LITERATURE

Study the prose works of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Bely, Bulgakov, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, and Nabokov (among many others).  Read the poetry of Pushkin, Tiutchev, Akhmatova, Mandelshtam, and Tsvetaeva in the original.

FILM

Eisenstein, Dovzhenko, Vertov are foundational to the history of film. A rich cinematic tradition has followed, from Tarkovsky to Muratova, Sokurov, and Lungin.

ART

Chagall, Kandinsky, Malevich…  Study Russian music, ballet or art and architecture on locale in Russia!

PERFORMANCE

Not only did Russia give rise to some of the most revolutionary figures in modern theater (Chekhov, Stanislavsky), it is also currently a global epicenter of political performance that unites punk rock, visual arts, and theater.

POLITICS

Russia continues to grow as a major political and economic world power.  Tap into the continuing strategic importance of Russia from the days of tsarism and the Romanovs through the Soviet Union of Stalin and Khrushchev to the present Russian Federation of Putin.

PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY

Solovyov, Bakhtin, Shklovsky, Jakobson, and Vygotsky are just a few of those who left indelible marks on the history of cultural theory and philosophy.

MUSIC

The classical tradition: Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Scriabin, Shostakovich, Stravinsky. Not to mention the rich world of Russian bard music (Vysotsky, Okudzhava, Galich), rock n’ roll (Kino, Aquarium) and pop (ViaGRA, Polina Gagarina, Dima Bilan).

SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY

The world’s newest “Silicon Valley” is Skolkovo, outside of Moscow. It is a center for the development of nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and much more. In multiple fields of engineering, including aerospace, Russia remains a major driving force. Russian carries immense promise in the development of information technology; after English, Russian is the most used language on the Internet.

STUDY ABROAD

Spend a semester or a summer studying in exciting cultural centers such as St. Petersburg and Moscow, or go far off the beaten track to beautiful Siberia!

EMPLOYMENT

Proficiency in Russian, a critical language, opens many doors. There are numerous job openings in such government bodies as the State Department, the Commerce Department, the Justice Department, the Department of Defense, and the various intelligence agencies. Unlimited commercial opportunities are emerging from an expanding Russian economy. Western firms which now do business in Russia as well as newly established Russian firms which do business with the West (and indeed with everyone) have created myriad job opportunities for those with multiple language skills. Meanwhile, Russia remains the lingua franca of a massive portion of Eurasia, so studying it opens you up to numerous NGOs, companies and government bodies both in that region and at home.

Did you know…

Russian is the fifth most spoken language on the planet, boasting 277 million speakers worldwide, including 154 million native speakers.