The Spanish Language in Russia

The economy in Russia is growing at levels unknown to the rest of Europe as an interest there in the Spanish language is also growing.

Interest in Spanish first emerged in Russia during the period of The Soviet Union, perhaps motivated by the proletariat revolutions of Latin America. The interest was particularly notable in the friendly relationship and cultural ties the USSR shared with Cuba, which encouraged Spanish study among Soviets and Russian language study in the Caribbean republic.

Some bilingual public schools have existed in Moscow since 1973, such as the Colegio Miguel de Cervantes, one of four schools that offer education in both Russian and Spanish. It awards its students with the Russian and the Spanish high school diploma at the same time.

The growing importance of Spanish

St Petersburg also has a Russian-Spanish bilingual school and two more are scheduled to open, demonstrating the growing importance of Spanish in the country of Tolstoy.

The International University of La Rioja has just signed a collaboration agreement with the State University of Moscow to encourage and include the Spanish language in their curriculum. The universities plan to create cultural exchange programs in which each year increasing amounts of Russian university students will travel to Spain to pursue graduate studies at different universities.

With a 5.2% unemployment rate (a figure considered "normal" within the context of the Russian economic environment) Russia needs nearly 1.75 million foreign skilled workers willing to immigrate there. The country needs workers like qualified Spanish teachers, as Spanish is studied in 165 different Russian universities.  

Russia’s economy is clearly growing, and the economic elite is increasingly looking towards Spain. Spain is seen by Russia as the homeland of Don Quixote, a character that connects well with the idealism that characterizes Russian culture. Spain also offers the sun and the beach, which turns the country into something of a “paradise”. Finally, the importance of the Spanish language not only in Europe but also in Latin America is evident. We are in the early stages of a phenomenon that is about to take off: Spanish is positioning itself in Russia as a top foreign language of focus right alongside English.

Russia Today carried the following statements made by Spanish education inspector Jesus Redomero on his evaluation of Russian students studying at the Cervantes Institute (one of Moscow’s bilingual Russian-Spanish schools that fill us with hope about the future of Spanish among the Russian elite): “the Russian students display above average skills and competency […] Think young people only think about videogames? Think they don’t have values? […] Go to Moscow’s public school # 1,252 “Cervantes” and they’ll shatter all those stereotypes”.