Russian is a Slavic language that is also the official language of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. It's spoken throughout other nations that were once part of the Soviet Union, and it's one of the official languages of the United Nations. When writing the Russian language, you use the Cyrillic alphabet. The first known written record of the language was found on a jar at the archaeological site Gnezdovo, which is where a large Slavic-Varangian village and trade center was located centuries ago. Archaeologists believe the writing dates back to the mid-10th century.