RUS': a Comprehensive Course in Russian
This comprehensive foundation textbook is expressly designed for students embarking
on a Russian language programme. Accompanied by cassettes, it develops the four key
language skills ± reading, writing, speaking and listening ± and provides all the material
required to reach intermediate level either at high school or during the ®rst year of
university. Highly interactive and activity-based, the course puts students ®rmly at the
centre of the learning process, developing their autonomy as learners.
. Thorough grounding in the grammar and structures of contemporary Russian
. Wide-ranging tasks and exercises for both classroom use and self study
. Informative texts selected to foster cultural awareness
. Topics including family life, education, history, geography, work and leisure
. Clear, attractive layout with lively illustrations to reinforce learning
. Extensive reference features including section on basic concepts of grammar
. Teachers' guidelines to enhance practical application in the classroom
. On-line answerkey at />sarah smyth is a lecturer in Russian at Trinity College, Dublin. She is co-author of
two Russian language textbooks, Basic Russian, A Grammar and Workbook (1999) and
Intermediate Russian, A Grammar and Workbook (2001).
elena crosbie is lecturer in Russian at Heriot-Watt University. She is an experienced
interpreter and is on the editorial board of the Russian journal Rusistica. Her
publications include papers on language teaching.

RUS'
a Comprehensive Course
in Russian
SARAH SMYTH
Trinity College, Dublin
ELENA V. CROSBIE
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
published by the press syndicate of the university of cambridge
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom
cambridge university press

ISBN 0 521 01074 8 cassette set
ISBN 0 521 52955 7 audio CD set
Illustrations: Vitaly Palkus
Contents
Preface: to the students vii
Acknowledgements x
Outline of the course xii
Key to symbols used in the course xvii
Part I Course materials
Introductory unit 1
Unit 1 28
Unit 2 48
Unit 3 72
Unit 4 103
Unit 5 127
Unit 6 153
Unit 7 176
Unit 8 205
Unit 9 227
Unit 10 251
Unit 11 275
Unit 12 301
Unit 13 332
Unit 14 360
Unit 15 389
Unit 16 413
Unit 17 437
Unit 18 458
v
Unit 19 487

Preface: to the students
The course
The authors hope that you will enjoy studying Russian and using this textbook. It is the
result of many years' work and has been piloted in three educational centres over the last
ten years. It has thus passed through many students' hands, many of whom have gone
on to become professional Russianists.
The course is primarily intended for use in a classroom situation. Indeed, one of its
main aspirations is to provide learners with the motive and opportunity to explore and
use Russian as a tool for communication. This is not to suggest that classroom work
alone will make you pro®cient; experience has shown that the students who make the
best progress normally spend an hour in private study for every contact hour with a
teacher. Classroom tasks and activities provide you with the opportunity to interact with
other learners and your teacher in and about the language; private study, be it reading,
organising your notes, organising your vocabulary, doing exercises to reinforce
grammatical concepts or working with the tapes, allows you to consolidate what you
have learnt in class, to take stock of your progress and to monitor your learning.
Remember that learning a language is not easy. Textbooks that suggest you can do so
in three months are only misleading the gullible public. A language re¯ects a culture, its
history and its way of viewing the world. Avail of any opportunity that arises to practise
your Russian and to acquaint yourself with Russian life, past and present. You will ®nd
the experience broadens your horizons, develops your curiosity and makes you look at
the world and how we talk about it with a more open mind.
Language awareness
The `Language awareness' section is intended to help you situate your growing
knowledge and understanding of Russian in the context of knowledge you already have
about the functioning of other languages (and English in particular).
The language awareness component of the course is intended as an optional extra for
those who feel they need it and ®nd it helpful. If you are used to learning languages in a
formal classroom context, you may not need it at all. If, on the other hand, you ®nd
increasingly that the jargon used to refer to language is a useful short-hand and that you

one suggestion is to keep a vocabulary ®le with a page dedicated to each of the topics
and sub-topics listed. The chart will help you assess how many words you have recorded
and feel you have learnt.
In your vocabulary notes it is advisable to differentiate between key and peripheral
words on a given topic. Possibly key words could be stored on one side of the page and
peripheral words on the other. How you decide which words are key, and which
peripheral, will in part depend on your interests, in part on your reasons for learning
Russian and in part on common sense.
It is also important to take note of common constructions used with particular words.
One way of doing this is to illustrate each entry with examples of a word's use: a phrase
or sentence from a dictionary or from the text where you came across a word. With
regard to verbs, make sure you note what case they govern. Furthermore, Russian tends
to use adjectives more than we do in English, so make note of common adjective and
noun combinations.
Since Russian is a word-building language, it is also helpful to group together words
which are derived from the same root. Many of these words will refer to the same topic:
for instance the word set exbnm, exbnmcz, extybr, exbntkm, extdysq, which are all
viii
Preface: to the students
derived from the root ex-, all relate to studying/teaching. Using a highlighter, common
roots can easily be identi®ed. Recognising word-building patterns considerably reduces
the load on your memory.
This might seem like an awful lot of work. It is. But it pays off in the long run. If you
are systematic about recording and learning vocabulary right from the start, you will
®nd it becomes part of your routine. Determine to work on a small number of words
every day. You will be pleasantly surprised at how much easier it gets with time.
This section also lists tasks relating to each of the vocabulary topics which you should
be able to do. Indeed, it is not simply enough to know a word: it is important to be able
to use it in speech and writing. Again there are boxes for you to tick off as a way of
monitoring your progress.

German, French and Spanish departments for providing invaluable assistance with the
`Language awareness' section, in particular Sheila Watts, Claire Laudet and Susana
Bayo
Â
. We owe a debt of gratitude to Sean Devitt, Eimear Farren and Dee McGarry for
their comments on the `Teachers' guidelines'. Many thanks are also due to all those who
supplied the photographs for this textbook: Vladimir Kallistov, Connie Dowling, John
Murray, Vladimir Shugurov, Emily Finer, Anatoliy Tchikine, Aleksandr Olegovich
Sholokhovskiy and Aleksandr Asta®ev. A particular thanks to Vitaly Palkus for his
lively and imaginative line-drawings. Thanks to Elena Baburina, Manushak Hovsepyan,
Dmitri Tsiskarashvili and Vladimir Shugurov for their reading of the recorded material
and to John Murray for producing the recording sessions. Thanks also to John Grimes,
the sound engineer in the CEL Studios, Radio Centre, RTE for his contribution to the
production of the tapes. Thank you to Natalya Uvarova for her careful copyediting.
Thanks are also due to all the Russian publishers whose texts are included in this course:
every possible attempt was made to contact them and seek permission to reproduce
extracts. Many have ceased to exist, others failed to respond. We have assumed that
silence is consent. And last but not least many thanks to Rate Brett, Pauline Graham,
Camilla Erskine, Jacqueline French, Jenny Landor and Caroline Murray of Cambridge
University Press, for their support, perseverance and commitment to the project.
x
We accept sole responsibility for the mistakes, infelicities of style and imperfections that
no doubt remain in spite of the best efforts of all colleagues and advisors involved in this
project.
Sarah Smyth Elena Crosbie
Lecturer in Russian Lecturer in Russian
Trinity College Heriot-Watt University
Dublin Edinburgh
Acknowledgements
xi

È
e
È
E
È
/ yo a clipped yo in yoghurt
:;
fd zheh s in pleasure
Pp
gc zeh z in zoom
Bb
Uu ee ee in feet
Qq
U
Æ
uÆ ee kra
Â
tkoe y in toy
Rr
K v ka k in kit
Kk
A q el l in lollypop
Vv
M a em m in mug
Yy
H u en n in nut
Jj
Oo o clipped shortened version
of o in open
Gg

hki znak) no sound
"'
kb eh e in debt
>.
l Î you you in youth
Zz
m ¯ yah ya in yap
2
Course materials
Classwork
A Recognising Russian letters
We have divided the alphabet into ®ve groups:
Group 1 These letters look and sound similar to their English counterparts.
Ff = [a] Tt = [e] Rr = [k]
Vv = [m] Jj = [o] Nn = [t]
Group 2 These letters look like English, but are pronounced differently.
D^= [v] Yy= [n] Hh= [r]
Cc= [s] Ee= [oo] {[= [kh]
Group 3 These letters look different, but are pronounced similarly to English sounds.
<d= [b] Uu= [g] Ll= [d]
E
È
e
È
= [yo] Pp= [z] Bb= [ee]
Kk= [l] Gg= [p] Aa=[f]
Qq= as [y] in boy
Group 4 These letters are peculiar to the Cyrillic alphabet.
:;= [zh] Ww= [ts] Xx= [ch]
Ii= [sh] Oo= [sh+ch]

f and z = sound [a]
j and / = sound [o]
e and . = sound [u]
s and b = sound [i]
' and t = sound [e]
The `softening' effect of the vowels on the right not only changes the quality of the
preceding consonant, but also completely changes the meaning of words. Though it may
not be easy to hear at ®rst, this phenomenon will be dealt with in more detail later. There
is a special `Soft consonants' listening exercise at the introductory section of the ®rst
cassette. For a discussion of `hard' and `soft' consonants see the `Grammar summary'
(1.1).
B3 Russian consonants
Most Russian consonants can also be thought of as pairs of voiced and voiceless
consonants.
voiced voiceless
d [b] g [p]
^ [v] a [f ]
u [g] r [k]
l [d] n [t]
; [zh] i [sh]
p [z] c [s]
At the end of words all voiced consonants (in the left column) become devoiced, i.e.,
they are pronounced like their voiceless equivalent (on the right), just like in German.
The meaning of the word does not change with devoicing. For example, lju is
pronounced [dok] and means `a great Dane'; Ujhdfx/^ ends with an [f ] sound, Vflhbl
with a [t] and Gfhb; with a [sh].
4
Course materials
C Notes on individual letters
We have divided the alphabet into ®ve groups of letters. Please study the notes below

. / is pronounced like [yo] as in `yonder' at the beginning of a word or after another
vowel. In the middle of a word / is pronounced [or]. Remember that / is always
stressed in a word.
. Both b and / are `softening' vowels. This is demonstrated in the `Soft consonants'
Exercise on your cassette. (See B2 above.)
. The letter q occurs only after vowels and is pronounced like the English `-y' after a
vowel as in `boy', `day', `guy', etc. The capital letter, though rarely used, appears
mostly in foreign names: for example, Qohr (York), Ym Qjhr (New York), etc.
. The Russian l is closer to a French or German rather than an English [d].
Introductory unit
5
. At the end of a word the consonants d, u, l, p are devoiced. (See B3 above.)
d is pronounced g
u is pronounced r
l is pronounced n
p is pronounced c
Group 4 :;, Ww, Xx, Ii, Oo, "', >., Zz
Read these notes before you do Listening exercises 7 and 8.
The consonants in this group:
. ; is similar to a French `j' in `je'; at the end of words ; is pronounced [sh]. (See B3
above.)
. w is a combination of [t+s]
. x = English [ch]
. i = English [sh]
. o is a combination of [sh+ch]
The vowels which may follow these letters are determined by the spelling rules which you
will learn later. These consonants are not affected by `softening'. (See B2 above.)
The vowels in Group 4
. ' is pronounced like [eh] whether stressed or unstressed. It occurs mostly in foreign
words and names; a few Russian words begin with a stressed ¿.

Listening to words: exercises 1±10
There are two exercises (two tasks) for each of the ®ve groups of letters. You will hear
instructions in English at the start of each exercise.
Nask 1 Listen and repeat
Listen and repeat after the speaker all the words and proper names on the list in each of the
®ve groups.
Task 2 Listen and number
In the second exercise the order of words in each of the ®ve groups is jumbled up, and every
word (excluding proper names) is preceded by a number in English. Put the appropriate
number for each word on your list.
Group 1 Group 2 Group 3
Exercises 1 and 2 Exercises 3 and 4 Exercises 5 and 6
f, t, r, v, j, n^, y, h, c, e, [d, u, l, /, p, b, q, k, g, a
frn ^Äyyf frn/h
fnÄrf rÄrnec d¹pytc
rfr rfccÏnf ^Ælrf
rjn rÆcvjc ufpÏnf
rnj vÄcnth ubnÄhf
rÏnf yth^ lbhÏrnjh
rjvÏnf jhrÏcnh kÄvgf
vfr hfrÏnf vfufp¹y
vÄvf hfrÏnrf gfhkÄvtyn
vfn ctrc gthtcnhÆqrf
nfr cnfhn gjk¹nbrf
nfrn ntÄnh cgjhn
nfv nÏrcn cnelÏyn
nÏvf nthhÆh neh¹pv
njv [Äjc ajynÄy
njvÄn [jh
aendÆk

Fyukbz Itrcg¹h "lbydÔhu
Rk¹ynjy XÏ[j^ NjkcnÆq
<Ïkmubz KÏhvjynj^ BhkÄylbz
L¹rrtyc GÆkmif IjnkÄylbz
Tkmwby CnÄkby Cjk;ty¹wsy
XfqrÆ^crbq KÆyljy Ym QÆhr
UÆujkm {heo/^ Fyyf RfhÏybyf
Hjcc¹z LjcnjÏ^crbq Ujhdfx/^
Listening exercise 12: months of the year
The names of all the months of the year are similar in English and Russian. But of course,
they sound slightly different in Russian. The spelling also differs: they do not start with a
capital letter. Listen to the tape, repeat each month after the speaker and insert the missing
letter in each word.
8
Course materials
z ± ^Ähm f± hÏkm bÖ± mj± n½dhm
at^± Äkm ± fq Ä^± ecn yj½± hm
vfh± bÖ± m ± tyn½dhm ltrÄd± m
Listening exercise 13: `soft consonants'
Listen to the Russian speaker and try to hear the different quality of `soft' consonants
affected by the vowels t, /, b, ., z and by the soft sign m.
Group 1 Consonants and the vowel å
nf ± nj ± nt nfv ± njv ± nÏvf
vf ± vj ± vt vfn ± vjn ± rjvÏnf
rf ± rj ± rt rfr ± rjn ± rÏnf
Group 2 Consonants and the vowel å
^f ± ^j ± ^t ^Änf ± ^jn ± DÏyf cf ± cj ± ct CÄhf ± cjr ± ctrc
yf ± yj ± yt jyÄ ± yÆnf ± ytn [f ± [j± [t [Äjc ± [jh± [tr
hf ± hj ± ht nhÄrnjh ± hjr ± hÏrnjh
Group 3 Consonants and the vowels è, å and ¸

Fahbrf Gfh¹; Ujhdfx/^ VbnthhÄy
RfyÄlf LÔdkby Rjkm {eccÏqy
<thk¹y NÆrbj Rk¹ynjy N¿nxth
DfibyunÆy Vflh¹l Tkmwby CnÄkby
:tyÏ^f "lbydÔhu VfylÏkf {heo/^
Reading practice 2
Write down the names of these Russian writers in English. What other Russian writers do
you know about? Discuss with the teacher how their surnames are written.
F. C. GÔirby Y. D. UÆujkm V. >. KÏhvjynj^
K. Y. NjkcnÆq F. G. XÏ[j^ A. V. LjcnjÏ^crbq
Reading practice 3
Study the map of the former Soviet Union and neighbouring countries.
3.1 Find the names of the 15 former Republics of the USSR on the map on p. 11. Match the
English names listed below to the Russian ones and put the appropriate number on the map.
Try reading the names of the countries aloud in Russian.
1. Armenia
2. Azerbaijan
3. Belarus
4. Estonia
5. Georgia
6. Kazakhstan
7. Kirgizstan
8. Latvia
9. Lithuania
10. Moldova
11. Russian Federation
12. Tadjikistan
13. Turkmenistan
14. Ukraine
15. Uzbekistan