What is "russophone"

A Russophone is a speaker of the Russian language either natively or by preference. At the same time the term is used in a more specialized meaning to describe the category of people whose cultural background is associated with the Russian language regardless of territorial distinctions.

There are an estimated 162 million native speakers of Russian worldwide (of whom 137 million or 85% live in the Russian Federation) and about 110 million people who speak Russian as a second language.

There are sizable Russophone communities in many neighbouring countries that were parts of the former Soviet Union, including Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Estonia and Latvia. Additionally, there are large Russophone immigrant communities in Israel and various parts of the United States, Canada and Australia.

There is a common misnomer to refer to Russophones as " Russians". For example, Brighton Beach is often described as a "Russian community", while in fact the majority of Russophone Brighton Beach residents are Jews from Odessa, Ukraine. (So much so, that the area is also known as Little Odessa.) Ironically, a significant number of Russian cultural associations in the United States are affiliated with Jewish Community Centers, called Juykas by American Russophones.

Russophone (, Russkogovoryashchy) is a novel by the Russian writer Denis Gutsko ( Moscow, Vagrius, 2005, ISBN 5-98264-009-3). The novel is an expanded and reworked version of his novel Without Track or Trace, Без пути-следа (Bez puti-sleda also translated as Without a Way) published in Druzhba Narodov magazine (2004 nn. 11, 12). It was awarded the 2005 Russian Booker Prize (under the latter title), despite a vocal opposition by the chairman of the jury, Vasily Aksyonov.

The novel addresses the issue of Russophone people, who after the dissolution of the Soviet Union suddenly found themselves without a homeland, in new post-Soviet states, surrounded by ethnic hatred towards Russians. It was awarded the Boris Sokolov Prize (2005).

The plot is about the fate of a Russian born in Tbilisi, Georgia, who speaks Russian with Georgian accent. The journal version mainly dealt with the tribulations of the main hero, who could not get a passport of the Russian citizenship. The book version was significantly expanded: the first part was added with the pre-history of the hero, involving his participation in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict ( Nagorno-Karabakh War). The second part was reworked to address criticism of the journal version.