hands making matrioshkas over a detailed instructional book

Russian is a language of global importance, spoken natively by 147 million people worldwide. We offer language courses at all levels, plus courses on literary and cultural topics in Russian and English. Majors can focus on an area of interest, such as literature, history or political science, and many choose to double major. Students at the intermediate level and above are encouraged to participate in our biennial Russophone Studies program in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

hands making matrioshkas over a detailed instructional book

About Russian

Russian is the eighth most-spoken language in the world, with some 147 million native speakers–30 million of whom live outside the Russian Federation. In our first-year sequence we cover the fundamentals with equal emphasis on speaking, listening, writing, and reading. Traditional materials are supplemented by fairy tales, folk songs, rock music video, film clips and internet materials from across the Russophone world. By the end of Russian 204, students are able to read short prose by Chekhov, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy, and to communicate functionally with native speakers. Language courses beyond 204 address contemporary cultural and social issues while focusing on skill development at the intermediate and advanced level. Students with pre-college Russian, either acquired or native, should consult the department for placement information.

Literature and Cultural Studies

We teach a variety of courses in English translation with no prerequisites (230-295). Topics courses at the 330-395 level are conducted entirely in Russian, providing opportunities for students to expand their linguistic range, as well as their understanding of analytical techniques and cultural contexts.

Requirements for the Russian Major

Major Requirements – 66 Total Credits

Required Courses – Required 9 credits

  • RUSS 205: Russian in Cultural Contexts (6 credits)
  • RUSS 207: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Intermediate Intensive Grammar (not offered 2025-26) (3 credits)
    OR RUSS 307: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Advanced Intensive Grammar (not offered 2025-26) (3 credits)
    OR the equivalent (3 credits)

Russian Courses in English – Required 12 credits

Russian courses conducted in English numbered 150 or above.

Methods Course – Required 6 credits

  • CCST 245: Meaning and Power: Introduction to Analytical Approaches in the Humanities (Preferred)
    OR In consultation with their advisor, students may substitute a comparable methods course in a different field.

Upper-level Courses – Required 18 credits

Russian courses numbered 330 or above.

Elective Courses – Required 15 credits

  • CCST 233: The Art of Translation in the Age of the Machine
  • HIST 240: Tsars and Serfs, Cossacks and Revolutionaries: The Empire that was Russia
  • HIST 241: Russia through Wars and Revolutions
  • HIST 242: Communism, Cold War, Collapse: Russia Since Stalin (not offered 2025-26)
  • HIST 341: The Russian Revolution and its Global Legacies
  • RUSS 110: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Intensive Beginning (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 204: Intermediate Russian
  • RUSS 207: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Intermediate Intensive Grammar (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 209: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Intermediate Conversation (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 228: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Contemporary Kazakhstani Culture and Post-Colonial Identity (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 237: Beyond Beef Stroganoff: Food in Russian Culture (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 239: The Warped Soul of Putin’s Russia
  • RUSS 244: The Rise of the Russian Novel (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 266: The Brothers Karamazov (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 267: War and Peace (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 301: Tea and the News
  • RUSS 307: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Advanced Intensive Grammar (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 309: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Advanced Practicum (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 331: The Wonderful World of Russian Animation (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 332: Chekhov in Film, Film in Chekhov (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 342: Post-Soviet Film

Senior Integrative Exercise – Required 6 credits

  • RUSS 400: Integrative Exercise (6 credits)

Additional Departmental Notes

Courses 101, 102 and 103 do not count toward the major. IB or other pre-matriculation credits do not count toward the major.

Study Abroad: Participation in foreign study programs is highly recommended. Consult the “Off-Campus Studies” section of the catalog for a description of the Carleton program in Kazakhstan. Departmental approval of credit for participation in non-Carleton overseas programs should be sought before leaving campus.

Cultural Activities: A Language Associate who is a native speaker of Russian provides opportunities for conversation practice and assists students in organizing a variety of cultural activities, including biweekly lunch table, weekly tea, holiday celebrations, and special events.

Requirements for the Russian Minor

Minor Requirements – 36 Total Credits

Required Course – Required 6 credits

  • RUSS 205: Russian in Cultural Contexts

Upper Level Courses – Required 12 credits

Russian courses numbered 330 or above.

Elective Courses – Required 18 credits

18 elective credits may be chosen from among:

  • CCST 245: Meaning and Power: Introduction to Analytical Approaches in the Humanities
  • CCST 233: The Art of Translation in the Age of the Machine
  • HIST 240: Tsars and Serfs, Cossacks and Revolutionaries: The Empire that was Russia
  • HIST 241: Russia through Wars and Revolutions
  • HIST 242: Communism, Cold War, Collapse: Russia Since Stalin (not offered 2025-26)
  • HIST 341: The Russian Revolution and its Global Legacies
  • RUSS 110: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Intensive Beginning (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 204: Intermediate Russian
  • RUSS 207: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Intermediate Intensive Grammar (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 209: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Intermediate Conversation (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 228: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Contemporary Kazakhstani Culture and Post-Colonial Identity (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 237: Beyond Beef Stroganoff: Food in Russian Culture (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 239: The Warped Soul of Putin’s Russia
  • RUSS 244: The Rise of the Russian Novel (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 266: The Brothers Karamazov (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 267: War and Peace (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 301: Tea and the News
  • RUSS 307: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Advanced Intensive Grammar (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 309: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Advanced Practicum (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 331: The Wonderful World of Russian Animation (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 332: Chekhov in Film, Film in Chekhov (not offered 2025-26)
  • RUSS 342: Post-Soviet Film
  • other offerings in the Russian section

Additional Departmental Notes

Courses 101, 102 and 103 do not count toward the minor. IB or other pre-matriculation credits do not count toward the major.

Russian Courses

  • RUSS 101 Elementary Russian

    For students with no previous training in or minimal knowledge of Russian. Simultaneous development of skills in speaking, reading, aural comprehension, writing. Students with prior instruction or who speak Russian at home should consult the department for placement information. Class meets five days a week.

    • Fall 2025
    • 6
    • No Exploration

    • Not open to students whose previous Russian language experience exceeds the requirements of RUSS 101.
    • CL: 100 level
    • Anna Dotlibova 🏫 👤 · Victoria Thorstensson 🏫 👤

  • RUSS 102 Elementary Russian

    Continues Russian 101.

    • Winter 2026
    • 6
    • No Exploration

    • Student has completed any of the following course(s): RUSS 101 with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 102 on the Carleton Russian Placement exam.
    • CL: 100 level
    • Anna Dotlibova 🏫 👤 · Victoria Thorstensson 🏫 👤

  • RUSS 103 Elementary Russian

    Concludes introductory method of Russian 101-102.

    • Spring 2026
    • 6
    • No Exploration

    • Student has completed any of the following course(s): RUSS 102 with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 103 on the Carleton Russian Placement exam.
    • CL: 100 level
    • Victoria Thorstensson 🏫 👤

  • RUSS 110 Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Intensive Beginning

    For students with no previous training in or minimal knowledge of Russian. Simultaneous development of skills in speaking, reading, aural comprehension, and writing. Class meets four days a week for two hours. This course is conducted by members of Kazakh National University’s Philological Faculty and supervised by the program director.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • 6
    • LP Language Requirement

    • Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Russophone Studies in Central Asia program.
    • CL: 100 level RUSS Elective

  • RUSS 204 Intermediate Russian

    Continued four-skill development using texts and resources from a variety of sources. Emphasis on communicative skills.

  • RUSS 205 Russian in Cultural Contexts

    Students will study Russian in the context of contemporary life and culture of the Russophoneworld. In this course, they will continue developing their proficiency in conversation, listening comprehension, and writing, as well improving their grammatical skills by studying topics in Russian syntax, morphology, verbal aspect and verbal governance. The course draws on a variety of sources for reading and discussion, including contemporary literature, the periodic press, film, and music.

  • RUSS 207 Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Intermediate Intensive Grammar

    This course aims at vocabulary expansion and the assimilation and activation of everyday conversational structures and speech etiquette at the same time it develops familiarity with more complex principles of Russian grammar. This course is conducted by members of Kazakh National University's Philological Faculty and supervised by the program director.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • 3
    • No Exploration

    • Acceptance in the Russophone Studies in Central Asia program and student has completed any of the following course(s): RUSS 205 with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 205 on the Carleton Russian Placement exam.
    • CL: 200 level RUSS Elective

  • RUSS 209 Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Intermediate Conversation

    This course is taken in combination with Russian 207. Emphasis will be placed on socially relevant topics. This course is conducted by members of Kazakh National University's Philological Faculty and supervised by the program director.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • 3
    • No Exploration

    • Acceptance in the Russophone Studies in Central Asia program and student has completed any of the following course(s): RUSS 205 with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 205 on the Carleton Russian Placement exam.
    • CL: 200 level RUSS Elective

  • RUSS 228 Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Contemporary Kazakhstani Culture and Post-Colonial Identity

    In this course we will study how contemporary Kazakhstani post-colonial identity is expressed and negotiated in the works of Russophone prose and poetry, as well as in film, theater, contemporary art, and urban space. Other topics will include the changing role of the Russian language in Central Asia, linguistic, gender and cultural hybridity, trauma and (post)memory, cultural, ecological and gender activism. Taught in English.

    Not offered in 2025-26

  • RUSS 237 Beyond Beef Stroganoff: Food in Russian Culture

    How did the Russian peasant stove shape culinary culture? Why did Catherine the Great force her subjects to cultivate potatoes? How did the October Revolution change the way Soviet citizens ate? In this course we will study key aspects of Russian history and culture through the lens of culinary history. Topics will include: food and fasting in Russian Orthodoxy; food, class and power under the tsars; high Russian (or is it French?) culture of the nineteenth century; Soviet policies for feeding the worker; non-Russian cuisines in the Soviet Union; drinking culture and anti-alcohol campaigns; food and nationalism in the twenty-first century. Includes hands-on sessions on Russian food preparation. In English.

    Not offered in 2025-26

  • RUSS 239 The Warped Soul of Putin’s Russia

    What is Russia’s problem? Why is the country famous for its great “soul” and culture waging a bloody war and becoming increasingly anti-Western? This course explores the cultural mythology that characterizes the state of contemporary Russian society and its “soul,” using critical approaches from trauma and memory studies, as well as theories of ressentiment and nostalgia. Authors to be studied include ideologues of Putin’s Russia (Surkov, Prilepin), its critics (Sorokin), and other writers, artists, and filmmakers who reflect, define, question, and challenge the direction in which country is moving and give it a cultural diagnosis. In English.

  • RUSS 242 Russian Short Story

    In their short prose masterpieces, just as in their famous novels, Russian writers showed formal excellence and bold insights into the big questions of life and death: What kind of life is worth living? What is true compassion and love? What is to be done about evil? We will read short stories by some of the greatest Russian writers, including Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Chekhov, Bunin, Nabokov, and Petrushevskaya, in the context of Russian culture and history. In English translation. No knowledge of Russian language or history is required.

    Not offered in 2025-26

  • RUSS 244 The Rise of the Russian Novel

    From the terse elegance of Pushkin to the psychological probing of Dostoevsky to the finely wrought realism of Tolstoy, this course examines the evolution of the genre over the course of the nineteenth century, ending with a glimpse of things to come on the eve of the Russian Revolution. Close textual analysis of the works will be combined with exploration of their historical and cultural context. No prior knowledge of Russian or Russian history is required.

    Not offered in 2025-26

  • RUSS 263 Madness and Madmen in Russian Culture

    This course explores the theme of madness in Russian literature and arts from the medieval period to the present. Madness is a basic but controversial aspect of world culture that has preoccupied Russian minds since medieval times. It is reflected in numerous stories, plays, paintings, films, and operas, as well as in medical, political, and philosophical essays. Madness has been treated by great Russian authors and artists not only as a medical or psychological matter, but also as a metaphysical one, touching the deepest levels of human consciousness, encompassing problems of suffering, imagination, history, sex, social and world order, evil, retribution, death, and the afterlife. Taught in English. No knowledge of Russian is required.

    Not offered in 2025-26

  • RUSS 266 The Brothers Karamazov

    Fyodor Dostoevsky’s last novel, The Brothers Karamazov, is many things: a riveting murder mystery, a probing philosophical treatise, one of the best known novels in world literature, and a complex book worth reading and discussing with serious readers of diverse backgrounds. We will familiarize ourselves with the historical and philosophical context in which it was written, while grappling with the fundamental questions it raises: What does it mean to act morally? Why do humans so often act against their own best interest? How do we reconcile a world of chaos and suffering with the notion of a benevolent god? Conducted entirely in English.

    Not offered in 2025-26

  • RUSS 267 War and Peace

    Against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, Lev Tolstoy challenges readers to confront some of the most confounding questions of human existence: How can we reconcile the notion of free will with the seemingly ineluctable forces of history? Is individual moral action possible in war? How can we live a meaningful life in the face of inevitable death? And what might lie after death? In this course we read War and Peace in its cultural and historical context, while also considering how it continues to be relevant to our lives today. Conducted in English. No knowledge of Russian literature or history required.

    Not offered in 2025-26

  • RUSS 301 Tea and the News

    Maintain your Russian skills, expand your vocabulary, keep up with the news in the Russophone world, and drink tea (with snacks). Topics selected for discussion and sources to be consulted will vary and aim at student interests. This class meets once a week for 70-minute sessions guaranteed to be lively.

  • RUSS 307 Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Advanced Intensive Grammar

    This course combines advanced work in Russian grammar, especially morphology and syntax, and fundamentals in composition, with conversational Russian. Expected preparation: Six credits of Russian at the 300 level.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • 3
    • No Exploration

    • Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Russophone Studies in Central Asia program.
    • CL: 300 level RUSS Elective

  • RUSS 309 Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Advanced Practicum

    This course aims at skill development in speaking and oral presentation as well as in limited forms of composition. It is taken in combination with Russian 307 and conducted by members of Kazakh National University Philological Faculty and supervised by the program director. Expected preparation: 6 credits of Russian at the 300 level.

    Not offered in 2025-26

    • 3
    • No Exploration

    • Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Russophone Studies in Central Asia program.
    • CL: 300 level RUSS Elective

  • RUSS 331 The Wonderful World of Russian Animation

    Beginning in the 1910’s, Russian and then the Soviet Union was home to some of the most creative and innovative animated films in the world. In this course we will examine selected animated shorts in the context of Russian history and culture. Topics to be considered include the roots of animated film in the folk tale, the role of cartoons in educating the model Soviet child, the language of Soviet colonial discourse, and the ways in which post-Soviet animated films perpetuated or subverted past traditions.

    Not offered in 2025-26

  • RUSS 332 Chekhov in Film, Film in Chekhov

    Chekhov’s literary oeuvre appeared at the same moment as the birth of cinematography, and the two are closely intertwined. His art rests on what Sergei Eisenstein called the central principle of film: montage, visuality, the constant changing of shots, and dislocation in time and space. It is no wonder that Chekhov’s stories were adapted for the screen in record numbers: to date we count 235 film adapatations plus 10 animated films. In this course we will read several of his best short stories, view films based on his works, and analyze the cinematographic qualities of Chekhov’s prose.

    Not offered in 2025-26

  • RUSS 335 Oral History of Russian-Speaking America

    Students will study the history of Russian-speaking immigration to America through readings and discussions of cultural texts which situate it at the intersection of history, memory, and life story narratives. They will listen to Russian-language oral histories and research archival materials that present personal life stories against the background of traumatic experiences of recent history: in the context of historical events and transformations, such as wars, revolutions, repressions, the Soviet era, and its collapse. We will also collaborate with a local community partner to record and preserve the oral history of Russian-speaking Minnesotans. Students will learn basic interviewing skills, and practice transcribing and translating oral texts. Taught in Russian.

    Not offered in 2025-26

  • RUSS 336 Who’s Pushkin? Whose Pushkin?

    Who was Pushkin? Reform-minded liberal, Russian patriot, proud descendant of African nobility, the Russian Shakespeare, all or none of the above? In the eyes of Russians, is he still—was he ever?— “our everything”? A study of Pushkin’s lyric poetry, his novel in verse Eugene Onegin and other works in the context of his contested legacy. Conducted in Russian.

  • RUSS 342 Post-Soviet Film

    This course focuses on the question of collective identity in post-Soviet cinema. Topics include the marginalization of “the other,” whether disabled, gay, hipster, migrant or elderly; the breaking down of the boundary between civil society and the criminal world; and the transformation of former “brothers” into outsiders. In light of current events in Ukraine, particular emphasis will be placed on films dealing with war. Conducted in Russian.

  • RUSS 400 Integrative Exercise

    The integrative exercise has two parts: 1) an exam based on coursework and the department reading list and 2) an independent research paper or project, designed in consultation with the comps adviser. Credits may be distributed in any fashion over the fall, winter, and spring terms. Russian 400 is a continuing course; no grade will be awarded until all six credits are completed.