"Вторник — второй день недели."

Translation: Tuesday is the second day of the week.

[Velar.Drone]

Tuesday - the second day of the week.?

[zirkul]

I am afraid English is more restrictive than Russian as far as skipping verbs is concerned.

[yotamadler]

in Russia and the surrounding area... I thought it's the same for all christian countries - anyway, the names of the days literally means "first,second..." and so on, while in Israel Sunday (Rishon) means first, Monday (sheni) means second and so on :)

[Mike716479]

No, that is rarely the case. In English and some other languages, they are mainly named after Norse and Roman gods. In French, after planets etc. Even in Russian, only some are named 1st, 2nd etc.

[yotamadler]

can you please specify the names and meanings?
If that is not too much trouble :)

[Mike716479]

Hi yotamadler, check out https://www.livescience.com/45432-days-of-the-week.html. It discusses Spanish, French, Italian & English.

[CarlSailor]

Russian doesn't use copulas for predicate phrases. (see the Short Forms lesson for more information)

[Angamar]

is there a reason why it's not вторый, like adjectives usually?

[kostik11]

Вторый sounds archaic, or old Slavic to me.

[relox84]

When the stress is on the -ый, it often becomes -ой, like in второ́й or большо́й

[zirkul]

... it often becomes -ой → it always becomes -ой
At least I can't think of a counterexample; all common adjectives follow this pattern.

[Omar.cpp]

поэтому его зовут "ВТОРник"

[Zarainia]

So what day does the week start on in Russia?

[Kundoo]

Monday

[DavidCorba5]

" ....day in the week" should be accepted. It's not. As an English speaker I would use that preposition as much as I use "of". They both make sense