Russian
Academic Department Introduction
Wellesley’s Russian Department was founded in the 1940s by famed author and critic Vladimir Nabokov. We teach Russian in the broader context of Russian society, culture, visual art, and music. Our innovative language courses make use of movies, music, and history. Numerous activities both inside and outside the classroom are designed to enrich students’ appreciation of the achievements and fascinating traditions of Russian civilization.
Learning goals
- Converse fluently in Russian.
- Comprehend important primary and secondary texts from the Russian literary tradition.
- Discover and delineate the major themes of Russian literature and culture from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
Programs of Study
Russian major
Students express an understanding of Russian culture clearly and persuasively.
Course highlights
Elementary Russian I
RUSS101
Introduction to Russian grammar through oral, written, and reading exercises; special emphasis on oral expression. Three periods.
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Fedor Dostoevsky: The Seer of Spirit (in English)
RUSS276
Probably no writer has been so detested and adored, so demonized and deified, as Dostoevsky. This artist was such a visionary that he had to reinvent the novel in order to create a form suitable for his insights into the inner life and his prophecies about the outer. To this day readers are mystified, outraged, enchanted, but never unmoved, by Dostoevsky's fiction, which some have tried to brand as "novel-tragedies," "romantic realism," "polyphonic novels," and more. This course challenges students to enter the fray and explore the mysteries of Dostoevsky themselves through study of his major writings. -
The Nineteenth-Century Russian Classics: Passion, Pain, Perfection (in English)
RUSS251
Survey of Russian fiction from the Age of Pushkin (1820s-1830s) to Tolstoy's mature work (1870s) focusing on the role of fiction in Russian history, contemporaneous critical reaction, literary movements in Russia, and echoes of Russian literary masterpieces in the other arts, especially film and music. Major works by Pushkin (Eugene Onegin, "The Queen of Spades"), Lermontov (A Hero of Our Time), Gogol (Dead Souls), Pavlova (A Double Life), Turgenev (Fathers and Children), Tolstoy (Anna Karenina), and Dostoevsky (Crime and Punishment) will be read.
Places and spaces
Study abroad
We support Russian-language study abroad programs in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Latvia, and Georgia.
Russian lounge
Our cozy lounge fosters community among Russian faculty and students. Faculty meet informally here with students, as well as hold cultural events and share Russian meals.
Research highlights
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Shea McCarthy ’23 conducted an independent study of Natalia Rakhmanova’s 1976 Russian translation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, paying particular attention to the translator’s methods for rendering the novel’s songs and riddles.
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Senior Lecturer Alla Epsteyn and co-author Maia Solovieva wrote a chapter, “Extracurricular Activities in Russian Language and Culture Programs: Challenges and Perspectives,” in The Art of Teaching Russian (2020), an edited volume on Russian language instruction combining the latest research, pedagogy, and practice.
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Beware of House Slippers (2019) is a film written, acted, and produced by students in RUSS 306: Advanced Russian II. Set on the Wellesley campus, it imitates the stylistic and plot devices of the film Beware of the Car!, a 1966 comedy by Eldar Ryazanov.
Opportunities
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Internships
During the summer, in collaboration with American Councils, we offer two Russian-language internships in Tbilisi, Georgia. We also offer one virtual internship with the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages.
Beyond Wellesley
Beyond Wellesley
Russian, the eighth most commonly spoken language in the world, and considered a critical language by the U.S. State Department, can get you a job. American emissaries with a nuanced knowledge of the Russian language and cultural norms are urgently needed.
Recent Employers
Alum highlights
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Florence Graham ’06
Florence Graham ’06
I work in mental health in the NHS in London. Majoring in Russian equipped me with skills for thinking from different perspectives, being attuned to language and layers of meaning, and keeping curiosity and imagination alive, all crucial for my work (and life).
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Sarah Stone ’04
Sarah Stone ’04
Russian lets me support immigrant communities in keeping their language and culture alive. As a librarian in San Francisco, part of my job is to choose Russian children's books for the library collection. It turns out that the Russian and Ukrainian library patrons love to check out many of the same stories, poems, and cartoons that Alla L’vovna taught at Wellesley.
For more
Explore the Russian Department
Learn about our rich history, including our founding by Vladimir Nabokov. Access more detail on our study abroad, scholarship, and internship programs, as well as a video archive and additional resources.
106 Central Street
Wellesley, MA 02481