Russian Language Day 2016

Ambassador Borodavkin,
Excellencies,
Дамы и Господа,

Мне доставляет большое удовольствие приветствовать всех вас во Дворце наций по случаю празднования Дня русского языка. I extend my sincere thanks to Ambassador Borodavkin, the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation and the Russian Cultural Seasons for their continued and enthusiastic support of the UNOG Cultural Activities Programme. I would also like to thank our distinguished guests from the Tovstonogov Drama Theatre in Saint Petersburg and the musical ensemble Emerald Izumrud for accepting to perform for us today on this very special occasion. Finally, our guests will definitely be impressed by a very colourful and rich display of Russian handcrafted porcelain, crystal and glass from the Mateo collections and the painting exhibition by artist Anna Birstein.

The roots of the Russian language can be traced back to the 9th century, where it originated as a unique human exploit. Two scholarly brothers, Cyril and Methodius, who are now venerated as saints in the Orthodox Christian tradition, wove together characters from ancient Greek, Hebrew and Latin to create the Cyrillic alphabet. It can be seen today as an early attempt at multiculturalism, in a way. Thus, the birth of the Cyrillic script announced for the Slavic peoples their spiritual union with the Christian world and granted them a voice to acquire great prominence in later centuries.

In 2010, the United Nations introduced Language Days to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of the six official languages of the Organization – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. On June 6th, countries around the world will celebrate Russian Language Day, which falls on the anniversary of Alexander Pushkin, one of the greatest Russian poets and, to some, the father of the classical literature in Russia as we know it. Pushkin’s works have been translated into dozens of languages, uniting people of all ages, faiths and cultures.

Today, Russian is spoken in 31 countries around the world. It is the eighth most spoken language by the number of native speakers, and the fifth in terms of the total number of speakers. As one of the official languages of the United Nations, it plays an important role in our efforts to promote multilingualism and cultural diversity. It is also a vehicle and a repository for the rich and versatile literary, artistic and scientific heritage of the Russian-speaking world.

Thank you all for joining us and enjoy this day so rich in culture.

Thank you very much.