On the Beauty of the Russian Language

Simply the most beautiful language of all, as stated in Why Russian? – a claim captured far more elegantly in the following words: “Russian has the grandeur of Spanish, the vivacity of French, the strength of German, the gentleness of Italian, and, in addition, the wealth and brevity of Latin and Greek.”

Lomonosov

The quote is from Mikhail Lomonosov (= Михаил Ломоносов, 1711-1765). English translations vary slightly; see also (the one in) On This Day in 1711 Mikhail Lomonosov Was Born (The Moscow Times, 19-11-2019) and Lomonosov’s Dedication to His Russian Grammar (Cambridge, 2017, also available on Jstor). The version above comes from a video by RussianPod101; the most beautiful version is the untranslated one.

For more, check Wikipedia and М. В. Ломоносов: ученый, поэт, реформатор русского языка (Znaika TV, 2017, 11 mins). More in О богатстве и выразительности русского языка (about the richness and expressiveness of the Russian language, 2012, 9 mins).

Turgenev

A century later, Ivan Turgenev (= Иван Тургенев, 1818-1883) took it further. The Russian language as a source of strength, and as a gift to a people as grand as the language itself. “In days of doubt, in days of sad brooding on my country’s fate, thou alone art my rod and my staff – oh great, mighty, true and free Russian tongue! But for thee, how not to fall into despair, seeing all that happens at home? Yet who can think that such a language is not given to a great people?” (LibQuotes)

See Turgenev – The Russian Language (Angelos Georgakis, 2017, 5 mins). Readings here, here, here, and in class.

“Азбука Тургенева”: Русский язык
(Выпускники СПбГУ, 2018, 1 min)

Yashin and Balmont

There’s also a poetic praise of Russian from Alexander Yashin (= Александр Яшин, 1913-1968). Text on РуСтих and Poemata. Readings here, here, and here.

And from Konstantin Balmont (= Константин Бальмонт, 1867-1942). Text on РуСтих and Pishi-Stihi. Readings here, here, and here. See also Ostihe.ru.

Arie and Brinnuliya

Russian as the самый крутой язык в мире (coolest language in the world) in 5 Reasons Why I Study Russian (Ари говорит по-Русски, 2019, 8 mins). And see Brinnuliya’s love letter to the Russian language in How I Fell in Love with Russian (2020, 11 mins). She also loves Russia (2019, 12 mins). Update: Brinnuliya’s videos have been set to private – a truly loveless act.

The Russians Themselves

Asked on the street what they consider to be the most beautiful language, Russians often name French and Italian. Sometimes, they name their own language, as seen in Languages Russians Consider the Most Beautiful (1420, 2020, 4 mins). See also Which Language Would You Like to Learn? (Easy Russian, 2023, 26 mins).

Beautiful

Russian as a game or puzzle, with this promise: “as soon as you understand the grammar, you can own it, just master it”.

Why Russian is a Beautiful Language
(Lifey, 2015, 3 mins)

More Beauty

See Top 4 Reasons Why Russian is Beautiful (Be Fluent in Russian, 2018, 8 mins), and from the same channel, Beauty of Russian Language (2018, 8 mins).

See/read Beautiful Russian Words to Make You Fall in Love With the Language (The Culture Trip, 2018), The Top 20 Beautiful Russian Words You Should Know (LinguaJunkie, 2017), and Just a small rant about how Russian is super beautiful (Reddit).

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Last updated March 23, 2025