Learn how to talk about corporate milestones and exactly when they happened.
In a Specific Year
To state the exact year an event took place, Russian uses the preposition в (in) followed by the year and the word for "year" (год).
When stating when something happened, год takes a special, irregular Prepositional case ending: -у. The year number itself is also put into the Prepositional case. This gives us the fixed pattern в ... году.
| My brother founded this brand in 2001. | Мой брат основал этот бренд в две тысячи первом году. |
| In 2005, they opened a branch and signed an important contract. | В две тысячи пятом году они открыли филиал и подписали важный договор. |
Business Milestones
This grammar pattern is essential when discussing company history, such as tracking when a business was founded, or when it saw a profit (прибыль) or a loss (убыток).
| This deal brought us a good profit in 2015. | Эта сделка принесла нам хорошую прибыль в две тысячи пятнадцатом году. |
| There was a severe crisis, therefore we had a large loss in 2009. | Был сильный кризис, поэтому у нас был большой убыток в две тысячи девятом году. |
Using Digits
When writing in Russian, years are usually written with numerals rather than being spelled out as full words. Even when written as numbers, you still read the year in the Prepositional case and must include году immediately after it.
| This deal took place in 2019, and they opened the new production in 2020. | Эта сделка состоялась в 2019 году, а новое производство открыли в 2020 году. |