Russian dialects

Russian dialects are spoken variants of the Russian language. Russian dialects and territorial varieties are divided in two conceptual chronological and geographic categories: The dialects of the territory of the primary formation, which consist of "Old" Russia of the 16th century (before the Eastern conquests by Ivan the Terrible) and roughly correlate with the modern Central and Northwestern Federal districts. These "historical dialects" are claimed as ethnically Russian (Russkii). The dialects of the territory of the second formation, where Russians settled after the 16th century. These new territorial varieties were produced by the Russian and Soviet expansions during the last centuries and are mainly spoken by non-Slavic, non-Slavophone, and non-Orthodox populations in post-Soviet states. Standard Russian, based on the Moscow dialect, is now used throughout Russia. However, traditional dialects may still be heard among rural population, in particular of older generations. Some people speak language varieties intermediate between standard Russian and traditional dialects; such varieties are called prostorechiye (Russian: просторечие). Prostorechiye is characterized by usage of certain phonetic, grammatical, and lexical features which are considered nonstandard in speech which would otherwise be standard Russian. The use of prostorechiye is highly stigmatized as a sign of uneducatedness. Even within standard Russian, certain regional variants may be distinguished; see differences between speech of Moscow and St. Petersburg residents in the Russian Wikipedia.