1. Range on a string iterates over Unicode code points (runes): s := "Какая-то строка" for _, rune := range s { // do something with rune 'К',

1. Range on a string iterates over Unicode code points (runes): s := "Какая-то строка" for _, rune := range s { // do something with rune 'К', 'a', ... } 2. Converting to []int gives you a slice of runes: s := "Какая-то строка" runes := []int(s) sub := string(runes[:8]) // "Какая-то" however, slicing a string directly will slice it by byte: s[:8] // "Кака" 3. With package utf8 (http://golang.org/pkg/utf8/ http://golang.org/pkg/utf8/) you can manipulate runes manually. While this is all not intuitive (you have to know what does what), I find it rather easy.