Origin

The oldest form of the Russian language is Old Russian, found in written form in the 10th century. It is believed that this was the same language as the Old Church Slavonic language and was commonly used by all eastern Slavs during the Kievan Rus era.

During the Moscow period, from the 15th century onwards, the Church Slavonic language began to be influenced by other languages, such as German, Polish and other such European languages. It was during this period that Russian literature came into existence.
 
From the 18th century, or the period of Empire, onwards, the vocabulary was fully changed to a mix of a few European languages. The influence of European languages was also seen in science and technological information. During this same period, information on fashion and trade was highly influenced by the English language.

During the first quarter of the 20th century, in the Soviet Union period, the Russian language achieved its modern form. During the second half of the 20th century when Russia established its position as a superpower, the new Russian language gained importance worldwide. By the end of the century, economic uncertainties were the cause of several changes in the Russian language, causing it to evolve into the language found today in Russia.

Variations within the Russian Language

A scientific study of the dialects within the Russian language would indicate that there are several minute variants according to the different regions in Russia. For the common man, there are two or three prominent variants at most; they are: the Russian spoken in the northern region, a second form spoken in the southern region, and a third type spoken in the central region or in Moscow.

The variants within the Russian language use different vocabularies, grammars and pronunciations. Some variations within the Russian language have disappeared while some are still distinctly present.

Other Languages Derived from the Russian Language

There are many languages that are derived from the Russian language. Some of them include, but are not limited to, Balachka, Fenya or Fenka, Nadsat, Surzyhk, Trasianka, Quelia,
Runglish and Russenorsk.

Out of these different languages derived from Russian some have become extinct, while a very small group still uses some of these languages. The most widely spoken of these derivative languages is Trasianka, which is a combination of Russian and Belarusian widely spoken in the rural areas of Belarus.

Runglish is the name of the style of English that Russians speak. It is the language most used by Russians to communicate with English speakers.