Russian (RUS) College of Letters & Science

RUS 001 — Elementary Russian (5 units)

Course Description: Introduction to Russian grammar and development of all language skills in a cultural context with special emphasis on communication.

  • Learning Activities: Discussion 5 hour(s), Laboratory 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC).

RUS 001A — Accelerated Intensive Elementary Russian (15 units)

Course Description: Special 12-week accelerated, summer session intensive combining the work of RUS 001, RUS 002, and RUS 003. Introduction to Russian grammar and development of all language skills in a cultural context with emphasis on communication.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 15 hour(s).
  • Credit Limitation(s): Not open to students who have completed RUS 001, RUS 002, or RUS 003.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

RUS 002 — Elementary Russian (5 units)

Course Description: Continuation of grammar and language skills developed in RUS 001.

Prerequisite(s): RUS 001.

  • Learning Activities: Discussion 5 hour(s), Laboratory 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC).

RUS 003 — Elementary Russian (5 units)

Course Description: Continuation of grammar and language skills developed in RUS 002.

Prerequisite(s): RUS 002.

  • Learning Activities: Discussion 5 hour(s), Laboratory 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); World Cultures (WC).

RUS 004 — Intermediate Russian (4 units)

Course Description: Grammar review and conversational practice in Russian.

Prerequisite(s): RUS 003.

  • Learning Activities: Discussion/Laboratory 4 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); World Cultures (WC).

RUS 005 — Intermediate Russian (4 units)

Course Description: Grammar review. Introduction to literature in its sociopolitical context. Conversational practice.

Prerequisite(s): RUS 004.

  • Learning Activities: Discussion 4 hour(s), Laboratory 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); World Cultures (WC).

RUS 006 — Intermediate Russian (4 units)

Course Description: Grammar review. Intermediate conversation and continued reading of literature. Social and cultural practices in contemporary Russia; introduction to Russian history.

Prerequisite(s): RUS 005.

  • Learning Activities: Discussion 4 hour(s), Laboratory 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); World Cultures (WC).

RUS 098 — Directed Group Study (1-5 units)

Course Description: Directed group study.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Discussion 1-5 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Pass/No Pass only.

RUS 099 — Special Study for Undergraduates (1-5 units)

Course Description: Special study for undergraduates.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Variable.
  • Grade Mode: Pass/No Pass only.

RUS 101A — Advanced Russian (4 units)

Course Description: Topics in Russian. Grammar for the advanced student. Reading and discussion of journalistic texts and classic and contemporary literature. Conversation exercises utilizing literary and colloquial variants of current Russian speech.

Prerequisite(s): RUS 006; or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC).

RUS 101B — Advanced Russian (4 units)

Course Description: Continuation of RUS 101A. Topics in Russian grammar for the advanced student. Reading and discussion of journalistic texts and classic and contemporary literature. Conversational exercises utilizing literary and colloquial variants of current Russian speech.

Prerequisite(s): RUS 101A; or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC).

RUS 101C — Advanced Russian (4 units)

Course Description: Continuation of RUS 101B. Topics in Russian grammar for the advanced student. Reading and discussion of journalistic texts and classic and contemporary literature. Conversational exercises utilizing literary and colloquial variants of current Russian speech.

Prerequisite(s): RUS 101B.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC).

RUS 102 — Russian Composition (4 units)

Course Description: Practice in writing Russian. One composition on a different topic each week. Topics include: history, geography, politics, and literature of Russia; comparison of Russian and American lifestyles; current events. Conducted in Russian.

Prerequisite(s): RUS 006; or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Tutorial 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

RUS 103 — Literary Translation (4 units)

Course Description: Translation of Russian literary texts into stylistically equivalent idiomatic English.

Prerequisite(s): RUS 101C.

  • Learning Activities: Discussion 3 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

RUS 105 — Advanced Russian Conversation (4 units)

Course Description: Intensive conversational practice and discussion based on current events and contemporary texts.

Prerequisite(s): RUS 006.

  • Learning Activities: Discussion 3 hour(s), Practice 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); World Cultures (WC).

RUS 120 — Topics in Russian Literature & Culture (4 units)

Course Description: Knowledge of Russian not required. Investigation of significant themes and issues of Russian literature and culture within their European context.

Prerequisite(s): Upper division standing or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 1 time(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

RUS 122 — 19th-Century Russian Literature (4 units)

Course Description: Study of Russian literature (prose fiction, drama, poetry) from the period between 1800 and the end of the 19th century. May include authors like Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov. Offered alternately in English or Russian.

Prerequisite(s): RUS 101C when offered in Russian; no prerequisite when offered in English.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Enrollment Restriction(s): Not open to students who have taken RUS 121 and RUS 127.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); Visual Literacy (VL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

RUS 124 — 20th-Century Russian Literature (4 units)

Course Description: Study of Russian literature (prose, drama, poetry) from the period between 1900 and the end of the 20th century. Authors like Y. Olesha, M. Bulgakov, D. Kharms, and L. Petrushevskaia. Taught in Russian.

Prerequisite(s): RUS 101C when offered in Russian; no prerequisite when offered in English (every other year).

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Credit Limitation(s): Not open for credit to students who have taken RUS 123 or RUS 128.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); Visual Literacy (VL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

RUS 126 — The Russian Theater (4 units)

Course Description: The main works of Russian dramatists from Fonvizin to the present, including Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Ostrovsky, Chekhov, Blok, Mayakovsky, Kharms. Conducted in Russian.

Prerequisite(s): RUS 101C; or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

RUS 129 — Russian Film (4 units)

Course Description: History of Russian film; film & social revolution, the cult of Stalin, dissident visions; film & the collapse of the Soviet empire; gender and the nation in Russian film. Taught in English; Russian films with English subtitles.

Prerequisite(s): Completion of Subject A requirements.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Film Viewing 3 hour(s).
  • Cross Listing: FMS 129.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Visual Literacy (VL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

RUS 130 — Contemporary Russian Culture (4 units)

This version has ended; see updated course, below.
Course Description: Trends in Russian culture and the relationship between artists and the government. Topics: recent changes in the cultural scene, postmodernist trends in literature, visual art, film, and theater.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); Visual Literacy (VL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).
  • RUS 130 — Contemporary Russian Culture & Media (4 units)
  • Course Description: Contemporary Russian culture, with a particular focus on film and digital media made since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Films and texts supplemented by historical and sociological readings.
  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).
  • This course version is effective from, and including: Winter Quarter 2025.

RUS 133 — Post-Soviet Literature (4 units)

Course Description: Major authors and trends in Russian literature in post-1991 period. Discussion of impact of economic, social, and cultural turmoil of post-Soviet period on literary marketplace. Analysis of development of literary postmodernism in Russia.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

RUS 139 — Pushkin (4 units)

Course Description: Three major periods of Pushkin's poetical works: his early Lyceum verse; his poetry of the early 1820s; and the mature period. Further study of Pushkin's prose fiction, drama, and journalism.

Prerequisite(s): RUS 101C; or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

RUS 140 — Dostoevsky (in English) (4 units)

Course Description: Reading and analysis of Dostoevskys principal works such as Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, and The Diary. Study of social and political views as reflected in Dostoevskys works.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

RUS 141 — Tolstoy (in English) (4 units)

Course Description: Study of Leo Tolstoy's literary evolution and moral quest. Readings include his Confession, a major novel such as War and Peace or Anna Karenina, and representative shorter fiction.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); Writing Experience (WE).

RUS 142 — Women in Russian Culture (4 units)

Course Description: Study of the representation of women in contemporary Russian fiction and film. Exploration of issues such as family dynamics/motherhood, sexuality, work, and women's relationship to the state. Offered in English.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); Visual Literacy (VL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

RUS 143 — Chekhov (in English) (4 units)

Course Description: Examination of Chekhov's short stories and major plays, such as The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard, and Ivanov, in the broader cultural context of European and Russian fin de siecle.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

RUS 150 — Russian Culture (4 units)

Course Description: Study of Russian culture in 19th and 20th centuries. Brief introduction of the beginnings up to 19th century. Russian art, music, philosophy, church, traditions, and daily life. Knowledge of Russian not required.

  • Learning Activities: Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Oral Skills (OL); Visual Literacy (VL); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

RUS 192 — Research Essay (2 units)

Course Description: Research essay, based on primary and secondary sources, dealing in depth with a topic arising from or related to the prerequisite literature course.

Prerequisite(s): A Russian literature course; may be taken concurrently.

  • Learning Activities: Variable.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

RUS 194H — Special Study for Honors Students (4 units)

Course Description: Guided research, under the direction of a faculty member, leading to a senior honors thesis on a topic in Russian studies.

Prerequisite(s): Open only to majors of senior standing who qualify for honors program.

  • Learning Activities: Independent Study 4 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

RUS 195H — Honors Thesis (4 units)

Course Description: Writing an honors thesis, under the direction of a faculty member, on a topic in Russian studies.

Prerequisite(s): RUS 194H.

  • Learning Activities: Independent Study 4 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

RUS 197T — Tutoring in Russian (1-4 units)

Course Description: Tutoring in undergraduate courses, including leadership in small voluntary discussion groups affiliated with departmental courses.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor; upper division standing.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 1-2 hour(s), Laboratory 1-2 hour(s).
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 6 unit(s).
  • Grade Mode: Pass/No Pass only.

RUS 198 — Directed Group Study (1-5 units)

Course Description: Directed group study.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Variable.
  • Grade Mode: Pass/No Pass only.

RUS 199 — Special Study for Advanced Undergraduates (1-5 units)

Course Description: Special study for advanced undergraduates.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Variable.
  • Grade Mode: Pass/No Pass only.

RUS 299 — Individual Study (1-12 units)

Course Description: Individual study.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor; graduate standing.

  • Learning Activities: Variable.
  • Enrollment Restriction(s): Restricted to graduate students.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated.
  • Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only.

RUS 396 — Teaching Assistant Training Practicum (1-4 units)

Course Description: Teaching assistant training practicum.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing.

  • Learning Activities: Variable 3-20 hour(s).
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated.
  • Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only.