Students who plan to take a language in the Fall must complete a language placement form in STAR. Each language has a questionnaire and/or exam that must be completed before a student can register for a language course.
Learn more on the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures website.
Please complete the Russian questionnaire on STAR to determine the appropriate language level for you. If you have never studied Russian, you should enroll in RUSS 101.
Majors and Minors: Students who are considering a Russian major or minor should enroll in the appropriate level language course based on the results of the placement questionnaire and/or consultation with Russian program faculty.
Courses
RUSS 101
Elementary Russian I
Common Area: Language Studies
Promotes active communicative skills along with the basics of Russian grammar. By course end, read, write, understand, and speak Russian in a broad range of everyday situations. Various aspects of Russian culture and life are introduced through the medium of language. Five class hours weekly and language lab practice. One and one-quarter units each semester.
RUSS 201
Intermediate Russian I
Common Area: Language Studies
Designed to activate students' spoken Russian, a wide variety of in-class activities allow students to practice Russian needed for most everyday situations. Textbook and workbook are supplemented with audio and videotapes. Conducted in Russian. Prerequisite: Russian 102 or the equivalent. Five class hours weekly. One and one-quarter units each semester.
RUSS 258
Russian Cinema
Common Area: Arts
This course examines the development of Russian cinema from its silent pre-Revolutionary stage up to the Post-Soviet blockbusters. It focuses on the artistic and technical achievements of Russian filmmaking and their contribution to practical and theoretical aspects of western cinema. We will discuss the distinction between Russian cinema as an ideological tool of a totalitarian state, and western cinema as an entertainment industry. Screenings will include a variety of cinematic genres and styles such as Eisenstein's legendary The Battleship Potemkin (1925) and the Oscar-winning films Moscow Does not Believe in Tears (1979) and Burnt by the Sun (1994). Conducted in English.
RUSS 264
Writing Under Stalin
Common Area: Literature
This course examines major literary works of the Stalinist era as the artistic expression of the Historial Studiesory of twentieth century art, its writers and poets, and their relationship to the Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin. The course teaches students how to discern symbolic systems that encode the works, often as a form of protest. It also considers the ethical issues at the heart of the works that concern such resistance and its risks and the role that art plays in such discussions. This course presents the social, political and cultural history of the Stalin-era Soviet Union (1922-1953) through primary and secondary historical sources, literature, arts, film (documentary and interpretive), and music. It attempts to piece together the history of Stalinism, while asking students to consider the moral complexities of the time and its relevance to Russia as well as to other modern day nations. Students grapple with multiple voices that compete to “own” the history of Stalin, including that of Stalin himself. Conducted in English.
RUSS 299-F03
Religions of Russia
Common Area: Studies in Religion
Westerners often associate Russia with the onion domes of its Orthodox churches. But did you know that this form of Christianity is just one of Russia's four officially recognized faiths? The others are Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. In this course, you'll learn how Russia's four faiths or "professions," along with a variety of other popular religious practices like shamanism and animism, have influenced the country's culture, politics, literature, art, and architecture from medieval times to the present. On this foundation, we'll pay particularly close attention to the Putin administration and the power of pro-Kremlin religious institutions, organizations, and people and the dissidents, artists, and social movements that resist them. Texts include works of fiction, journalism, film, visual art, music, and other media.