Russian at Stony Brook University

Russian is one of six official languages of the United Nations. Throughout the past several decades, Russian has been relevant to world politics, business, science, and culture (think of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, the Cold War, the ISS collaboration, classic ballet and so much more). Whether great or troubling, Russia is a fascinating subject to study, and language is the key. Moreover, Russian is a native language of millions of people outside Russia (big parts of Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and others).

Cyrillic alphabet is used by several European Slavic languages, e.g., Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian, and even by some other world languages you wouldn't guess (Mongolian?!) While learning Russian can be challenging, it is also very intellectually rewarding.

Besides a robust Russian language sequence (from Beginner to Advanced), we offer summer intensive courses, a special course for Heritage Speakers (RUS 213), and a variety of literature and culture courses (including a summer course in Russian Cinema). We also offer a Minor in Russian. Many Stony Brook Russian Minors went on to exciting careers in political science, business, medicine, and more.