Russian Language Day
Next: June 6, 2027
Pushkin's birthday, in his own language.
The story
Where it comes from
Russian Language Day at the United Nations falls on 6 June, the birthday of Alexander Pushkin, often considered Russia's greatest poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. He was born in Moscow in 1799 (on 26 May in the old Russian calendar) and wrote poems, plays, stories and the novel in verse Eugene Onegin. The day comes from a 2010 initiative of the UN's Department of Global Communications, which set aside one day for each of the UN's six official languages, to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity.
How it's celebrated
UN duty stations around the world mark each language day with events meant to entertain as well as inform, about the language's history, culture and achievements. For everyone else it is a good day to read a Pushkin poem or fairy tale in translation, or to learn a few words of Russian, starting with spasibo, 'thank you'.
Did you know
- The six UN language days are 20 March for French, 20 April for Chinese, 23 April for English and Spanish, 6 June for Russian and 18 December for Arabic.
- Tchaikovsky turned Eugene Onegin into one of his best-known operas, first performed by students of the Moscow Conservatory in 1879.
- Pushkin's great-grandfather was Abram Gannibal, an African adopted by Peter the Great; Pushkin began a novel about him but never finished it.
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