Russian (русский)

Russian (русский)

Russian, or Rusky, is a Slavonic language spoken by about 150 million people mainly in Russia, but also in other countries of the former Soviet Union. It written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Russia became a Christian state in AD 988. The liturgical text of the Orthodox Church is the Church Slavonic Bible. The translation of the Scriptures into modern Russian began in 1813, and first full modern Russian Bible (Библия) was produced in 1876 and is known as the Synodal version, and is used by Orthodox and Protestant believers. It was revised in 1994. The Orthodox Old Testament includes deuterocanonical books of the Slavonic tradition, called by Russians the non-canonical books. Most Russian speaking Christians are Russian Orthodox, but there also strong historic minorities of Orthodox Old Believers, and Protestants, especially Baptists. Bible work is done by the Russian Bible Society, which goes back to 1813. Russian Bibles are printed in Protestant and Orthodox editions.