Slava Paperno (director)
Krystyna Golovakova
Raissa Krivitsky
Viktoria Tsimberov
Richard L. Leed (1929-2011)
Lora Paperno (retired)

Requirements, etc.
2016 survey

Language requirement
Fast and slow tracks
Advanced placement
Heritage/native speakers
Courses in the Fall
Courses in the Spring
Course ratings
Goals, test, etc.
RUSSA In Courses of Study
Russian Literature
Enrollment stats
Archive

These open in new windows.
Our student studies
    Siberian tigers
Produced by two Cornellians
TV shows, films...
Web Audio Lab...
The Fall Semester Russian Language Courses
Russian 1103: Conversation Practice
This course is for students who have never had Russian before. Most people take it simultaneously with Russian 1121 for additional conversation practice. All discussion in class is in Russian. In some ways, this course is more important than the "main" course: after all, in Russian 1121 you learn how to speak Russian, and in Russian 1103 you actual speak it.
The course meets twice a week. No prerequisites. 2 credit hours/units.
See Course Description to find out what materials are used and what actually happens in class. See Course Syllabus for assignments. See Rooms and times (in the navigation bar on the left) for meeting times and places, and to find out who teaches the course this year. Fill out our anonymous Course Evaluation form if you're taking the course and want to share your impressions with your teachers.
Russian 1121: Elementary Russian through Film
This course is for students who have never studied Russian before. It teaches speaking, reading, and writing. Russian 1103 may be taken simultaneously with this course for additional conversation practice and additional credit. Classes are conducted mostly in Russian.
The course meets five times a week. No prerequisites. 4 credit hours/units.

See Course Description to find out what materials are used and what actually happens in class. See Course Syllabus for assignments. See Rooms and times (in the navigation bar on the left) for meeting times and places, and to find out who teaches the course this year. Fill out our anonymous Course Evaluation form if you're taking the course and want to share your impressions with your teachers.
Russian 1125: Reading Russian Press
This is a TBA course. TBA means "time to be arranged" (to accommodate as many students as we can). We hold an organizational meeting for all TBA courses at the beginning of each semester. The time and place of the meeting are posted at our home page (click Welcome in the navigation bar on the left) a couple of weeks before each semester begins.
The course has two sections, though in some years only one is taught. When we teach both sections, one (1125-102) is for native speakers of Russian, and the other (1125-101) is for students who learned their Russian as a foreign language and have had two to four semesters of college-level courses. Both sections are for students who want to read Russian Web sites and newspapers for language practice and to keep abreast of current events in the world. Classes are taught mostly in English, though brief discussion in Russian may also take place.
The course meets twice a week. Prerequisites: Russian 1122 or equivalent, or permission of the instructor. 2 credit hours/units.
See Course Description to find out what materials are used and what actually happens in class. See Course Syllabus for seminar 101 (non-native speakers) or Course Syllabus for seminar 102 (native speakers) for an explanation of assignments. See Rooms and times (in the navigation bar on the left) for meeting times and places, and to find out who teaches the course this year. Fill out our anonymous Course Evaluation form if you're taking Seminar 101 or Seminar 102 in the course and want to share your impressions with your teachers.
Russian 1131-1132: Self-Paced Elementary Russian I and II
This is a TBA course. TBA means "time to be arranged" (to accommodate as many students as we can). We hold an organizational meeting for all TBA courses at the beginning of each semester. The time and place of the meeting are posted at our home page (click Welcome in the navigation bar on the left) a couple of weeks before each semester begins.
This course has the same syllabus as the Russian 1121-1122 sequence, but the student has an option of covering the material in three or four semesters (unlike the two semesters in 1121-1122). The course is offered for students who cannot commit to the fairly intensive pace of that traditional beginning Russian sequence. No prior knowledge of Russian is assumed.
Two or three meetings with the teachers each week, one-on-one or in small groups. No prerequisites, but permission of the instructor is required for registration and may be constrained by the available resources. Variable credit hours/units (2 to 4).
See Course Description to find out what materials are used and what actually happens in class. See Course Syllabus for assignments. See Rooms and times (in the navigation bar on the left) for meeting times and places, and to find out who teaches the course this year. Fill out our anonymous Course Evaluation form if you're taking the course and want to share your impressions with your teachers.
Russian 2203: Intermediate Composition and Conversation
This course is for students who have had two semesters of intensive Russian or three semesters of regular college-level Russian language courses. Students who have completed only our Russian 1121 and Russian 1122 may take this course if they feel they're sufficiently prepared for it (and received a grade better than B). Sometimes it is also taken by students who have studied Russian in high school for about four years. The course teaches conversation, reading, writing, translation, and selected topics from Russian grammar. Almost all discussion in class is in Russian.
The course meets four times a week. Prerequisites: Russian 1121 and 1122, or equivalent. Often taken along with Russian 1125. 4 credit hours/units.

See Course Description to find out what materials are used and what actually happens in class. See Course Syllabus for assignments. See Rooms and times (in the navigation bar on the left) for meeting times and places, and to find out who teaches the course this year. Fill out our anonymous Course Evaluation form if you're taking the course and want to share your impressions with your teachers.
Russian 3300: Directed Studies
This course is for those students who have a special project or some other reason why our other courses do not meet their needs. It is usually taught in individual weekly conferences with the instructor.
Prerequisites: permission of the instructor. 1 or 2 credit hours/units.
See Course Description to find out what this course is about. See Course Syllabus for assignments in this independent, directed study course; they may, however, be handed out off site. See Rooms and times (in the navigation bar on the left) for meeting times and places, and to find out who teaches the course this year. Fill out our anonymous Course Evaluation form if you're taking the course and want to share your impressions with your teachers.
Russian 3303: Advanced Composition and Conversation
This is a third-year college-level course. It teaches advanced conversation, reading, writing, and selected topics from stylistics and grammar. The course includes work with Russian TV documentaries or interviews videotaped in Russia, as well as reading. All classes are taught in Russian.
The course meets three times a week. Prerequisites: Russian 2204 or equivalent. 4 credit hours/units if you attend all three weekly classes; 3 or 2 credits/units if you attend only two or one class each week (i.e. only the film class ot the film and the reading class, etc.).
See Course Description to find out what materials are used and what actually happens in class. See Course Syllabus for assignments. See Rooms and times (in the navigation bar on the left) for meeting times and places, and to find out who teaches the course this year. Fill out our anonymous Course Evaluation form if you're taking the course and want to share your impressions with your teachers.
Russian 3305: Reading and Writing for Heritage Speakers of Russian
This is a TBA course. TBA means "time to be arranged" (to accommodate as many students as we can). We hold an organizational meeting for all TBA courses at the beginning of each semester. The time and place of the meeting are posted at our home page (click Welcome in the navigation bar on the left) a couple of weeks before each semester begins.
The course is taught somewhat differently each year. In some years it includes the basics of Russian grammar for native speakers of Russian; other years, more advanced topics are studied.
The course is mostly for native speakers of Russian who have not had much schooling in their own language.
The course may be taken twice a week for two credit hours/units or three times a week for three credit hours/units, in which case it satisfies the College of Arts and Sciences foreign language requirement. The optional class is the reading class, where no grammar is discussed, and the focus is on intonation, fluency, and vocabulary.
Prerequisites: permission of the instructor.
See Course Description to find out what materials are used and what actually happens in class. See Course Syllabus for assignments and study materials. See Rooms and times (in the navigation bar on the left) for meeting times and places, and to find out who teaches the course this year. Fill out our anonymous Course Evaluation form if you're taking the course and want to share your impressions with your teachers.
Russian 3309: Advanced Reading
This is a TBA course. TBA means "time to be arranged" (to accommodate as many students as we can). We hold an organizational meeting for all TBA courses at the beginning of each semester. The time and place of the meeting are posted at our home page (click Welcome in the navigation bar on the left) a couple of weeks before each semester begins.
If there is sufficient interest and the department has the necessary resources, two very different sections of this course may be taught in a given year. The purpose of the course in both sections is to learn how to read a lot and to speak about what you've read.
NOTE: In the fall of 2024, for the first time, Seminar 102 of RUSSA 3309 is taught differently: it is designed for people who prefer reading the material in translation (in English) and does not require any knowledge of Russian.
In the section for non-native speakers of Russian, the weekly reading assignments include 20 to 40 pages of unabridged text with no linguistic explanations or glossaries. The weekly assignments in the section for students from Russian families are around 100 pages. In both sections, all assignments are from from authentic Russian prose (fiction and non-fiction). All discussion in class is in Russian. Expect your homework to take up to six hours each week.
Note that this is not a literature course; it cannot be used to satisfy distribution requirements. (See courses in the RUSSL series if you are interested in literary criticism, literary analysis, etc.)
The course meets twice a week. Prerequisites: permission of the instructor. 4 credit hours/units.
See Course Description to find out about homework and other details. See Course Syllabus for seminar 101 (non-native speakers) or Course Syllabus for seminar 102 (native speakers) for assignments. See Rooms and times (in the navigation bar on the left) for meeting times and places, and to find out who teaches the course this year. Fill out our anonymous Course Evaluation form if you're taking Seminar 101 or Seminar 102 in the course and want to share your impressions with your teachers.
Russian 4413: Modern Russia: Past and Present I
This is a TBA course. TBA means "time to be arranged" (to accommodate as many students as we can). We hold an organizational meeting for all TBA courses at the beginning of each semester. The time and place of the meeting are posted at our home page (click Welcome in the navigation bar on the left) a couple of weeks before each semester begins.
This course is for students who have had at least three years of college-level Russian. It teaches advanced conversation and reading, and includes reading Russian newspapers and working with Russian films or documentaries. All reading and discussion in class is in Russian.
The course meets twice a week. Prerequisites: Russian 3304 or permission of the instructor. 2 credit hours/units.
See Course Description to find out what materials are used and what actually happens in class. See Course Syllabus for assignments and meeting times. See Rooms and times (in the navigation bar on the left) for meeting times and places, and to find out who teaches the course this year. Fill out our anonymous Course Evaluation form if you're taking the course and want to share your impressions with your teachers.
Russian 4491: Reading Course: Russian Literature in the Original Language
This one-credit/unit course (taught in the fall and spring) is for students who are taking one of the Russian Literature courses (the RussL series) and want to read and discuss the texts in Russian. Enrollment requires permission of the professor who is teaching the literature course and may also be dependent on the available department resources.
The syllabus and other details change every semester. 1 credit hour/unit. See Rooms and times (in the navigation bar on the left) for meeting times and places, and to find out who teaches the course this year.
Russian 6633: Russian for Russian Specialists
This course is for students who have had four or more years of college-level Russian. It may also be taken by native speakers of Russian. It is taught differently each year, depending on the needs of the students who take it. The course is usually taken by advanced undergraduate students, and occasionally by graduate students as well. It is taught entirely in Russian.
The course meets twice a week. Prerequisites: Russian 4414 or permission of the instructor. Variable credit hours/units (2 to 4).
See Course Description to find out what this course is about. See Course Syllabus for assignments. See Rooms and times (in the navigation bar on the left) for meeting times and places, and to find out who teaches the course this year. Fill out our anonymous Course Evaluation form if you're taking the course and want to share your impressions with your teachers.
 
 
This Web site uses custom Russian fonts with accented vowels (ЂђЃ Љљѓ ЌќЊ, etc.).
If your browser does not display them correctly, follow these directions.
Dept. of Comparative Literature • Russian Language Program • 240 Goldwin Smith Hall • Cornell University • Ithaca, NY 14853-4701, USA
tel. 607/255-4155 • fax 607/255-8177 • email slava.paperno@cornell.edu