The Russian concentration aims to combine, in the best traditions of a liberal arts degree, practical language learning with the study of culture through literature and culture. It provides extensive language training and demanding courses in literary history and analysis. Moreover, the Department firmly believes that serious language study offers broad intellectual benefits in and of itself. In the upper-level Russian language courses, it aims to develop linguistic self-consciousness and a basis for the study of linguistics proper. In literary studies many undergraduates take not only the required courses (both in translation and in Russian), but also elect more specialized courses such as "monograph" studies of Dostoevsky (Russian 462), Chekhov (Russian 463), and Tolstoy (Russian 464). Concentrators are required to complete part of the reading of these courses in Russian. Why Study Russian? (PDF).

Russian is also an especially rewarding second concentration when combined with political science, history or another social-science discipline. Students who complete the intensive year-long program in their first year are particularly well equipped to follow the dual-concentration path.

After completing two years of Russian (or the equivalent), concentrators must take two third-year language courses and then at least two of a range of four-hundred-level language courses. Language courses are proficiency oriented, and make extensive use of the multimedia resources available at Michigan (daily news broadcasts in Russian, films, and so on). All language courses beyond Russian 202 are taught by teachers with native proficiency. Several courses are designed to meet the needs of students intending to use Russian in the business and professional world ("Business Russian" 413, "Political Russian" 414).

During junior and senior years the concentrator also takes at least three of the four survey courses offered annually ("Russian Literature to 1870"; "Russian Literature 1870-1900"; "Russian Literature 1890-1921"; "Russian literature 1921 to the present"). The survey classes typically combine lecture and discussion, literary history and practical analysis. Students interested in graduate study in the Slavic field will usually take at least one "monograph" course, and sometimes "Fundamentals of Slavic Linguistics". The two sides of the concentration meet in introductory courses to Russian literature which are taught in Russian, with reading and writing assignments in Russian [Russian 351 and 352].

Students receive extensive personal attention and counseling, and, in the new circumstances of post-Soviet Russia, are encouraged to spend at least one semester in Russia itself. Counselors ensure that courses taken abroad fit into the concentration program appropriately. Michigan Russianists are very competitive in applications to professional schools, and place very well in graduate programs.