblast' , IPA: [ˈkurskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ] ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast ). Its administrative center is the city of Kursk . As of the 2021 census , Kursk Oblast had a population of 1,082,458. The territory of Kursk Oblast has been populated since the end of the last ice age . Slavic tribes of

188-674: A constitutional referendum on whether to adopt Russian as a second official language. According to the Central Election Commission, 74.8% voted against, 24.9% voted for and the voter turnout was 71.1%. Starting in 2019, instruction in Russian will be gradually discontinued in private colleges and universities in Latvia, and in general instruction in Latvian public high schools. On 29 September 2022, Saeima passed in

282-519: A new education law which requires all schools to teach at least partially in Ukrainian, with provisions while allow indigenous languages and languages of national minorities to be used alongside the national language. The law faced criticism from officials in Russia and Hungary. The 2019 Law of Ukraine "On protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language" gives priority to

376-507: A 5,600 km (3,500 mi) road network. An airport in the oblast was opened to international flights in July 1997. The oblast's railroads are one of the most important parts of the transportation system. They are part of the Moscow and South Eastern Railway systems. Two major rail links pass through the oblast: Moscow– Kharkiv and Kyiv – Voronezh . The total length of the railway network

470-512: A formula with V standing for the nucleus (vowel) and C for each consonant, the maximal structure can be described as follows: (C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C) Sudzha Sudzha ( Russian : Су́джа ) is a town and the administrative center of Sudzhansky District in Kursk Oblast , Russia , located on the Sudzha and Oleshnya rivers 105 kilometers (65 mi) southwest of Kursk ,

564-558: A hard or soft counterpart, and the distinction is a prominent feature of the language, which is usually shown in writing not by a change of the consonant but rather by changing the following vowel. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels . Stress , which is often unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically , though an optional acute accent may be used to mark stress – such as to distinguish between homographic words (e.g. замо́к [ zamók , 'lock'] and за́мок [ zámok , 'castle']), or to indicate

658-484: A language that "belongs to the European cultural space". The financing of Russian-language content by the state will cease, which the concept says create a "unified information space". However, one inevitable consequence would be the closure of public media broadcasts in Russian on LTV and Latvian Radio, as well as the closure of LSM's Russian-language service. In Lithuania , Russian has no official or legal status, but

752-588: A lesser extent the languages to the south and the east: Uralic , Turkic , Persian , Arabic , and Hebrew . According to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California , Russian is classified as a level III language in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers, requiring approximately 1,100 hours of immersion instruction to achieve intermediate fluency. Feudal divisions and conflicts created obstacles between

846-622: A minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities . 30% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 2% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. In Azerbaijan , Russian has no official status, but is a lingua franca of the country. 26% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 5% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. In Georgia , Russian has no official status, but it

940-526: A qualitatively new entity can be said to emerge—the general language of the working class... capitalism has the tendency of creating the general urban language of a given society. In 2010, there were 259.8 million speakers of Russian in the world: in Russia – 137.5 million, in the CIS and Baltic countries – 93.7 million, in Eastern Europe – 12.9 million, Western Europe – 7.3 million, Asia – 2.7 million, in

1034-718: A total length of approximately 8,000 km (5,000 mi). Major rivers include the Seym and the Psyol . The inland waters of Kursk oblast consist of 145 artificial lakes and about 550 small ponds. Kursk Oblast is one of Russia's major producers of iron ore . The area of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly has one of the richest iron-ore deposits in the world. Rare earths and base metals also occur in commercial quantities in several locations. Refractory loam , mineral sands , and chalk are quarried and processed in

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1128-472: Is 1,100 km (680 mi). The operational length of the railways is 1,561.2 km (970.1 mi), of which 500 km (310 mi) are access roads. The length of the electrified lines is 242 km (150 mi). The density of the railroads in Kursk Oblast is one of the highest in Russia. The largest railway junctions are Kursk, Lgov , and Kastornoye . There are sixty-five railway stations in

1222-539: Is Belarusian, among ethnic Belarusians this share is 28.5%; the highest share of those who speak Belarusian at home is among ethnic Poles — 46.0%. In Estonia , Russian is spoken by 29.6% of the population, according to a 2011 estimate from the World Factbook, and is officially considered a foreign language. School education in the Russian language is a very contentious point in Estonian politics, and in 2022,

1316-481: Is a co-official language per article 5 of the Constitution of Kyrgyzstan . The 2009 census states that 482,200 people speak Russian as a native language, or 8.99% of the population. Additionally, 1,854,700 residents of Kyrgyzstan aged 15 and above fluently speak Russian as a second language, or 49.6% of the population in the age group. In Tajikistan , Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication under

1410-401: Is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian , and a moderate degree of it in all modern Slavic languages, at least at the conversational level. Russian is written using a Cyrillic alphabet. The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The following table gives their forms, along with IPA values for each letter's typical sound: Older letters of

1504-610: Is a post-posed definite article -to , -ta , -te similar to that existing in Bulgarian and Macedonian. In the Southern Russian dialects , instances of unstressed /e/ and /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable are not reduced to [ɪ] (as occurs in the Moscow dialect), being instead pronounced [a] in such positions (e.g. несл и is pronounced [nʲaˈslʲi] , not [nʲɪsˈlʲi] ) – this

1598-673: Is an East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family . It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is the native language of the Russians . It was the de facto and de jure official language of the former Soviet Union . Russian has remained an official language of the Russian Federation , Belarus , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , and Tajikistan , and

1692-488: Is being used less frequently by Russian-speaking typists in favor of the extension of Unicode character encoding , which fully incorporates the Russian alphabet. Free programs are available offering this Unicode extension, which allow users to type Russian characters, even on Western 'QWERTY' keyboards. The Russian language was first introduced to computing after the M-1 , and MESM models were produced in 1951. According to

1786-415: Is bordered by Bryansk Oblast to the north-west (border length: 120 km (75 mi)), Oryol Oblast to the north (325 km (202 mi)), Lipetsk Oblast to the north-east (65 km (40 mi)), Voronezh Oblast to the east (145 km (90 mi)), Belgorod Oblast to the south (335 km (208 mi)), and Sumy Oblast of Ukraine to the west (245 km (152 mi)). It occupies

1880-624: Is called yakanye ( яканье ). Consonants include a fricative /ɣ/ , a semivowel /w⁓u̯/ and /x⁓xv⁓xw/ , whereas the Standard and Northern dialects have the consonants /ɡ/ , /v/ , and final /l/ and /f/ , respectively. The morphology features a palatalized final /tʲ/ in 3rd person forms of verbs (this is unpalatalized in the Standard and Northern dialects). During the Proto-Slavic (Common Slavic) times all Slavs spoke one mutually intelligible language or group of dialects. There

1974-573: Is more spoken than English. Sizable Russian-speaking communities also exist in North America, especially in large urban centers of the US and Canada, such as New York City , Philadelphia , Boston , Los Angeles , Nashville , San Francisco , Seattle , Spokane , Toronto , Calgary , Baltimore , Miami , Portland , Chicago , Denver , and Cleveland . In a number of locations they issue their own newspapers, and live in ethnic enclaves (especially

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2068-564: Is odd") – чу́дно ( chúdno – "this is marvellous"), молоде́ц ( molodéts – "well done!") – мо́лодец ( mólodets – "fine young man"), узна́ю ( uznáyu – "I shall learn it") – узнаю́ ( uznayú – "I recognize it"), отреза́ть ( otrezát – "to be cutting") – отре́зать ( otrézat – "to have cut"); to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words, especially personal and family names, like афе́ра ( aféra , "scandal, affair"), гу́ру ( gúru , "guru"), Гарси́я ( García ), Оле́ша ( Olésha ), Фе́рми ( Fermi ), and to show which

2162-561: Is one of the largest iron ore mining and processing facilities in Russia. The Kursk Nuclear Power Plant is one of the three biggest nuclear power plants in Russia and one of the four biggest electricity producers in the country. Most of the main farming areas are used for natural pastures or cultivation, which involves mainly wheat , sugar beet , and fodder crops. The main categories of productive holdings are wheat farms, dairy farms, poultry farms, and beef cattle. Agricultural lands cover 23,000 km (8,900 sq mi), or 77% of

2256-402: Is recognized as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities . Russian is the language of 9% of the population according to the World Factbook. Ethnologue cites Russian as the country's de facto working language. In China , Russian has no official status, but it is spoken by the small Russian communities in the northeastern Heilongjiang and

2350-569: Is sometimes considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. Also, Russian has notable lexical similarities with Bulgarian due to a common Church Slavonic influence on both languages, but because of later interaction in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bulgarian grammar differs markedly from Russian. Over the course of centuries, the vocabulary and literary style of Russian have also been influenced by Western and Central European languages such as Greek, Latin , Polish , Dutch , German, French, Italian, and English, and to

2444-585: Is spoken by 14.2% of the population according to an undated estimate from the World Factbook. In 2005, Russian was the most widely taught foreign language in Mongolia, and was compulsory in Year 7 onward as a second foreign language in 2006. Around 1.5 million Israelis spoke Russian as of 2017. The Israeli press and websites regularly publish material in Russian and there are Russian newspapers, television stations, schools, and social media outlets based in

2538-677: Is still commonly used as a lingua franca in Ukraine , Moldova , the Caucasus , Central Asia , and to a lesser extent in the Baltic states and Israel . Russian has over 258 million total speakers worldwide. It is the most spoken native language in Europe , the most spoken Slavic language , as well as the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia . It is the world's seventh-most spoken language by number of native speakers , and

2632-518: Is the stressed word in a sentence, for example Ты́ съел печенье? ( Tý syel pechenye? – "Was it you who ate the cookie?") – Ты съе́л печенье? ( Ty syél pechenye? – "Did you eat the cookie?) – Ты съел пече́нье? ( Ty syel pechénye? "Was it the cookie you ate?"). Stress marks are mandatory in lexical dictionaries and books for children or Russian learners. The Russian syllable structure can be quite complex, with both initial and final consonant clusters of up to four consecutive sounds. Using

2726-470: The 2011 Lithuanian census , Russian was the native language for 7.2% of the population. In Moldova , Russian was considered to be the language of interethnic communication under a Soviet-era law. On 21 January 2021, the Constitutional Court of Moldova declared the law unconstitutional and deprived Russian of the status of the language of interethnic communication. 50% of the population

2820-1000: The Apollo–Soyuz mission, which first flew in 1975. In March 2013, Russian was found to be the second-most used language on websites after English. Russian was the language of 5.9% of all websites, slightly ahead of German and far behind English (54.7%). Russian was used not only on 89.8% of .ru sites, but also on 88.7% of sites with the former Soviet Union domain .su . Websites in former Soviet Union member states also used high levels of Russian: 79.0% in Ukraine, 86.9% in Belarus, 84.0% in Kazakhstan, 79.6% in Uzbekistan, 75.9% in Kyrgyzstan and 81.8% in Tajikistan. However, Russian

2914-413: The Constitution of Tajikistan and is permitted in official documentation. 28% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 7% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. The World Factbook notes that Russian is widely used in government and business. In Turkmenistan , Russian lost its status as the official lingua franca in 1996. Among 12% of the population who grew up in

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3008-579: The Jagiellonian dynasty. It was lost in the 16th-century Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars to the Grand Duchy of Moscow . A real growth of the area around Kursk began soon after that, with a large migration from Central Russia after the Russian famine of 1601–1603 . The region was affected by Crimean–Nogai slave raids in the 16th and 17th centuries. The current southwestern outskirts of the oblast with

3102-547: The Kursk Governorate . The 1932 forced end to Ukrainization in southern Russia (Soviet Republic) led to a massive decline of reported Ukrainians in these regions in the 1937 Soviet Census compared to the 1926 First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union . The annual growth rate of the oblast's population is negative; death rate exceeds overall birth rates and immigration. According to a 2012 survey 68.7% of

3196-770: The Principality of Moscow . Sudzha was founded in 1664. It was initially a town of the Sumy Regiment within Sloboda Ukraine , and was fortified with ramparts and a moat. In 1708 it was included within the Kiev Governorate , and in 1779, it became the seat of the Sudzhansky Uyezd within the Kursk Governorate . In 1870, the town had a population of 4,482 and the suburbs had a population of 5,624. In 1869, there were 393 craftsmen in

3290-593: The Severians inhabited the area. From 830 the current Kursk Oblast was part of the Rus' Khaganate and Kievan Rus' states. The oldest towns in the region are Kursk and Rylsk , first mentioned in 1032 and 1152, respectively, both capitals of small medieval eponymous duchies. In the 13th century, the region was conquered by the Mongol Empire . In the 15th century it was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania under

3384-592: The Ukrainian SSR until 1922, when it was transferred to the Russian SFSR . During World War II , Sudzha was occupied by German troops from October 18, 1941, to March 3, 1943. Later in the 20th century, a natural gas pipeline transit station was established near Sudzha. A gas metering station was installed. As of 2024, the output was fed to the Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhhorod pipeline . After

3478-584: The Ukrainian language in more than 30 spheres of public life: in particular in public administration , media, education, science, culture, advertising, services . The law does not regulate private communication. A poll conducted in March 2022 by RATING in the territory controlled by Ukraine found that 83% of the respondents believe that Ukrainian should be the only state language of Ukraine. This opinion dominates in all macro-regions, age and language groups. On

3572-721: The United States Census , in 2007 Russian was the primary language spoken in the homes of over 850,000 individuals living in the United States. Russian is one of the official languages (or has similar status and interpretation must be provided into Russian) of the following: The Russian language is also one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station – NASA astronauts who serve alongside Russian cosmonauts usually take Russian language courses. This practice goes back to

3666-519: The 20th century, Russian was a mandatory language taught in the schools of the members of the old Warsaw Pact and in other countries that used to be satellites of the USSR. According to the Eurobarometer 2005 survey, fluency in Russian remains fairly high (20–40%) in some countries, in particular former Warsaw Pact countries. In Armenia , Russian has no official status, but it is recognized as

3760-449: The 4th leader of the Soviet Union , Nikita Khrushchev , was born. As of 2024, the Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhhorod pipeline in Sudzha was the last remaining point through which natural gas flowed from Russia to Europe via Ukraine. In August 2024, Ukrainian forces crossed the border into Kursk Oblast during the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine resulting in a small part of the oblast becoming under Ukrainian occupation . Kursk Oblast

3854-471: The Belarusian society the Russian language prevails, so according to the 2019 census 6,718,557 people (71.4% of the total population) stated that they speak Russian at home, for ethnic Belarusians this share is 61.4%, for Russians — 97.2%, for Ukrainians — 89.0%, for Poles — 52.4%, and for Jews — 96.6%; 2,447,764 people (26.0% of the total population) stated that the language they usually speak at home

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3948-532: The Great and developed from the Moscow ( Middle or Central Russian ) dialect substratum under the influence of some of the previous century's Russian chancery language. Prior to the Bolshevik Revolution , the spoken form of the Russian language was that of the nobility and the urban bourgeoisie. Russian peasants, the great majority of the population, continued to speak in their own dialects. However,

4042-590: The Institute of Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an optional acute accent ( знак ударения ) may, and sometimes should, be used to mark stress . For example, it is used to distinguish between otherwise identical words, especially when context does not make it obvious: замо́к ( zamók – "lock") – за́мок ( zámok – "castle"), сто́ящий ( stóyashchy – "worthwhile") – стоя́щий ( stoyáshchy – "standing"), чудно́ ( chudnó – "this

4136-526: The Middle East and North Africa – 1.3 million, Sub-Saharan Africa – 0.1 million, Latin America – 0.2 million, U.S., Canada , Australia, and New Zealand – 4.1 million speakers. Therefore, the Russian language is the seventh-largest in the world by the number of speakers , after English, Mandarin, Hindi -Urdu, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Portuguese. Russian is one of the six official languages of

4230-807: The Russian alphabet include ⟨ ѣ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ е ⟩ ( /je/ or /ʲe/ ); ⟨ і ⟩ and ⟨ ѵ ⟩ , which both merged to ⟨ и ⟩ ( /i/ ); ⟨ ѳ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ ф ⟩ ( /f/ ); ⟨ ѫ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ у ⟩ ( /u/ ); ⟨ ѭ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ ю ⟩ ( /ju/ or /ʲu/ ); and ⟨ ѧ ⟩ and ⟨ ѩ ⟩ , which later were graphically reshaped into ⟨ я ⟩ and merged phonetically to /ja/ or /ʲa/ . While these older letters have been abandoned at one time or another, they may be used in this and related articles. The yers ⟨ ъ ⟩ and ⟨ ь ⟩ originally indicated

4324-458: The Russian principalities before and especially during Mongol rule. This strengthened dialectal differences, and for a while, prevented the emergence of a standardized national language. The formation of the unified and centralized Russian state in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the gradual re-emergence of a common political, economic, and cultural space created the need for a common standard language. The initial impulse for standardization came from

4418-458: The Soviet era can speak Russian, other generations of citizens that do not have any knowledge of Russian. Primary and secondary education by Russian is almost non-existent. In Uzbekistan , Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication. It has some official roles, being permitted in official documentation and is the lingua franca of the country and the language of the elite. Russian

4512-467: The United Nations. Education in Russian is still a popular choice for both Russian as a second language (RSL) and native speakers in Russia, and in many former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics. In Belarus , Russian is a second state language alongside Belarusian per the Constitution of Belarus . 77% of

4606-717: The administrative center of the oblast . It has a population of 5,127 people. It is the natural gas exchange feeder where the Trans-Siberian pipeline meets the Brotherhood pipeline . Since August 15, 2024, the town has been occupied by Ukrainian forces as a result of an incursion into the region . In the Middle Ages the territory formed part of the Principality of Rylsk, Principality of Chernigov and Grand Duchy of Lithuania , before its annexation by

4700-399: The area and borders of the oblast have remained stable from 1954. During World War II , the territory of Kursk Oblast was occupied by German troops from the autumn of 1941 until the summer of 1943. The Battle of Kursk , which was one of the major battles of World War II, took place in the region between 5 July 1943 and 23 August 1943. The territory of Kursk Oblast was the region in which

4794-526: The area suitable for farming, and much of the forest has been cleared. Chernozem soils cover around 70% of the oblast, and podsol soils 26%; chernozem is among the best soils for agriculture, and podsol among the worst. Kursk Oblast contributes to two major drainage areas: the Dnieper River and the Don River (78% and 22% respectively). There are 902 rivers and streams in the oblast, with

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4888-438: The area. Population: 1,082,458 ( 2021 Census ) ; 1,127,081 ( 2010 Census ) ; 1,235,091 ( 2002 Census ) ; 1,339,414 ( 1989 Soviet census ) . Vital statistics for 2022: Total fertility rate (2022): 1.29 children per woman Life expectancy (2021): Total — 68.56 years (male — 64.09, female — 72.94) According to the 1897 census , there were 77.3% Russians and 22.3% Ukrainians in

4982-521: The beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhhorod pipeline at Sudzha became the last remaining point at which natural gas flowed from Russia to Europe through Ukraine after the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage . On June 4, 2023, Russia said it shot down a Ukrainian drone over Sudzha. On August 6, 2024, fierce fighting broke out at the border of Kursk Oblast and around Sudzha as part of an incursion by Ukrainian forces. The Ukrainian government confirmed

5076-403: The broader sense of expanding the use of Russian alongside or in favour of other languages. The current standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language ( современный русский литературный язык – "sovremenny russky literaturny yazyk"). It arose at the beginning of the 18th century with the modernization reforms of the Russian state under the rule of Peter

5170-500: The capture of the town on August 15 and announced the formation of a military administration in the areas of Kursk Oblast occupied by Ukraine. A statue of Vladimir Lenin in the town had been dismantled by August 16. Within the framework of administrative divisions , Sudzha serves as the administrative center of Sudzhansky District . As an administrative division, it is incorporated within Sudzhansky District as

5264-616: The city of Kursk. There are also 19 other higher education facilities in Kursk Oblast. During the Soviet period, the high authority in the oblast was shared between three persons: The first secretary of the Kursk CPSU Committee (who in reality had the biggest authority), the chairman of the oblast Soviet (legislative power), and the Chairman of the oblast Executive Committee (executive power). In 1991, CPSU lost power, and

5358-572: The country. There is an Israeli TV channel mainly broadcasting in Russian with Israel Plus . See also Russian language in Israel . Russian is also spoken as a second language by a small number of people in Afghanistan . In Vietnam , Russian has been added in the elementary curriculum along with Chinese and Japanese and were named as "first foreign languages" for Vietnamese students to learn, on equal footing with English. The Russian language

5452-413: The factory and the industrial plant their local peasant dialects with their phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary, and the very process of recruiting workers from peasants and the mobility of the worker population generate another process: the liquidation of peasant inheritance by way of leveling the particulars of local dialects. On the ruins of peasant multilingual, in the context of developing heavy industry,

5546-456: The final reading amendments that state that all schools and kindergartens in the country are to transition to education in Latvian . From 2025, all children will be taught in Latvian only. On 28 September 2023, Latvian deputies approved The National Security Concept, according to which from 1 January 2026, all content created by Latvian public media (including LSM ) should be only in Latvian or

5640-631: The generation of immigrants who started arriving in the early 1960s). Only about 25% of them are ethnic Russians, however. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union , the overwhelming majority of Russophones in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn in New York City were Russian-speaking Jews. Afterward, the influx from the countries of the former Soviet Union changed the statistics somewhat, with ethnic Russians and Ukrainians immigrating along with some more Russian Jews and Central Asians. According to

5734-480: The government bureaucracy for the lack of a reliable tool of communication in administrative, legal, and judicial affairs became an obvious practical problem. The earliest attempts at standardizing Russian were made based on the so-called Moscow official or chancery language, during the 15th to 17th centuries. Since then, the trend of language policy in Russia has been standardization in both the restricted sense of reducing dialectical barriers between ethnic Russians, and

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5828-455: The head of the Oblast administration, and eventually the governor was appointed/elected alongside elected regional parliament . The Charter of Kursk Oblast is the fundamental law of the region. The Kursk Oblast Duma is the province's standing legislative (representative) body. The Legislative Assembly exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, and other legal acts and by supervising

5922-558: The implementation and observance of the laws and other legal acts passed by it. The highest executive body is the Oblast Government, which includes territorial executive bodies such as district administrations, committees, and commissions that facilitate development and run the day to day matters of the province. The Oblast administration supports the activities of the Governor who is the highest official and acts as guarantor of

6016-525: The north of the oblast, to 150–250 mm (5.9–9.8 in) in the south. Annual sunshine is 1775 hours. Kursk Oblast forms a part of the Eastern European forest-steppe. One-quarter of Kursk oblast was once heavily wooded. Hardwood timbers included oak , ash , and elm . Now forests cover only 10% of the oblast. Animals native to the area are numerous. Pike , bleak , and perch abound in local rivers. Otter and badger , as well as wild boar , red deer , and roe deer remain numerous in many parts of

6110-487: The north to 160 in the south. The growing season in Kursk Oblast varies, from 180 days in the north to 195 days in the southwest. The average annual precipitation for the oblast is 584 mm (23.0 in), but it ranges from 634 mm (25.0 in) in the northwest to about 500 mm (20 in) or less in the southeastern corner. Rainfall peaks during June and July. The snow depth in Kursk Oblast differs considerably, from 300–400 mm (12–16 in) in

6204-420: The northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region . Russian was also the main foreign language taught in school in China between 1949 and 1964. In Kazakhstan , Russian is not a state language, but according to article 7 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan its usage enjoys equal status to that of the Kazakh language in state and local administration. The 2009 census reported that 10,309,500 people, or 84.8% of

6298-412: The oblast's territory. Kursk lies at the heart of Russia's Central Black Earth Region , so-named for its rich black soils . The transportation industry of Kursk Oblast, with easy access to national and international markets, is the basis for the oblast's development. The most important modes of transport throughout the oblast are railway and road. Region roads serve towns and rural settlements through

6392-422: The oblast. Kursk Oblast's most prominent natural attraction is the Central Black Earth Nature Reserve , which is well-suited for hiking and other outdoor activities. The Oblast's forests and other undeveloped areas are ideal for hunting, fishing, and camping. Traditional art and architecture are preserved in the town-museum of Rylsk and other historical towns of Kursk Oblast. Russian language Russian

6486-399: The observance of the oblast Charter in accordance with the Constitution of Russia . The pro-government United Russia Party and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation are Kursk Oblast's major political parties. Traditionally, the Communist Party is the strongest in the Oblast's rural area. The oblast's industrial production dropped rapidly during the 1990s, as an industrial crisis

6580-515: The other hand, before the war, almost a quarter of Ukrainians were in favour of granting Russian the status of the state language, while after the beginning of Russia's invasion the support for the idea dropped to just 7%. In peacetime, the idea of raising the status of Russian was traditionally supported by residents of the south and east . But even in these regions, only a third of the respondents were in favour, and after Russia's full-scale invasion , their number dropped by almost half. According to

6674-401: The other three languages in the East Slavic branch. In many places in eastern and southern Ukraine and throughout Belarus, these languages are spoken interchangeably, and in certain areas traditional bilingualism resulted in language mixtures such as Surzhyk in eastern Ukraine and Trasianka in Belarus. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect , although it vanished during the 15th or 16th century,

6768-446: The parliament approved a bill to close up all Russian language schools and kindergartens by the school year. The transition to only Estonian language schools and kindergartens will start in the 2024-2025 school year. In Latvia , Russian is officially considered a foreign language. 55% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 26% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 18 February 2012, Latvia held

6862-453: The peasants' speech was never systematically studied, as it was generally regarded by philologists as simply a source of folklore and an object of curiosity. This was acknowledged by the noted Russian dialectologist Nikolai Karinsky , who toward the end of his life wrote: "Scholars of Russian dialects mostly studied phonetics and morphology. Some scholars and collectors compiled local dictionaries. We have almost no studies of lexical material or

6956-459: The population aged 15 and above, could read and write well in Russian, and understand the spoken language. In October 2023, Kazakhstan drafted a media law aimed at increasing the use of the Kazakh language over Russian, the law stipulates that the share of the state language on television and radio should increase from 50% to 70%, at a rate of 5% per year, starting in 2025. In Kyrgyzstan , Russian

7050-531: The population of Kursk Oblast adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church . In addition, 24% of the population declares to be " spiritual but not religious ", 4% is atheist , and 3.3% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question. The largest universities of Kursk Oblast are Kursk State University , Kursk State Technical University , Kursk State Medical University and Kursk State Agricultural Academy, all of which are located in

7144-418: The population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 67% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2019 Belarusian census , out of 9,413,446 inhabitants of the country, 5,094,928 (54.1% of the total population) named Belarusian as their native language, with 61.2% of ethnic Belarusians and 54.5% of ethnic Poles declaring Belarusian as their native language. In everyday life in

7238-479: The pronunciation of ultra-short or reduced /ŭ/ , /ĭ/ . Because of many technical restrictions in computing and also because of the unavailability of Cyrillic keyboards abroad, Russian is often transliterated using the Latin alphabet. For example, мороз ('frost') is transliterated moroz , and мышь ('mouse'), mysh or myš' . Once commonly used by the majority of those living outside Russia, transliteration

7332-472: The proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names. Russian is an East Slavic language of the wider Indo-European family . It is a descendant of Old East Slavic , a language used in Kievan Rus' , which was a loose conglomerate of East Slavic tribes from the late 9th to the mid-13th centuries. From the point of view of spoken language , its closest relatives are Ukrainian , Belarusian , and Rusyn ,

7426-459: The region. The oblast's reserves of artesian-well water are proving useful for medical purposes. The oblast's location at the center of the European part of Russia gives the region a medium continental climate : warm summers and relatively mild winters. In July the average daytime high temperature is +19.3 °C (66.7 °F). In January the average high is −8.6 °C (16.5 °F). The average number of frost-free days ranges from 150 in

7520-491: The respondents), while according to the 2002 census – 142.6 million people (99.2% of the respondents). In Ukraine , Russian is a significant minority language. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 14,400,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 29 million active speakers. 65% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 38% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 5 September 2017, Ukraine's Parliament passed

7614-479: The southern slopes of the middle-Russian plateau. The surface is hilly and intersected by ravines . The central part of the oblast is more elevated than the Seym river valley in the west. The average elevation is 177–225 m (581–738 ft) and the Timsko-Shchigrinsky ridge contains the highest point at 288 m (945 ft) above sea level. The low relief, gentle slopes, and mild winters make

7708-679: The survey carried out by RATING in August 2023 in the territory controlled by Ukraine and among the refugees, almost 60% of the polled usually speak Ukrainian at home, about 30% – Ukrainian and Russian, only 9% – Russian. Since March 2022, the use of Russian in everyday life has been noticeably decreasing. For 82% of respondents, Ukrainian is their mother tongue, and for 16%, Russian is their mother tongue. IDPs and refugees living abroad are more likely to use both languages for communication or speak Russian. Nevertheless, more than 70% of IDPs and refugees consider Ukrainian to be their native language. In

7802-459: The syntax of Russian dialects." After 1917, Marxist linguists had no interest in the multiplicity of peasant dialects and regarded their language as a relic of the rapidly disappearing past that was not worthy of scholarly attention. Nakhimovsky quotes the Soviet academicians A.M Ivanov and L.P Yakubinsky, writing in 1930: The language of peasants has a motley diversity inherited from feudalism. On its way to becoming proletariat peasantry brings to

7896-414: The town of Sudzha were part of Sloboda Ukraine and populated by Ukrainians since the mid-17th century. Between 1708 and 1719, Kursk was part of the newly created Kiev Governorate . From 1719 to 1727, it was a part of Belgorodsky Uyezd of Kiev Governorate. From 1727, Kursky Uyezd was part of Belgorod Governorate . On 23 May 1779, Kursk Governorate was established. During World War I , in 1918, it

7990-557: The town, and in 1871 there were nine factories. In the late 19th century, the town hosted four annual fairs and two weekly markets. According to the 1897 Russian Empire census , the town had a population of 7,433, of which 61.2% were Ukrainians , 37.2% were Russians , 1.2% were Jews and 0.3% were Poles . In November–December 1918, Sudzha was the seat of the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of Ukraine before its relocation to Belgorod . It formed part of

8084-786: The two. Others divide the language into three groupings, Northern , Central (or Middle), and Southern , with Moscow lying in the Central region. The Northern Russian dialects and those spoken along the Volga River typically pronounce unstressed /o/ clearly, a phenomenon called okanye ( оканье ). Besides the absence of vowel reduction, some dialects have high or diphthongal /e⁓i̯ɛ/ in place of Proto-Slavic  * ě and /o⁓u̯ɔ/ in stressed closed syllables (as in Ukrainian) instead of Standard Russian /e/ and /o/ , respectively. Another Northern dialectal morphological feature

8178-511: The use of the language has some presence in certain areas. A large part of the population, especially the older generations, can speak Russian as a foreign language. However, English has replaced Russian as lingua franca in Lithuania and around 80% of young people speak English as their first foreign language. In contrast to the other two Baltic states, Lithuania has a relatively small Russian-speaking minority (5.0% as of 2008). According to

8272-643: The world's ninth-most spoken language by total number of speakers . Russian is one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station , one of the six official languages of the United Nations , as well as the fourth most widely used language on the Internet . Russian is written using the Russian alphabet of the Cyrillic script ; it distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without—the so-called "soft" and "hard" sounds. Almost every consonant has

8366-405: Was first introduced in North America when Russian explorers voyaged into Alaska and claimed it for Russia during the 18th century. Although most Russian colonists left after the United States bought the land in 1867, a handful stayed and preserved the Russian language in this region to this day, although only a few elderly speakers of this unique dialect are left. In Nikolaevsk, Alaska , Russian

8460-421: Was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 19% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2014 Moldovan census , Russians accounted for 4.1% of Moldova's population, 9.4% of the population declared Russian as their native language, and 14.5% said they usually spoke Russian. According to the 2010 census in Russia , Russian language skills were indicated by 138 million people (99.4% of

8554-551: Was its first seat in November-December 1918. Sudzha remained part of Soviet Ukraine until 1922. The Kursk Governorate existed until 1928, when the territory of Kursk Governorate became a part of Central Black Earth Oblast . As Central Chernozem Oblast was very large its administration was very difficult, on 13 June 1934 it was divided into two oblasts: Kursk Oblast and Voronezh Oblast. In the period between 1934 and 1954, oblasts' borders were frequently adjusted. However,

8648-502: Was stimulated by the nationwide economic crisis which followed the collapse of the Soviet Union . However, by the end of the decade output was increasing. Moreover, the manufacturing sector, despite a sagging economy in the late 20th century, continues to account for about 40% of the oblast's GDP . The engineering, electric-power, metal-working, chemicals, and food processing are the dominant industries. The Mikhailovsky Mining Plant

8742-611: Was the site of fights of Ukrainians and Germans against Russia. In 1918, the western portion of the current Kursk Oblast with the towns of Rylsk and Sudzha was part of the Ukrainian State . Korenevo was the place of signing of a ceasefire between the Ukrainian State, Germany and Soviet Russia in May 1918. Kursk was the place of establishment of the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of Ukraine , and Sudzha

8836-402: Was the sixth-most used language on the top 1,000 sites, behind English, Chinese, French, German, and Japanese. Despite leveling after 1900, especially in matters of vocabulary and phonetics, a number of dialects still exist in Russia. Some linguists divide the dialects of Russian into two primary regional groupings, "Northern" and "Southern", with Moscow lying on the zone of transition between

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