Belarusian is the language of Belarus, a former Soviet republic, and formerly called “White Russia” in English during the pre-Soviet period. About one-third of the population speaks Belarusian as a first language. Russian remains as the more widely spoken native tongue. About 10% of the Belarusian population cannot speak or understand it. Russian and Belarusian are similar, in that they are both East Slavic languages with much grammar and vocabulary in common. Both use the Cyrillic alphabet. There are approximately 10.2 million speakers of Belarusian, based on census figures in the country and estimates taken of colonies in Poland, Russia and the Baltic states, of which around 2.5 million live outside the country.