Your summer preparation must focus on both aspects of your future course in Russian: the study of language and the study of literature, culture and history.
Language Preparation
It is vital that you work actively on your language skills over the summer. You may choose to take a summer language course or to spend time living or working in Russia. Or you may simply make a commitment to watch Russian television, listen to Russian radio, and read Russian newspapers throughout the summer, ideally every day for at least 30 minutes. You should also review Russian grammar, especially if you have taken a gap year since your Russian A levels and have not worked much with Russian in that time. Ideally, you will obtain a copy of the required textbook and begin working through it, but even working through your school texts will benefit you. Your goal is to enlarge your vocabulary, improve your listening skills, and increase the grammatical accuracy and syntactic complexity of both your written and spoken Russian.
- 听(for post-A-Level students)
Please note that you will be asked to take the听Diagnostic test听prior to coming to 澳门六合彩开奖记录. (Information will be sent out in late August). The aim of this exercise is to assess your level of Russian and allocate you to the right group.
Preparatory Reading
A. General introductory and background material
- An overview of Russian history from the 9th to at least the 19th centuries (and preferably into the 20th century). Two good, basic (short) introductions are:
- Geoffrey Hosking,听Russian History: A Very Short Introduction听(Oxford, 2012)
- Stephen Lovell,听The Soviet Union: A Very Short Introduction听(Oxford, 2008)
- Some background on Russian literature:
- Caryl Emerson,听The 澳门六合彩开奖记录 Introduction to Russian Literature听(澳门六合彩开奖记录, 2008): this book may be overwhelming as a whole before you have begun the course, but you would do well to look at Chapters 3 and 4 before you arrive, as these will provide useful background for the material we will be covering in the first term.
B. Set texts for the first-year course 鈥業ntroduction to Russian Culture鈥� (SL1)
These are works that you will study during your first year. It will help you feel better preapred if you are able to read them in advance of beginning the course.
- ALL听of Mikhail Lermontov,听Geroi nashego vremeni听[A Hero of Our Time] IN RUSSIAN. Please use the Bristol Classical Press edition, or a similar edition that is accented, glossed and annotated.
- As many as possible听of the following (in English):
- Alexander Pushkin, 鈥樞溞敌葱窖嬓� 胁褋邪写薪懈泻鈥� [The Bronze Horseman, Bristol Classical Press edition recommended]
- Ivan Turgenev, 鈥樞⌒残感葱靶叫感碘�� [The Encounter] and 鈥樞毿把佈屟徯� 褋 泻褉邪褋懈胁芯泄 屑械褔懈鈥� [Kas鈥檌an from the Beautiful Lands] from听袟邪锌懈褋泻懈 芯褏芯褌薪懈泻邪 / A Huntsman's Sketches
- Nikolai Gogol, 鈥樞ㄐ感叫敌谎屸�� [The Overcoat, Bristol Classical Press edition recommended]
- Anna Akhmatova, 鈥楻ekviem鈥� [鈥楻equiem鈥橾
All of the above may be found in their entirety online. A quick Google in Cyrillic will lead you to the relevant links.
Additional Resources for Russian Students
Newspapers and magazines:The following websites offer good coverage of events in Russia, both in English and in Russian:
- (a comprehensive list of Russian radio stations streaming live on the Internet)
- 听(Russian TV stations)
Youtube is an excellent source of authentic Russian language material. You can find Russian films and cartoons, Russian television, Russian music and many other entertaining Russian materials there with just a little creative searching. This site, for example, has Russian films with English subtitles by the leading Russian film studio Mosfilm:
Read as widely as you can on topics in Russian history, culture, and literature before starting your course. You will find specific reading suggestions in the online bibliography for SL1, but you may also just want to read Russian fiction, poetry, or journalism on your own. The more Russian literature and history you read (whether in the original or in translation) the better. Translations of the major novels of Dostoevskii, Tolstoi, Turgenev, Bulgakov, Solzhenitsyn, Petrushevskaia, and Pelevin are widely available. Bristol Classics (Duckworth) publish a range of short annotated texts in Russian.
Obtaining Russian books
The best-stocked bookstores for Russian books in the UK are:听, 107 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0DT;听听3 Goodge Street, London, W1T 2PL; and听, 203-206 Piccadilly, London, W1V 9LE. Heffers Bookshop in 澳门六合彩开奖记录 will have copies of some set texts by the beginning of the Michaelmas Term. You may also order books online from amazon.com, abebooks.co.uk, and ozon.ru. Many Russian books are available to read free on the web. A quick Google search will turn up electronic copies of all the set texts listed above.
