Ukrainian is the official state language of the country since the law of 1989, voted on October 28th which regulates the linguistic question. It found its place again in schools and in theory in administrations. But, about ten millions persons living in Ukraine are Russian and 65% of the population use Russian in their daily life. In the big cities, they speak Russian. Ukrainian is more spoken in the countryside especially in the western ukraine, or in the city of Lvov where Ukrainian identity is stronger. Both languages are different, even if for both languages, the cyrillic alphabet is used. This alphabet gets its name from St Cyril a Byzantine monk who, along with his brother Methodius is credited for the invention of it (IXth century). The cyrillic writing is phonetic (each letter corresponds to a sound), what makes its study easier. In the subway, all the informations are in cyrillic. Restaurants begin having their cards of menu in English what makes things easier. People do not speak foreign languages as English or German, except the personnel in some hotels or tourists guides. This backwardness is being filled up since 1991, thanks to a successful school system and the will of the youg persons to be open on Europe and the rest of the world.