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127-552: Nikolskoe Cemetery ( Russian : Никольское кладбище ) is a historic cemetery in the centre of Saint Petersburg . It is part of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra , and is one of four cemeteries in the complex. The third cemetery to be established in the monastery complex, the Nikolskoe Cemetery opened in 1863, and rapidly became a popular and exclusive burial site for the elite of Saint Petersburg society. It

254-674: 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

381-519: 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

508-529: A Byzantine aristocrat and general who lived c. 1235 to c. 1305–08. It displays the attenuated proportions favored in the late Byzantine era, as well as shifts in style in the mosaics' treatment of figures. As early as the building of Constantine's churches in Palestine there were two chief types of plan in use: the basilican , or axial, type, represented by the basilica at the Holy Sepulchre , and

635-653: A cheaper alternative. The richest interiors were finished with thin plates of marble or coloured and patterned stone. Some of the columns were also made of marble. Other widely used materials were bricks and stone. Mosaics made of stone or glass tesserae were also elements of interior architecture. Precious wood furniture, like beds, chairs, stools, tables, bookshelves and silver or golden cups with beautiful reliefs, decorated Byzantine interiors. Early Byzantine architecture drew upon earlier elements of Roman and Greek architecture . Stylistic drift , technological advancement , and political and territorial changes meant that

762-592: A distinct style gradually resulted in the Greek cross plan in church architecture . Civil architecture continued Greco-Roman trends; the Byzantines built impressive fortifications and bridges, but generally not aqueducts on the same scales as the Romans. This terminology was introduced by modern historians to designate the medieval Roman Empire as it evolved as a distinct artistic and cultural entity centered on

889-605: 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) Byzantine architecture Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire , or Eastern Roman Empire, usually dated from 330 AD, when Constantine the Great established a new Roman capital in Byzantium , which became Constantinople , until

1016-654: A great part of current Italy used to belong to the Byzantine Empire before that. Great examples of Byzantine architecture are still visible in Ravenna (for example Basilica di San Vitale which architecture influenced the Palatine Chapel of Charlemagne). As for the East, Byzantine architectural tradition exerted a profound influence on early Islamic architecture , particularly Umayyad architecture . During

1143-484: 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

1270-577: A larger cemetery church in the Byzantine style by architect L. P. Andreyev came to nothing, as did a similar project in 1908, despite a donation of 10 thousand rubles by the ruling metropolitan. The Nikolskoe Cemetery, unlike the Lazarevskoe and Tikhvin cemeteries, was not designated as a museum during the Soviet period, as it was not considered to have any particular artistic or historical value. It

1397-588: 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

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1524-622: 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

1651-875: A model for both in that it combined the elements of a longitudinal basilica with those of a centralized building. Other structures include the ruins of the Great Palace of Constantinople , the innovative walls of Constantinople (with 192 towers) and Basilica Cistern (with hundreds of recycled classical columns). A mosaic in the church begun by the Ostrogoths , San Apollinare in Nuovo in Ravenna, depicts an early Byzantine palace. Hagios Demetrios in Thessaloniki , Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai , Jvari Monastery in present-day Georgia , and three Armenian churches of Echmiadzin all date primarily from

1778-526: A museum. It is open everyday, except for Tuesdays. Construction of Hagia Irene The most famous example of Byzantine architecture is the Hagia Sophia , and it has been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian world ", and as an architectural and cultural icon of Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox civilization . The Hagia Sophia held the title of largest church in the world until

1905-526: 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

2032-528: A regular mix of stone and brick , often with more of the latter. The exterior of the 11th- or 12th-century Pammakaristos Church in Istanbul is an example, though it is even more renowned for Late Byzantine additions discussed below. The Paleologan period is well represented in a dozen former churches in Istanbul, notably St Saviour at Chora and St Mary Pammakaristos . Unlike their Slavic counterparts,

2159-415: A square and divide each side into three so that the middle parts are greater than the others, and then divide the area into nine from these points, we approximate to the typical setting out of a plan of this time. Now add three apses on the east side opening from the three divisions, and opposite to the west put a narrow entrance porch running right across the front. Still in front put a square court. The court

2286-408: A straight extension, to the west. This unbroken area, about 260 ft (80 m) long, the larger part of which is over 100 ft (30 m) wide, is entirely covered by a system of domical surfaces. Above the conchs of the small apses rise the two great semi-domes which cover the hemicycles, and between these bursts out the vast dome over the central square. On the two sides, to the north and south of

2413-817: A wide selection of Saint Petersburg society from the late nineteen and early twentieth centuries. Buried here are the singers Antonina Abarinova , Natalia Iretskaya , and Anastasia Vyaltseva ; playwright Dmitry Averkiyev ; literary figures Fyodor Batyushkov , Evgeny Feoktistov , Aleksandra Ishimova , Alexandra Jacobi , Evgeny Karnovich , Fyodor Koni , Nestor Kotlyarevsky , Mirra Lokhvitskaya , Boleslav Markevich , Mikhail Rosenheim , Sergey Shubinsky , Aleksey Suvorin , and Lydia Zinovieva-Annibal ; artists Nikolay Karazin , Konstantin Makovsky , and Mikhail Mikeshin ; composers Nicolai Soloviev and Feofil Tolstoy ; architects Nikolai Chagin and Vasily Kenel ; dancer Askold Makarov ; actor Nikolai Sazonov ; and director of

2540-539: 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,

2667-481: 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

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2794-401: 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

2921-610: 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

3048-488: 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

3175-624: 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

3302-522: Is defined by its large atrium, and is in fact the only surviving building of the Byzantine Empire to have such a feature. Hagia Irene is composed mainly of three materials: stone, brick, and mortar . Bricks 70 cm x 35 cm x 5 cm were used, and these bricks were glued together using mortar approximately 5 cm thick. The building materials chosen for the construction of the church had to be lightweight, durable, and strong. Volcanic materials were chosen for this purpose, as volcanic concrete

3429-573: 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

3556-564: 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

3683-402: 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

3810-490: Is representative of Byzantine architecture. Both of the domes collapsed at different times throughout history due to earthquakes and had to be rebuilt. The original construction of Hagia Sophia was possibly ordered by Constantine, but ultimately carried out by his son Constantius II in 360. Constantine's building of churches, specifically the Hagia Sophia, was considered an incredibly significant component in his shift of

3937-569: 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

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4064-585: 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

4191-462: Is the atrium and usually has a fountain in the middle under a canopy resting on pillars. The entrance porch is the narthex . Directly under the center of the dome is the ambo , from which the Scriptures were proclaimed, and beneath the ambo at floor level was the place for the choir of singers. Across the eastern side of the central square was a screen which divided off the bema , where

4318-532: 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 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

4445-518: 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

4572-483: Is very light and durable. Perhaps the most definite feature of the Hagia Irene is the strict contrast between the interior and exterior design. While the plain outside composed of stone and brick favors functionality, the interior is decorated in elaborate mosaics, decorative marble, and, in some places, covered in plaster. Another important characteristic of the church include two domes that follow one behind another,

4699-698: The Nea Ekklesia (both no longer existent) served as a model for most cross-in-square sanctuaries of the period, including the Cattolica di Stilo in southern Italy (9th century), the monastery church of Hosios Lukas in Greece (c. 1000), Nea Moni of Chios (a pet project of Constantine IX ), and the Daphni Monastery near Athens (c. 1050). All three of the later churches display the important shifts in architectural design that occurred following

4826-470: 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

4953-1000: 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

5080-413: 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

5207-517: The Gothic style . In the same way the Parthenon is the most impressive monument for Classical religion , Hagia Sophia remained the iconic church for Christianity . The temples of these two religions differ substantially from the point of view of their interiors and exteriors. For Classical temples, only the exterior was important, because only the priests entered the interior, where the statue of

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5334-742: The Imperial Theatres Ivan Vsevolozhsky . Important statesmen and politicians of Imperial Russia buried in the cemetery include Fyodor Kokoshkin , Aleksandr Nelidov , and Ivan Tolstoy ; while military leaders include generals Dmitry Bagration , Sergei Gershelman , Grigory Golitsyn , Roman Kondratenko , Nikolai Linevich , Nikolai Obruchev , Alexei Polivanov , Erast Tsytovich , and Pyotr Vannovsky ; and admirals Aleksei Birilev , Grigory Butakov , and Ivan Grigorovich . Several scientists have been buried here, among whom were Boris Golitsyn , Nikolay Koksharov , Maksim Kovalevsky , and Volodymyr Pidvysotskyi ; as well as

5461-576: The Ionic . Composite columns line the principal space of the nave. Ionic columns are used behind them in the side spaces, in a mirror position relative to the Corinthian or Composite orders (as was their fate well into the 19th century, when buildings were designed for the first time with a monumental Ionic order). At Hagia Sophia, though, these are not the standard imperial statements. The columns are filled with foliage in all sorts of variations. In some,

5588-747: 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 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

5715-514: The Soviet period . Unlike other cemeteries in the Lavra, it was not considered to have any particular historical or artistic value. The church was closed and repurposed, burials ceased, and some memorials of more significant figures were moved to other cemeteries, while others were lost or deliberately destroyed. Restoration work began in the 1970s, returning the site to its park-like form. A columbarium

5842-584: 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

5969-613: The Umayyad Caliphate era (661-750), as far as the Byzantine impact on early Islamic architecture is concerned, the Byzantine arts formed a fundamental source to the new Muslim artistic heritage, especially in Syria. There are considerable Byzantine influences which can be detected in the distinctive early Islamic monuments in Syria (709–715). While these give clear reference in plan - and somewhat in decoration - to Byzantine art,

6096-641: 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

6223-535: The dosseret required to carry the arch , the springing of which was much wider than the abacus of the column. On eastern columns the eagle, the lion and the lamb are occasionally carved, but treated conventionally. There are two types of columns used at Hagia Sophia : Composite and Ionic. The Composite column that emerged during the Late Byzantine Empire , mainly in Rome, combines the Corinthian with

6350-416: The fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. There was initially no hard line between the Byzantine and Roman Empires, and early Byzantine architecture is stylistically and structurally indistinguishable from late Roman architecture . The style continued to be based on arches, vaults and domes, often on a large scale. Wall mosaics with gold backgrounds became standard for the grandest buildings, with frescos

6477-413: The solea , a raised walkway enclosed by a railing or low wall. The continuous influence from the East is widely shown in the fashion of decorating external brick walls of churches built about the 12th century, in which bricks roughly carved into form are set up so as to make bands of ornamentation which it is quite clear are imitated from Cufic writing. This fashion was associated with the disposition of

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6604-673: The 20th century was the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade . One of the less famous Byzantine churches is Hagia Irene . This church served as a model church for the more famous church, Hagia Sophia. Construction on the church began in the 4th century. This was the first church that was built in Constantinople, but due to its location, it was severely damaged by earthquakes and the Nika riots, and required repair several times. The Hagia Irene

6731-519: 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

6858-520: The 4th century as a cylindrical domed structure built on a square base, and the noble Church of Saint George , Thessaloniki (5th century), or by a vaulted aisle, as at Santa Costanza , Rome (4th century); or annexes were thrown out from the central space in such a way as to form a cross, in which these additions helped to counterpoise the central vault, as at the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia , Ravenna (5th century). The most famous church of this type

6985-628: The 7th century and provide a glimpse on architectural developments in the Byzantine provinces following the age of Justinian. Remarkable engineering feats include the 430 m long Sangarius Bridge , the pointed arch of Karamagara Bridge , as well as the dome of the Church of Hagia Sophia . In the Macedonian dynasty , it is presumed that Basil I 's votive church of the Theotokos of the Pharos and

7112-412: 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

7239-460: The Byzantine architecture persisted even longer, from the 16th up to the 18th centuries, giving birth to local post-Byzantine schools of architecture. Neo-Byzantine architecture was followed in the wake of the 19th-century Gothic revival , resulting in such jewels as Westminster Cathedral in London , and in Bristol from about 1850 to 1880 a related style known as Bristol Byzantine was popular for industrial buildings which combined elements of

7366-444: The Byzantine style with Moorish architecture. It was developed on a wide-scale basis in Russia during the reign of Alexander II by Grigory Gagarin and his followers who designed St Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv, St Nicholas Naval Cathedral in Kronstadt , Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia , Saint Mark's church in Belgrade and the New Athos Monastery in New Athos near Sukhumi . The largest Neo-Byzantine project of

7493-457: The Emperor Justinian I 's reign and survive in Ravenna and Istanbul, as well as in Sofia (the Church of St Sophia ). One of the great breakthroughs in the history of Western architecture occurred when Justinian's architects invented a complex system providing for a smooth transition from a square plan of the church to a circular dome (or domes) by means of pendentives . In Ravenna, the longitudinal basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo , and

7620-409: 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,

7747-468: 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

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7874-411: 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

8001-455: The Ottoman Empire sieged the Byzantine capital. After the fall of Constantinople, the church was used by the Muslims for their religious services until 1931, when it was reopened as a museum in 1935. Translated from Greek , the name Hagia Sophia means "Holy Wisdom". The construction is a combination of longitudinal and central structures. This church was a part of a larger complex of buildings created by Emperor Justinian . This style influenced

8128-434: The Paleologan architects never accented the vertical thrust of structures. As a result, the late medieval architecture of Byzantium (barring the Hagia Sophia of Trebizond ) is less prominent in height. The Church of the Holy Apostles (Thessaloniki) is cited as an archetypal structure of the late period with its exterior walls intricately decorated with complex brickwork patterns or with glazed ceramics. Other churches from

8255-807: 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

8382-458: 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

8509-405: 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

8636-403: 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

8763-510: The academics Lev Gumilyov , Mikhail Koyalovich , Aleksandr Lopukhin , Mikhail Sado , and Boris Turayev . Interments in the post-Soviet period include sports figures Viacheslav Platonov and Yuriy Tyukalov ; political figures Dmitry Filippov , Anatoly Sobchak , and Galina Starovoytova ; Soviet-era military pilots Aleksey Mazurenko , Vasily Minakov and Nikolay Rodin ; and General Mikhail Malofeyev . Early Russian aviation pioneers Vsevolod Abramovich and Lydia Zvereva were also buried in

8890-465: The altar was situated, from the body of the church; this screen, bearing images, is the iconostasis . The altar was protected by a canopy or ciborium resting on pillars. Rows of rising seats around the curve of the apse with the patriarch 's throne at the middle eastern point formed the synthronon. The two smaller compartments and apses at the sides of the bema were sacristies, the diaconicon and prothesis . The ambo and bema were connected by

9017-403: 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

9144-457: The burial site for the Monastery's monks and the metropolitans of Saint Petersburg, leading to the name Bratskoe ( Russian : Братское ), or "Brotherhood" section. It became a prestigious burial location, and careful attention was taken in the planning and layout, which was more regular than the early cemeteries, and included a pond in the northern part. A path leads from the main entrance of

9271-788: The cemetery church across a bridge and aligned with the apse of the Trinity Cathedral, forming a longitudinal axis. Paths then diverge in a grid pattern to the sides, running between the Monastyrka River  [ ru ] and the southern boundary of the monastery. New burial plots were placed in the south and in the eastern parts of the cemetery, maintaining the grid pattern. Wealthy patrons commissioned large chapels and crypts, with elaborate decorations and reliefs from prominent artists such as Nikolay Laveretsky , Ivan Podozerov , Robert Bach  [ ru ] and Ivan Schroeder  [ ru ] . Plans in 1896 to build

9398-595: The cemetery. Also buried here is Fyodor Uglov , who died at the age of 103, having been listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest practising surgeon in the world. Russian language Russian 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

9525-403: The centralization of power from Rome in the west to Constantinople in the east, and was considered the high-point of religious and political celebration. The construction of the final version of the Hagia Sophia, which still stands today, was overseen by Emperor Justinian. Between the rule of these two Emperors, Hagia Sophia was destroyed and rebuilt twice. Following its reconstruction, Hagia Sophia

9652-518: The churches and basilicas have high-riding domes, which created vast open spaces at the centers of churches, thereby heightening the light. The round arch is a fundamental of Byzantine style. Magnificent golden mosaics with their graphic simplicity brought light and warmth into the heart of churches. Byzantine capitals break away from the Classical conventions of ancient Greece and Rome with sinuous lines and naturalistic forms, which are precursors to

9779-464: The circular, or central, type, represented by the great octagonal church once at Antioch . Those of the latter type we must suppose were nearly always vaulted , for a central dome would seem to furnish their very purpose. The central space was sometimes surrounded by a very thick wall, in which deep recesses, to the interior, were formed, as at Church of St. George, Sofia , built by the Romans in

9906-642: The complex, after the original Lazarevskoe Cemetery in the 1710s, and the Tikhvin Cemetery in 1823. It was constructed on a space originally planned for a garden at the main entrance to the monastery, but that instead had become used for roads and palisades. It was first called the Zasobornoye Cemetery ( Russian : Засоборное ), but became known as the Nikolskoe after the construction of the Church of St. Nicholas between 1868 and 1871 to

10033-409: The construction of several other buildings, such as St. Peter's Basilica . Hagia Sophia should have been built to withstand earthquakes, but since the construction of Hagia Sophia was rushed this technology was not implemented in the design, which is why the building has had to be repaired so many times due to damages from the earthquakes. The dome is the key feature of Hagia Sophia as the domed basilica

10160-572: 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

10287-417: The decoration of important public structures, classical orders were used more freely, mosaics replaced carved decoration, complex domes rested upon massive piers , and windows filtered light through thin sheets of alabaster to softly illuminate interiors. Most of the surviving structures are sacred, with secular buildings having been destroyed. Prime examples of early Byzantine architecture date from

10414-402: The deity to whom the temple was dedicated was kept. The ceremonies were held outside, in front of the temple. Instead, Christian liturgies were held inside the churches. Byzantine columns are quite varied, mostly developing from the classical Corinthian , with the ornamentation undercut with drills, and fluted shafts almost entirely abandoned. The block of stone was left rough as it came from

10541-406: The design of diocesan architect Grigory Karpov. The church was funded by the wealthy merchant N. I. Rusanov, who established his family tomb on the ground floor. The Spiritual Council noted that "the Lavra cemetery is not open to everyone, as are the city cemeteries, but only a few persons from the government service and persons with honorary titles are buried here." Part of the cemetery also served as

10668-526: 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

10795-453: The dome was included in a considerably larger square, of which the four divisions, to the east, west, north and south, were carried up higher in the vaulting and roof system than the four corners, forming in this way a sort of nave and transepts . Sometimes the central space was square, sometimes octagonal, or at least there were eight piers supporting the dome instead of four, and the nave and transepts were narrower in proportion. If we draw

10922-501: The dome, it is supported by vaulted aisles in two stories which bring the exterior form to a general square. At the Holy Apostles (6th century) five domes were applied to a cruciform plan; the central dome was the highest. After the 6th century there were no churches built which in any way competed in scale with these great works of Justinian, and the plans more or less tended to approximate to one type. The central area covered by

11049-585: The end of Iconoclasm, when architectural design and decoration became more standardized. The Hagia Sophia church in Ochrid (present-day North Macedonia ), built in the First Bulgarian Empire in the time of Boris I of Bulgaria , and eponymous cathedral in Kyiv (present-day Ukraine ) testify to a vogue for multiple subsidiary domes set on drums, which would gain in height and narrowness with

11176-448: The exterior brick and stone work generally into many varieties of pattern, zig-zags, key-patterns etc.; and, as similar decoration is found in many Persian buildings, it is probable that this custom also was derived from the East. The domes and vaults to the exterior were covered with lead or with tiling of regional variety. The window and door frames were of marble . The interior surfaces were adorned all over by mosaics or frescoes in

11303-413: 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,

11430-456: 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

11557-459: The first being a lower oval, and the second being a higher semi-circle. Throughout history Hagia Irene has undergone several changes. There were multiple repairs due to the Nika riots and earthquakes. When the Ottomans took over Hagia Irene they repurposed it and made a few changes, but none as drastic as what was done to Hagia Sophia. Today, Hagia Irene is still standing and open to visitors as

11684-692: 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

11811-480: 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

11938-512: The higher parts of the edifice, and below with incrustations of marble slabs, which were frequently of very beautiful varieties, and disposed so that, although in one surface, the coloring formed a series of large panels. The better marbles were opened out so that the two surfaces produced by the division formed a symmetrical pattern. Ultimately, Byzantine architecture in the West gave way to Carolingian , Romanesque , and Gothic architecture . But

12065-686: The new capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul ) rather than the city of Rome and its environs. Its architecture dramatically influenced the later medieval architecture throughout Europe and the Near East. When the Roman Empire became Christian (after having extended eastwards) with its new capital at Constantinople , its architecture became more sensuous and ambitious. This new style with exotic domes and richer mosaics would come to be known as "Byzantine" before it traveled west to Ravenna and Venice and as far north as Moscow . Most of

12192-524: 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

12319-402: The octagon. Finally, at Hagia Sophia (6th century) a combination was made which is perhaps the most remarkable piece of planning ever contrived. A central space of 100 ft (30 m) square is increased to 200 ft (60 m) in length by adding two hemicycles to it to the east and the west; these are again extended by pushing out three minor apses eastward, and two others, one on either side of

12446-422: The octagonal, centralized structure of the church of San Vitale , commissioned by Emperor Justinian but never seen by him, was built. Justinian's monuments in Istanbul include the domed churches of Hagia Sophia and Hagia Irene (both discussed in more detail below), but there is also an earlier, smaller church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus (locally referred to as " Little Hagia Sophia "), which might have served as

12573-515: 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

12700-461: 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,

12827-813: The outskirts of the Byzantine world, as most significant and ancient churches and buildings were in Asia Minor. During World War I , almost all churches that ended up within the Turkish borders were destroyed or converted into mosques. Some were abandoned as a result of the Greek and Christian genocides from 1915 to 1923. Similar styles can be found in countries such as Bulgaria , Croatia , North Macedonia , Russia , Serbia and other Slavic lands, as well as in Sicily ( Cappella Palatina ) and Veneto ( St Mark's Basilica , Torcello Cathedral ). In Middle Byzantine architecture "cloisonné masonry" refers to walls built with

12954-446: 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

13081-453: 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

13208-701: The plan of the Umayyad Mosque has also a remarkable similarity with 6th- and 7th-century Christian basilicas, but it has been modified and expanded on the transversal axis and not on the normal longitudinal axis as in the Christian basilicas. The tile work, geometric patterns, multiple arches, domes, and polychrome brick and stone work that characterize Muslim and Moorish architecture were influenced heavily by Byzantine architecture. In Bulgaria , North Macedonia , Serbia , Romania , Belarus , Georgia , Armenia , Ukraine , Russia and other Orthodox countries

13335-459: 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

13462-418: 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

13589-709: The progress of time. In Istanbul and Asia Minor the architecture of the Komnenian period is almost non-existent, with the notable exceptions of the Elmali Kilise and other rock sanctuaries of Cappadocia , and of the Churches of the Pantokrator and of the Theotokos Kyriotissa in Istanbul. Most examples of this architectural style and many of the other older Byzantine styles only survive on

13716-479: 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

13843-472: 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 ,

13970-742: The quarry, and the sculptor evolved new designs to his own fancy, so that one rarely meets with many repetitions of the same design. One of the most remarkable designs features leaves carved as if blown by the wind; the finest example being at the 7th-century Hagia Sophia (Thessaloniki) . Those in the Cathedral of Saint Mark, Venice  (1071) specially attracted John Ruskin 's fancy. Others appear in Sant'Apollinare in Classe , Ravenna  (549). The column in San Vitale, Ravenna  (547) shows above it

14097-491: 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

14224-631: 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 a hard or soft counterpart, and

14351-456: The small, lush leaves appear to be caught up in the spinning of the scrolls – clearly, a different, nonclassical sensibility has taken over the design. The columns at Basilica of San Vitale show wavy and delicate floral patterns similar to decorations found on belt buckles and dagger blades. Their inverted pyramidal form has the look of a basket. Buildings increased in geometric complexity , brick and plaster were used in addition to stone in

14478-679: 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

14605-459: 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

14732-786: 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

14859-511: 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

14986-643: The years immediately predating the fall of Constantinople survive on Mount Athos and in Mistra (e.g. Brontochion Monastery ). That site also has preserved secular architecture such as the Palace of the Despots and several houses. In the late Byzantine period, c. 1310, a highly ornate parekklesion was added to the Pammakaristos Church in Constantinople for the tomb of Michael Glabas Tarchaniotes,

15113-477: Was built, the cemetery church reopened, and work to repair and refurbish the monuments began. Burials recommenced in the late 1970s, and now the cemetery includes prominent figures of Soviet and post-Soviet society, as well as those of the era of Imperial Russia . The cemetery was opened in 1863, to the east of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity , the main church of the monastery. It was the third cemetery in

15240-426: Was carefully arranged and landscaped, with its cemetery church opening in 1871. Taking its name from this church, the Church of St. Nicholas, the cemetery functioned also a burial ground for the clergy and monks of the monastery. The wealthy and important of the city commissioned large and elaborate memorials during the later years of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. The cemetery fell into disrepair during

15367-416: Was closed in 1927 and sporadic efforts were made during the 1930s and 1940s to eliminate the cemetery, and the graves of several prominent figures were transferred to the Lazarevskoe, Tikhvin and Volkovo cemeteries ; including Vera Komissarzhevskaya , Ivan Goncharov , Anton Rubinstein and Boris Kustodiev . Other graves were lost or destroyed. The Church of St Nicholas was closed on 10 December 1932, and it

15494-405: 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

15621-421: 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

15748-581: Was planned to turn it into a crematorium . A furnace for burning bodies was tested in 1934, but ultimately the plan was abandoned and instead the church became a warehouse and workshop. A 1940 survey by the State Museum of Urban Sculpture  [ ru ] identified some two hundred gravestones worthy of preservation. Severely neglected by the 1970s, plans were drawn up to restore the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. The Nikolskoe Cemetery

15875-517: Was restored and landscaped, with a columbarium built between 1979 and 1980. The cemetery church was repaired and re-consecrated on 22 April 1985. The size of the cemetery was somewhat reduced with the construction of an overpass for the Alexander Nevsky Bridge through the western part of the cemetery. Burials resumed in the late 1970s, and since 1989 a comprehensive restoration of monuments has been underway. The cemetery contains

16002-466: Was that of the Holy Apostles, Constantinople . Vaults appear to have been early applied to the basilican type of plan; for instance, at Hagia Irene , Constantinople (6th century), the long body of the church is covered by two domes. At Saint Sergius , Constantinople, and San Vitale, Ravenna, churches of the central type, the space under the dome was enlarged by having apsidal additions made to

16129-402: 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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