[vkazanov]

I think what parent meant was that Euler spent a few decades in Russia because of the funding provided by the empire. He spoke fluent Russian, even though there was a large German-speaking community there.

But it was typical for scientists to travel far for money. Some of the Bernoullis, a family famous for mathematicians, also worked in Russian for quite a while.

Does it really matter who payed 'em and what languages they spoke?

[testless]

I was just surprised;-)