romikgosai/squad_modified huggingface dataset:
In the 20th century, Russian was mandatorily 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).

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What pact contained many Russian-speaking countries?
A: Warsaw Pact', '
Q: Where was Russian schooling mandatory in the 20th century?
A: Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Albania, former East Germany and Cuba', '
Q: Which countries speak other Slavic languages?
A: 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, Brazil, 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.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: In which European countries do many Russian immigrants live?
A: The United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Brazil, Norway, and Austria', "
Q: How much of Ireland's Russian speakers are Russian citizens?
A: 13%", '
Q: How many people in Ireland speak Russian?
A: 21,639', "
Q: How much of Ireland's Russian speakers are Irish citizens?
A: 20%", "
Q: How much of Ireland's Russian speakers are Latvian citizens?
A: 27%"]
In Armenia Russian has no official status, but it's recognised as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 15,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 1 million active speakers. 30% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 2% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. Russian is spoken by 1.4% of the population according to a 2009 estimate from the World Factbook.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What convention recognizes Russian in Armenia?
A: Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities', '
Q: How many Armenians speak Russian natively?
A: 15,000', '
Q: How many Armenians speak Russian actively?
A: 1 million', '
Q: What percent of Armenia speaks Russian?
A: 30%', '
Q: What percent of Armenia uses Russian as their main language?
A: 2%']
In Georgia Russian has no official status, but it's recognised as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 130,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 1.7 million active speakers. 27% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 1% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. Russian is the language of 9% of the population according to the World Factook. Ethnologue cites Russian as the country's de facto working language.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: How many Georgians speak Russian actively?
A: 1.7 million', '
Q: What convention recognizes Russian in Georgia?
A: Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities', '
Q: How many Georgians speak Russian natively?
A: 130,000', '
Q: What percent of Georgia is fluent in Russian?
A: 27%', '
Q: What percent of Georgia use Russian as their main language?
A: 1%']
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. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 4,200,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 10 million active speakers. 63% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 46% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. According to a 2001 estimate from the World Factbook, 95% of the population can speak Russian. Large Russian-speaking communities still exist in northern Kazakhstan, and ethnic Russians comprise 25.6% of Kazakhstan's population. The 2009 census reported that 10,309,500 people, or 84.8% of the population aged 15 and above, could read and write well in Russian, as well as understand the spoken language.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What is the legal status of Russian in Kazakhstan?
A: 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', '
Q: What percent of people in Kazakhstan speak Russian fluently?
A: 63%', '
Q: How many people in Kazakhstan speak Russian natively?
A: 4,200,000', '
Q: How many people in Kazakhstan speak Russian actively?
A: 10 million', '
Q: What percent of people in Kazakhstan use Russian as their main language?
A: 46%']
The language was first introduced in North America when Russian explorers voyaged into Alaska and claimed it for Russia during the 1700s. Although most 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. Sizable Russian-speaking communities also exist in North America, especially in large urban centers of the U.S. and Canada, such as New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, Nashville, San Francisco, Seattle, Spokane, Toronto, Baltimore, Miami, Chicago, Denver and Cleveland. In a number of locations they issue their own newspapers, and live in ethnic enclaves (especially 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 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.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Where did Russian explorers first reach North America?
A: Alaska', '
Q: When did Russian explorers first reach North America?
A: 1700s', '
Q: When did the US buy Alaska?
A: 1867', '
Q: What portion of Russian-speaking Americans are ethnic Russians?
A: about 25%', '
Q: What is the term for Russian-speaking people?
A: Russophones']
Russian is one of the official languages (or has similar status and interpretation must be provided into Russian) of the United Nations, International Atomic Energy Agency, World Health Organization, International Civil Aviation Organization, UNESCO, World Intellectual Property Organization, International Telecommunication Union, World Meteorological Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development, International Criminal Court, International Monetary Fund, International Olympic Committee, Universal Postal Union, World Bank, Commonwealth of Independent States, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Eurasian Economic Community, Collective Security Treaty Organization, Antarctic Treaty Secretariat, International Organization for Standardization, GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, International Mathematical Olympiad. 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 the Apollo-Soyuz mission, which first flew in 1975.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: When did Apollo-Soyuz fly?
A: 1975', '
Q: For which mission did NASA astronauts first learn Russian?
A: Apollo-Soyuz', '
Q: What math competition has Russian as an official language?
A: International Mathematical Olympiad', '
Q: What are Russian astronauts called?
A: cosmonauts']
In March 2013 it was announced that Russian is now the second-most used language on the Internet after English. People use the Russian language on 5.9% of all websites, slightly ahead of German and far behind English (54.7%). Russian is used not only on 89.8% of .ru sites, but also on 88.7% of sites with the former Soviet Union domain .su. The websites of former Soviet Union nations also use 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 is the sixth-most used language on the top 1,000 sites, behind English, Chinese, French, German and Japanese.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What is the second-most-popular language online as of 2013?
A: Russian', '
Q: What percent of all websites are in English?
A: 54.7%', '
Q: What percent of all websites are in Russian?
A: 5.9%', '
Q: What percent of all .ru websites are in Russian?
A: 89.8%', "
Q: What percent of Ukraine's websites are in Russian?
A: 79.0%"]
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 the two. Others divide the language into three groupings, Northern, Central (or Middle) and Southern, with Moscow lying in the Central region. All dialects also divided in two main chronological categories: the dialects of primary formation (the territory of the Eastern Rus' or Muscovy, roughly consists of the modern Central and Northwestern Federal districts); and secondary formation (other territory). Dialectology within Russia recognizes dozens of smaller-scale variants. The dialects often show distinct and non-standard features of pronunciation and intonation, vocabulary and grammar. Some of these are relics of ancient usage now completely discarded by the standard language.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What two regions do some linguists divide Russian into?
A: "Northern" and "Southern"', '
Q: What three regions do some linguists divide Russian into?
A: Northern, Central (or Middle) and Southern', '
Q: What distinguishes Russian dialects?
A: non-standard features of pronunciation and intonation, vocabulary and grammar']
The Northern Russian dialects and those spoken along the Volga River typically pronounce unstressed /o/ clearly (the phenomenon called okanye/оканье). Besides the absence of vowel reduction, some dialects have high or diphthongal /e~i̯ɛ/ in the place of Proto-Slavic *ě and /o~u̯ɔ/ in stressed closed syllables (as in Ukrainian) instead of Standard Russian /e/ and /o/. An interesting morphological feature is a post-posed definite article -to, -ta, -te similarly to that existing in Bulgarian and Macedonian.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What is okanye?
A: pronounce unstressed /o/ clearly', '
Q: What articles are similar to Bulgarian?
A: post-posed definite article -to, -ta, -te', '
Q: What do some Russian dialects do about vowels?
A: absence of vowel reduction', '
Q: What region of dialects is the Volga River area in?
A: Northern Russian']
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. несли is pronounced [nʲaˈslʲi], not [nʲɪsˈlʲi]) – this 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). Some of these features such as akanye/yakanye, a debuccalized or lenited /ɡ/, a semivowel /w~u̯/ and palatalized final /tʲ/ in 3rd person forms of verbs are also present in modern Belarusian and some dialects of Ukrainian (Eastern Polesian), indicating a linguistic continuum.

Questions and answers:
["
Q: What is pronounced [ɪ] in Moscow's dialect?
A: unstressed /e/ and /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable", '
Q: What is pronounced [a] in Southern Russian?
A: unstressed /e/ and /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable', '
Q: What does Southern Russian have a linguistic continuum with?
A: modern Belarusian and some dialects of Ukrainian (Eastern Polesian)']
Among the first to study Russian dialects was Lomonosov in the 18th century. In the 19th, Vladimir Dal compiled the first dictionary that included dialectal vocabulary. Detailed mapping of Russian dialects began at the turn of the 20th century. In modern times, the monumental Dialectological Atlas of the Russian Language (Диалектологический атлас русского языка [dʲɪɐˌlʲɛktəlɐˈɡʲitɕɪskʲɪj ˈatləs ˈruskəvə jɪzɨˈka]), was published in three folio volumes 1986–1989, after four decades of preparatory work.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Who made the first dialectal Russian dictionary?
A: Vladimir Dal', '
Q: In what century was the first dialectal Russian dictionary published?
A: 19th', '
Q: When did Lomonosov study Russian dialects?
A: 18th century', '
Q: When were detailed maps of Russian dialects created?
A: turn of the 20th century', '
Q: How long did it take to compile the Dialectological Atlas of the Russian Language?
A: four decades']
Older letters of 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/⟨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 the pronunciation of ultra-short or reduced /ŭ/, /ĭ/.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What did the old letter ⟨ѣ⟩ become?
A: ⟨е⟩', '
Q: What did the old letters ⟨і⟩ and ⟨ѵ⟩ become?
A: ⟨и⟩', '
Q: What did the old letter ⟨ѳ⟩ become?
A: ⟨ф⟩', '
Q: What did the old letter ⟨ѫ⟩ become?
A: ⟨у⟩', '
Q: What did the old letter ⟨ѭ⟩ become?
A: ⟨ю⟩']
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 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 leveraging this Unicode extension are available which allow users to type Russian characters, even on Western 'QWERTY' keyboards.

Questions and answers:
["
Q: What is 'moroz' a transliteration of?
A: мороз", "
Q: What is 'mysh' a transliteration of?
A: мышь", "
Q: What does 'moroz' mean?
A: frost", '
Q: What font technology has reduced the need for transliteration?
A: Unicode character encoding,', "
Q: What does 'mysh' mean?
A: mouse"]
The Russian alphabet has many systems of character encoding. KOI8-R was designed by the Soviet government and was intended to serve as the standard encoding. This encoding was and still is widely used in UNIX-like operating systems. Nevertheless, the spread of MS-DOS and OS/2 (IBM866), traditional Macintosh (ISO/IEC 8859-5) and Microsoft Windows (CP1251) created chaos and ended by establishing different encodings as de facto standards, with Windows-1251 becoming a de facto standard in Russian Internet and e-mail communication during the period of roughly 1995–2005.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Who created KOI8-R encoding?
A: the Soviet government', '
Q: What system used CP1251 encoding?
A: Microsoft Windows', '
Q: What systems used IBM866 encoding?
A: MS-DOS and OS/2', '
Q: What encoding did early Macs use?
A: ISO/IEC 8859-5', '
Q: In what years was CP1251 encoding used in most Russian online usage?
A: 1995–2005']
According to 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/за́мок (lock/castle), сто́ящий/стоя́щий (worthwhile/standing), чудно́/чу́дно (this is odd/this is marvelous), молоде́ц/мо́лодец (attaboy/fine young man), узна́ю/узнаю́ (I shall learn it/I recognize it), отреза́ть/отре́зать (to be cutting/to have cut); to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words, especially personal and family names (афе́ра, гу́ру, Гарси́я, Оле́ша, Фе́рми), and to show which is the stressed word in a sentence (Ты́ съел печенье?/Ты съе́л печенье?/Ты съел пече́нье? – Was it you who ate the cookie?/Did you eat the cookie?/Was it the cookie that you ate?). Stress marks are mandatory in lexical dictionaries and books for children or Russian learners.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What organization is the Institute of Russian Language part of?
A: Russian Academy of Sciences', '
Q: What can optional acute accents indicate?
A: stress', "
Q: What is distinguished from 'lock' only by an accent, in Russian?
A: castle", "
Q: What is distinguished from 'this is odd' only by an accent, in Russian?
A: this is marvelous", "
Q: What is distinguished from 'wothwhile' only by an accent, in Russian?
A: standing"]
The language possesses five vowels (or six, under the St. Petersburg Phonological School), which are written with different letters depending on whether or not the preceding consonant is palatalized. The consonants typically come in plain vs. palatalized pairs, which are traditionally called hard and soft. (The hard consonants are often velarized, especially before front vowels, as in Irish). The standard language, based on the Moscow dialect, possesses heavy stress and moderate variation in pitch. Stressed vowels are somewhat lengthened, while unstressed vowels tend to be reduced to near-close vowels or an unclear schwa. (See also: vowel reduction in Russian.)

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Who says Russian has 6 vowels?
A: St. Petersburg Phonological School', '
Q: When are Russian vowels written differently?
A: depending on whether or not the preceding consonant is palatalized', '
Q: What dialect is standard Russian based on?
A: Moscow dialect', '
Q: What language does Russian treat hard consonants similar to?
A: Irish', '
Q: What is done to unstressed vowels?
A: reduced to near-close vowels or an unclear schwa']
Russian is notable for its distinction based on palatalization of most of the consonants. While /k/, /ɡ/, /x/ do have palatalized allophones [kʲ, ɡʲ, xʲ], only /kʲ/ might be considered a phoneme, though it is marginal and generally not considered distinctive (the only native minimal pair which argues for /kʲ/ to be a separate phoneme is "это ткёт" ([ˈɛtə tkʲɵt], 'it weaves')/"этот кот" ([ˈɛtət kot], 'this cat')). Palatalization means that the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant. In the case of /tʲ/ and /dʲ/, the tongue is raised enough to produce slight frication (affricate sounds). These sounds: /t, d, ts, s, z, n and rʲ/ are dental, that is pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the teeth rather than against the alveolar ridge.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What might /kʲ/ be considered?
A: a phoneme', '
Q: What is palatalization?
A: the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant', "
Q: How are 'dental' sounds pronounced?
A: with the tip of the tongue against the teeth rather than against the alveolar ridge"]
Judging by the historical records, by approximately 1000 AD the predominant ethnic group over much of modern European Russia, Ukraine and Belarus was the Eastern branch of the Slavs, speaking a closely related group of dialects. The political unification of this region into Kievan Rus' in about 880, from which modern Russia, Ukraine and Belarus trace their origins, established Old East Slavic as a literary and commercial language. It was soon followed by the adoption of Christianity in 988 and the introduction of the South Slavic Old Church Slavonic as the liturgical and official language. Borrowings and calques from Byzantine Greek began to enter the Old East Slavic and spoken dialects at this time, which in their turn modified the Old Church Slavonic as well.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: When did Eastern Slavs become the dominant group in the area of Ukraine?
A: approximately 1000 AD', "
Q: When was Kievan Rus' formed?
A: about 880", "
Q: What countries did Kievan Rus' become?
A: modern Russia, Ukraine and Belarus", "
Q: What was the main language in Kievan Rus'?
A: Old East Slavic", "
Q: When did Kievan Rus' adopt Christianity?
A: 988"]
The political reforms of Peter the Great (Пётр Вели́кий, Pyótr Velíkiy) were accompanied by a reform of the alphabet, and achieved their goal of secularization and Westernization. Blocks of specialized vocabulary were adopted from the languages of Western Europe. By 1800, a significant portion of the gentry spoke French daily, and German sometimes. Many Russian novels of the 19th century, e.g. Leo Tolstoy's (Лев Толсто́й) War and Peace, contain entire paragraphs and even pages in French with no translation given, with an assumption that educated readers would not need one.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Where did Russian get specialized vocabulary from?
A: the languages of Western Europe', '
Q: What second language was common among Russian nobles by 1800?
A: French', '
Q: What third language was common among Russian nobles by 1800?
A: German', "
Q: Who wrote 'War and Peace'?
A: Leo Tolstoy", '
Q: What language often appeared in Russian novels without translation?
A: French']
The modern literary language is usually considered to date from the time of Alexander Pushkin (Алекса́ндр Пу́шкин) in the first third of the 19th century. Pushkin revolutionized Russian literature by rejecting archaic grammar and vocabulary (so-called "высо́кий стиль" — "high style") in favor of grammar and vocabulary found in the spoken language of the time. Even modern readers of younger age may only experience slight difficulties understanding some words in Pushkin's texts, since relatively few words used by Pushkin have become archaic or changed meaning. In fact, many expressions used by Russian writers of the early 19th century, in particular Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov (Михаи́л Ле́рмонтов), Nikolai Gogol (Никола́й Го́голь), Aleksander Griboyedov (Алекса́ндр Грибое́дов), became proverbs or sayings which can be frequently found even in modern Russian colloquial speech.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Who revolutionized modern Russian?
A: Alexander Pushkin', '
Q: What did Pushkin reject from older Russian?
A: archaic grammar and vocabulary', "
Q: What was 'high style'?
A: archaic grammar and vocabulary", "
Q: What happened to some expressions in Pushkin's writing?
A: became proverbs or sayings which can be frequently found even in modern Russian colloquial speech"]