page_title: Geographical distribution of Russian speakers
section_title: Rest of Europe
hierarchical_section_title: Geographical distribution of Russian speakers / Europe / Rest of Europe
caption_attribution_description: English: Russian minimarket Українська: Лімасол. Російський магазинчик Ελληνικά: ПЕРІПТЕРО
context_page_description: After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the status of the Russian language often became a matter of controversy. Some Post-Soviet states adopted policies of de-Russification aimed at reversing former Russification trends.
  After the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, de-Russification occurred in newly independent Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and in the Kars Oblast.
  The newly formed Soviet Union initially implemented a policy of Korenizatsiya, which aimed at the reversal of the tsarist Russification of the non-Russian areas of the country. Korenizatsiya was the early Soviet nationalities policy promoted mostly in the 1920s but with a continuing legacy in later years. The primary policy consisted of promoting representatives of titular nations of Soviet republics and national minorities on lower levels of the administrative subdivision of the state, into local government, management, bureaucracy and nomenklatura in the corresponding national entities.
context_section_description: In 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. In particular, these countries include Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Albania, former East Germany  and Cuba. However, younger generations are usually not fluent in it, because Russian is no longer mandatory in the school system. According to the Eurobarometer 2005 survey, though, fluency in Russian remains fairly high (20–40%) in some countries, in particular those where the people speak a Slavic language and thereby have an edge in learning Russian (namely, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Bulgaria).
  Significant Russian-speaking groups also exist in Western Europe. These have been fed by several waves of immigrants since the beginning of the 20th century, each with its own flavor of language. The United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Norway, and Austria have significant Russian-speaking communities.
  According to the 2011 Census of Ireland, there were 21,639 people in the nation who use Russian as a home language. However, of this only 13% were Russian nationals, 20% held Irish citizenship, while 27% and 14% were holding the passports of Latvia and Lithuania respectively.
  There were 20,984 Russian speakers in Cyprus according to the Census of 2011, accounting for 2.5% of the population. Russian is spoken by 1.6% of the Hungarian population according to a 2011 estimate from the World Factbook.
caption: Russian minimarket in Limassol, Cyprus; translation: "Teremok market. Russian products. Phone number: 96 74 19 63"
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