Russian and Eurasian Studies

Undergraduate

Students entering Fall 2024 or later will not have the option to declare this major or any of the related minors.

Explore a part of the world that has reshaped history and where history is still being made; the home to peoples and places immensely rich in their cultural, artistic and intellectual achievements.

Program Overview

From Pushkin to Putin, from Balanchine to Lake Baikal, from caviar to commissars, from yurts to baba yaga—Russia and Eurasia offer a glittering array of riches waiting to be discovered. We invite you to join with us in our exploration of the vast area of the world that we engage in on a daily basis. Through course work in language, literature, history and politics, you will gain a multidimensional understanding of the diverse peoples and cultures that inhabit this region—its past, its present, as well as its prospects for the future.

Whether you choose to study the language, literature, history or politics of this vast region, you’ll become part of a close-knit company of students and teachers passionately committed to not only studying, but also experiencing Russia and Eurasia through in-country internships and study abroad. Your life will never be the same. We guarantee it.

Our programs are intended to develop a critical awareness of both Russia and Eurasia and to provide the linguistic and intellectual tools necessary for sustained engagement with this area of the world. Mastery of Russian and a grasp of Russia’s historical role on the Eurasian continent are essential to developing a deep understanding of regions where native non-Russian peoples lived under Russian and Soviet rule.

Majoring in Russian and Eurasian studies will help you gain a background in the cultures of Eurasia, where questions regarding global energy and the influence of Islamic culture are vitally important.

We offer both a major and minor in Russian and Eurasian studies as well as minors in Russian Language and Russian Culture and Literature.

Community Voices

Spotlight on Russian and Eurasian Studies students and alums

Hilary Vergera FP’24

she/her

Gabriella Gonzalez ’16

Why study Russian?

With 160 million native speakers, Russian is among the top 10 most commonly studied languages, as well as being one of the top 10 most commonly spoken languages. Learning Russian connects you with speakers around the world, including in places and contexts you might not expect!

Culture

Alexander Pushkin statue in St. Petersburg, Russia
Alexander Pushkin statue in St. Petersburg, Russia

Geographically the largest country in the world, Russia has a long history with deep and rich cultural traditions.

From Pushkin to Nabokov, the colossus of Russian literature speaks for itself. Russia has produced many of the world’s great literary giants. Reading these great authors in the original Russian is an eye-opening experience, given the grammatical complexities and cultural subtleties of the Russian language.

 

Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Ballet

Russia has equally rich traditions in film, art, and music. It is home to some of the biggest names in film and classical music (Tchaikovsky, anyone?). In addition, Russia created one of the most widely used ballet methodologies, it boasts arguably the top ballet companies, the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky, and it has produced some of the greatest ballet dancers of all time. Indeed, Russia's place in the arts is unrivaled - its literature, philosophy, music, ballet, architecture, painting, cinema and animation have all made their mark on world culture.

Education and Career Opportunities

A Russian Painting

Knowing Russian is useful in many fields, from the arts to business and the sciences.

Studying Russian helps you enter graduate programs. Students of Russian have a high acceptance rate for graduate study in law, business, and medicine.

Russia ranks among the top 10 countries for entrepreneurship. It is the world’s largest producer of natural gas and is among the world’s largest producers of many other natural resources. Russia is also an enormous market for US goods and services.

A dog with a Russian space helmet on

Russian is an important language for science and technology. More articles on the physical and life sciences are published in Russian than in English! Looking for a career in space? NASA relies on Russia to help with its launches and thus requires all potential astronauts to be fluent in Russian.

The US Government is always looking for Russian language specialists! Many federal agencies, including the State Department and the NSA, identify Russian as a priority language and are specifically seeking to employ Russian speakers.

Our courses

We offers courses in Russian ranging from the elementary level (for students with no knowledge of Russian) through advanced-level courses in Russian language and culture. You can also take courses in Russian Literature, taught in English. For placement in Russian language courses, the department will review your course selection, taking into consideration your school and AP records together with your answers to a questionnaire and the results of your online placement exam. 

Courses on Russian literature and culture may be used to satisfy the distribution requirement in the humanities—arts, language, and literature.

Courses on Russian history and politics satisfy distribution requirements either in the humanities (IB) or social sciences (III-A).

We are a five-college department and courses can be also taken through the Amherst College Russian DepartmentSmith College Russian DepartmentUMass Program in Slavic and East European Studies

Selecting courses in your first year

If you have no background in Russian language you should enroll in Russian 101-102, a yearlong introduction to Russian language and culture. If you have previously studied Russian and plan to elect Russian language, you should consult with the department for individual placement.

In addition to RES 101–102, recommended courses for first-year study include:

  • RES 210f, Great Books: Literature of 19th Century Russia
  • RES 240f,  Contemporary Russian Politics

Courses and Requirements

Courses concentrate on Russian language and on Russia's achievements in culture and literature. We also offer courses in Russian film, religion, and art. You are also encouraged to explore the numerous courses offered in the Five Colleges.

Learning Goals

On completion of the following levels, students will be able to:

Elementary Russian (Completion of the RES-101 and 102 sequence)

  • Make introductions and get acquainted with others.
  • Talk about self, family, friends, university studies, and jobs by providing basic information and description.
  • Read simple authentic texts, such as announcements, schedules, greeting cards, phone texts, e-mails, personal letters, and short prose and poetry pieces for basic facts and information.
  • Acquire basic linguistic and cultural knowledge to engage in the following activities: shopping, ordering food, buying tickets, giving directions, giving advice, issuing invitations, filling out forms with basic biographical information.
  • Describe hobbies, interests, personal preferences, and routine activities in some detail.
  • Talk about past personal events and plans for the future.
  • Compare, contrast, and express opinions and feelings about things and people.
  • Ask and answer questions about familiar topics.
  • Write multi-paragraph compositions on familiar topics.
  • Acquire basic Russian grammar: nominal, pronominal and adjectival declension system (6 cases); past, present and future tenses; some verbs of motion; some verbal aspectual pairs; impersonal constructions.
  • Acquire cultural knowledge: some facts and names pertaining to Russian and Soviet “high” culture; sociocultural norms of interpersonal communication; some basic facts about Russian and Soviet literature and history which shape the way Russians think about themselves and the others, as well as basics of Russian worldview as coded in the language
  • Acquire a working vocabulary of 800-1000 words.

By the end of the academic year, students will communicate at the Intermediate Low to Mid level of proficiency, as defined by ACTFL guidelines.

 Intermediate Russian (Completion of RES-201 and 202 sequence)

  • Exchange information on familiar topics (such as family, relationships, housing) using complete sentences and time expressions in the past, present and future.
  • Negotiate social interactions in familiar situations (such as daily routine, studies, visit around a city, health issues) in a culturally appropriate way.
  • Narrate past events and talk about future plans in a string of connected sentences with some detail.
  • Read longer authentic texts in various genres (stories, plays) and extract key information from the texts, as well as ask and answer questions about heroes’ motivations.
  • Understand main ideas of simple newspaper articles.
  • Talk about reasons for personal preferences and choices.
  • Exchange ideas on some abstract topics (Is it better to be an idealist or a pragmatist?).
  • Expand knowledge of Russian grammar: construct complex sentences with the help of various conjunctions; prefixed and transitive verbs of motion; verbal aspect; conditional constructions.
  • Acquire cultural knowledge though analyzing Russian and Soviet prose and film.
  • Broaden active vocabulary to more than 1700 words.

By the end of the academic year, students will communicate at the Intermediate Mid to High level of proficiency, as defined by the ACTFL guidelines

Advanced Russian (Completion of RES-251)

  • Read authentic Russian texts of various genres and length .
  • Exchange ideas about texts’ structure and composition, heroes’ motives, and author’s intent.
  • Develop the notion of subtext and the skill of “reading between the lines”.
  • Respond to authentic texts by writing multi-paragraph essays.
  • Contrast and compare various works of literature .
  • Broaden active vocabulary to include specialized words and phrases describing shades of meaning.
  • Adhere to Russian-only rule during class times.
  • Develop cultural knowledge through analyzing historical and social background as well as people’s behavior in various texts .

By the end of the course, students will communicate at the Intermediate High to Advanced Low level of proficiency, as defined by the ACTFL guidelines

Contact Us

The Russian Department helps students explore a part of the world that has reshaped history and where history is still being made; the home to peoples and places immensely rich in their cultural, artistic and intellectual achievements.

Dominique Rampton
  • Academic Department Coordinator

Next Steps