Russian study regains its appeal in the curriculum of Bulgarian schools, as proficiency in more than one foreign language becomes more valued in the Balkan country.
The language of choice in the EU hopeful however remains English.
Some 530,000 schoolchildren study English, while those who choose Russian total 180,000, data of the Education Ministry shows.
Interest in English and Russian language studies outshine by far the German-, French-, and Spanish studies, which have attracted 170,000, 100,000 and 20,000 students respectively this year.
During the communism-era the study of Russian language was made mandatory in secondary schools. In the early 1990s interest in Russian faded and it was taken out of the school curriculum.