Russian Transliteration (Cyrillic ↔ Latin) — Cyrillization
Russian transliteration in your browser: convert Russian Cyrillic to Latin letters and back — either the reversible ISO 9 system or an English-readable spelling such as “Moskva” / “Zhukov”.
What this tool does
Transliteration writes the letters of one script in another, letter for letter, without translating. You need it to put a Russian name into a passport form, a filename, a URL or an English-language document, and to read a Latin spelling back as Cyrillic. This tool does both directions for Russian.
Two systems are offered because they answer different questions. ISO 9:1995 is designed so no two Cyrillic letters share a Latin spelling, which makes it reversible — convert to Latin and back and you get your original text. The English-readable system writes ж as zh, х as kh, ш as sh and щ as shch, which is what a reader expects, at the cost of being ambiguous in reverse.
Method
Cyrillic → Latin is a fixed table lookup, applied character by character, with case preserved (an uppercase Cyrillic letter yields an uppercase Latin equivalent). Latin → Cyrillic inverts the ISO 9 table; because ISO 9 is one-to-one, that inversion is exact. The readable system has no inverse table for exactly that reason, so it appears only in the Cyrillic → Latin direction.
| Cyrillic | ISO 9 | Readable | Cyrillic | ISO 9 | Readable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| а | a | a | р | r | r |
| б | b | b | с | s | s |
| в | v | v | т | t | t |
| г | g | g | у | u | u |
| д | d | d | ф | f | f |
| е | e | e | х | h | kh |
| ё | ë | ë | ц | c | ts |
| ж | ž | zh | ч | č | ch |
| з | z | z | ш | š | sh |
| и | i | i | щ | ŝ | shch |
| й | j | y | ъ | ʺ | ʺ |
| к | k | k | ы | y | y |
| л | l | l | ь | ʹ | ʹ |
| м | m | m | э | è | e |
| н | n | n | ю | û | yu |
| о | o | o | я | â | ya |
| п | p | p |
Example
| Cyrillic | ISO 9 | Readable |
|---|---|---|
| Москва | Moskva | Moskva |
| Привет | Privet | Privet |
| Жуков | Žukov | Zhukov |
| Щука | Ŝuka | Shchuka |
| ёж | ëž | ëzh |
Frequently asked questions
What does this tool do?
It converts Russian Cyrillic to Latin letters and back. The default system is ISO 9:1995, which is one-to-one and therefore reversible, so the Latin output can be converted back to exactly the original Cyrillic.
Which transliteration system should I use?
Use ISO 9 when you need to round-trip or index the text, because each Cyrillic letter has a unique Latin equivalent. Use the English-readable option (zh, kh, sh, shch, yu, ya) when you only need something an English reader can pronounce, and reversibility does not matter.
Why does Latin → Cyrillic only use ISO 9?
Because the readable system is not reversible: "y" could be й or ы, "e" could be е or э, and "sh" and "shch" overlap. ISO 9 is the only one of the two where a Latin string maps back to a unique Cyrillic one, so that is the direction we offer.
Does it work for Ukrainian or Bulgarian?
The table is the Russian one. Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian use some letters differently (і, ї, є, ґ, ђ, ќ, љ, њ, џ), which are not in this table and are passed through unchanged. Adding them would need a per-language table, so it is out of scope here.
What are the odd characters in the ISO 9 output?
ISO 9 uses a few non-ASCII letters and modifiers to stay unique: ž for ж, č for ч, š for ш, ŝ for щ, è for э, û for ю, â for я, and the modifier letters ʹ (soft sign) and ʺ (hard sign). They are correct output, not an encoding bug.
Is my text uploaded?
No. Everything runs in the page, so the text never leaves your browser.
How do I transliterate Russian into Latin letters?
Type or paste the Russian text into the box and keep the direction on “Cyrillic → Latin”. If you need a result that converts back exactly, use ISO 9 (reversible); if you need something an English reader can sound out, use the English-readable system. This is the everyday “Russian transliteration” task: writing Москва as Moskva, or translating a name for a form, URL or filename.
What does “Cyrillization” mean, and is it the same thing?
They are opposite directions. Cyrillization normally means writing a language that is not usually written in Cyrillic by using the Cyrillic alphabet — for example rendering English words in Cyrillic letters. Russian transliteration goes the other way: it leaves Cyrillic and writes Russian in Latin letters. Many people search “cyrillization” when they actually want the Latin spelling of Russian, so this tool covers the Cyrillic → Latin direction that answers that need.
What is the standard way to romanize Russian?
There is no single universal standard. ISO 9:1995 is the internationally agreed, reversible system used here; the BGN/PCGN and the “passport” (ICAO) systems are also common and differ in a few letters such as ё, ж, х, ц, щ and ю. If your destination has a required standard, check it — this tool offers the reversible ISO 9 and a plain English-readable spelling.
Go deeper
Longer explanations of the problems this tool solves:
Sources
- ISO 9:1995, Information and documentation — Transliteration of Cyrillic characters into Latin characters.
- Unicode Standard, Cyrillic block (U+0400–U+04FF).
- BGN/PCGN romanization of Russian, for the English-readable spellings.
Everything runs in your browser — nothing you type is uploaded.