(no subject)

[hopeinagpa.livejournal.com]

How to format the envelope of a letter sent from the US to Russia?
> How to write the return address?? On the top left corner as usual (for a US letter)?

How to format a casual (friend to friend) letter in Russian?

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

I normally write "Moscow, Russia" in English (for the US Postal service) and then put the complete address in Russian (for the Russian Postal service that may have problems with understanding English.

As to your second question, this one is strange indeed. Start with "Dear Vanya" or "Hello, Masha" (if the name of your friend is not Vanya or Masha, substitute his/her real name), then say all you want to say and then sign your own name so they know whose letter is this. I guess it is not any different from how you would format a letter to a friend in English.

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

Here are two examples the Essential Russian book offers:

Московский Центральный Банк
Россия
115726 Москва
54 6 252 ул. Ленина

Россия,
117192 Москва,
ул. Мира
дом 55, корпус 6, квартира 15
Ивановой Н. П. (To Natalya)

BUT I recently sent a postcard to Russia, and my friend just told me to write

Last name, First Name
XXX улица, дом ХХ, квартира ХХХ ХХХХХХ
Москва, Россия

[schwarzer-tod.livejournal.com]

I worked for the US postal service, and the first line of every letter to Russia was "РОССИЯ", or sometimes "РОССИЯ (Russia)"

[zhp.livejournal.com]

the Russian postal service changed the addressing rules a couple of years ago to make thenm more similar to the international rules (just like in English,country name comes last), but people seldom follow these new rules. About addressing a letter to Russia, though, the important thing is to make sure the word "Russia" is in English.

[kreecher.livejournal.com]

You write first name, last name
street name, house no, apt.
city
postal code
country

It would be better if you will write the name of the street in Russian, as Russian post-men (who usually are quite old women) don't understand English well...
But be sure, to write the word "Russia" and the name of the city in English! :)