[Poor man's langmap] using vim key bindings while typing non-latin1 texts

When I am typing in cyrillic, I can not access any of the vim key bindings, unless I switch the keyboard layout to a latin-based one.

There existed a solution for 1-byte locales, the famous langmap command. Putting the following in the ~/.vimrc solved the problem for those who worked in e.g. a koi8-r or cp1251-based locale.

set langmap=ж;;
set langmap=ё`,йq,цw,уe,кr,еt,нy,гu,шi,щo,зp,х[,ъ],фa,ыs,\
  вd,аf,пg,рh,оj,лk,дl,э',яz,чx,сc,мv,иb,тn,ьm,б\,,ю.,Ё~,\
  ЙQ,ЦW,УE,КR,ЕT,HY,ГU,ШI,ЩO,ЗP,Х{,Ъ},ФA,ЫS,ВD,АF,ПG,РH,\
  ОJ,ЛK,ДL,Ж:,Э\",ЯZ,ЧX,СC,МV,ИB,ТN,ЬM,Б

Unfortunately, this did not work in a multibyte locale. Instead, one has to map every key independently with the map command:

   map ё `
   map й q
   map ц w
   map у e
   map к r
   map е t
   map н y
   map г u
   map ш i
   map щ o
   map з p
   map х [
   map ъ ]

   map ф a
   map ы s
   map в d
   map а f
   map п g
   map р h
   map о j
   map л k
   map д l
   map ж ;
   map э '

   map я z
   map ч x
   map с c
   map м v
   map и b
   map т n
   map ь m
   map б ,
   map ю .

   map Ё ~
   map Й Q
   map Ц W
   map У E
   map К R
   map Е T
   map Н Y
   map Г U
   map Ш I
   map Щ O
   map З P
   map Х {
   map Ъ }

   map Ф A
   map Ы S
   map В D
   map А F
   map П G
   map Р H
   map О J
   map Л K
   map Д L
   map Ж :
   map Э "

   map Я Z
   map Ч X
   map С C
   map М V
   map И B
   map Т N
   map Ь M
   map Б 


see also at http://www.vim.org/tips/tip.php?tip_id=1348