Russian Through Propaganda (Books 1 & 2)

Beginning with the Russian alphabet and ending with readings of Soviet-era poetry and prose in the original, these volumes provide thorough coverage of Russian grammar, illustrated with Soviet propaganda posters. Topics include verb conjugation, tense and aspect, verbs of motion, case endings, reflexive verbs, numbers, indefinites, and much more.

Russian Through Poems and Paintings (Books 3 and 4)

The series continues by reaching further back in Russian history, to the Imperial period, with daily poems from the likes of Pushkin and Lermontov, and a survey of Russian art. Topics include deverbal forms (participles), advanced verbs of motion and verbs of position, and extensive work with word formation. Reading selections include Pushkin, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Goncharov, and Nekrasov.

New Release: Reading Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons

This volume includes the original Russian text of Ivan Turgenev’s classic novel, in its entirety, and a facing English translation, together with all the vocabulary notes and reference tables you need to enjoy this work in Russian.

Designed to help students of Russian begin to read real Russian literature in the original without constantly reaching for a dictionary, this parallel-text edition features a new translation done specifically for this purpose, as well as detailed Russian vocabulary notes, including all the important forms you need (especially aspectual pairs and conjugation types for all verbs). The original Russian text is marked for stress, but is otherwise unedited and unsimplified

Published in 1862, but set in 1859 — on the eve of the emancipation of Russia’s serfs in 1861 — Ivan Turgenev’s classic novel captures the tensions between generations in the context of a rapidly changing society torn between peasantry and nobility, Westernizers and Slavophiles, traditional agriculture and economic modernisation, liberalism and radicalism. With his depiction of Bazarov, a young self-professed “nihilist,” Turgenev famously managed to alienate many readers across the political spectrum. If anything, this speaks to how deftly his portraits — of everyone from aging noblemen, to peasants, to university students — manage to capture the wealth of contradictions found in every human person, and in human society at large. Indeed, Bazarov’s world is turned upside down when, contrary to his every “conviction,” he falls in love with the cold and intelligent Odintsova. Meanwhile, the novel’s other protagonists — among them Bazarov’s friend Arkady, Arkady’s father, Nikolai Petrovich, and his Anglophile uncle Pavel Petrovich — experience a series of loves, both present and past, as they struggle to come to some understanding of who they truly are. This timeless, moving novel is a pleasure to read and an ideal starting point for those who wish to read classical Russian prose in the original.

Available in paperback and on Kindle.

Re-Release: Polish, Book One

I first released this last year, then pulled it when I realized that a) it needed another proofread, and b) I had serious doubts about whether I’d have time to continue the series. Now I am confident that I will continue it, although I doubt a Book Two will be released any sooner than sometime in the second half of next year. I’ve just proofread it again. Fortunately there weren’t quite as many typos as I had feared, but there certainly were some obvious ones.

Granted, this series is not nearly as involved (dare I say, exciting) as my Russian series, but this was somewhat by design. I’ve tried to present some very tricky grammar (that in my view is not very well covered by existing textbooks) in a relatively succinct but thorough fashion. For fans of my Russian books, this text presents Polish in a way you’ll find very familiar, making it easy to compare with Russian.

I’m often asked what Slavic language might be easiest for those who know Russian to learn. This is a rather complicated question. First, the obvious answer might be Ukrainian, since it and Russian are East Slavic languages. The only wrinkle there is that whatever aspects of Ukrainian grammar and vocabulary that would not be familiar from Russian would be very familiar for those with knowledge of Polish (with a few exceptions, of course).. meaning that, as I often tell students, if you have sound knowledge of Russian AND Polish, picking up competency in Ukrainian will prove very easy. It must be said that South Slavic languages are generally simpler, across the board, than Russian; this is strikingly true of almost any grammar topic viewed separately — it just so happens that BCS (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian) turns out to be easier, while Bulgarian almost completely lacks case endings of any kind, making its grammar much simpler than even BCS. Czech is not overly difficult, roughly on par with BCS. That leaves Polish; I would say that in terms of its familiar morphology (case endings, etc.), and in the sense that its usage of aspect and motion verbs is all but indistinguishable from Russian, Polish may be the most approachable Slavic language for students of Russian looking to branch out. At the same time, the Polish spelling and sound system is easily the most complex of any modern Slavic language, and can be extremely tricky (especially with its consonant mutations!); meanwhile, there are a few grammar topics that are daunting even for those who have studied Russian. All told, Russian and Polish are surely among the most difficult languages to learn on the planet, and if pressed I would say that Polish is if anything more difficult because, again, of its spelling and pronunciation issues. After having taught Polish for years now, I’ve tried to cover all the problem areas very carefully in this book, and am confident that at the very least it will provide a sound grammar-centric supplement to existing resources.

Time allowing, I do hope eventually to release more Polish resources (including readers), not to mention books for other Slavic languages.

Available in paperback and Kindle.

Zamyatin’s We Now Available!

I’m excited to finally announce that the latest title in the “Reading Russian” series is now available, both in paperback and for Kindle. This title is something very different from the ones I’ve done so far. Chances are you may never even have heard of this novel — but if you haven’t, you should really check it out; most students I talk to who have read it have loved it. This is a genre-defining work of modern dystopian science fiction that, despite being written in 1920-21, is disturbingly prophetic in its depiction of a totalitarian state. The elements of Soviet society in particular that were foreseen by Zamyatin are laid out with uncanny accuracy — from sham elections (or rather “Days of Unanimity”), to a cult of personality, to efforts to colonize space in the name of ideology, to stifling surveillance by secret police, arrests, interrogations, and executions… the list goes on and on. Although very funny in places, this novel is ultimately chilling. It’s undoubtedly a can’t-miss classic of Russian literature.

Free PDF: Introducing Dostoevsky

This is a reasonably brief introduction to the world of ideas in Dostoevsky’s works, presented through key excerpts from his novels and other writings. Many of the passages contain elements from his own biography, from his mock execution and imprisonment, to his struggles with epilepsy. Along the way, the focus is on questions of life’s meaning amidst suffering and on Dostoevsky’s own formulation of faith in defiance of doubt and despair. I have tried to keep this text spoiler-free. While it is intended for readers completely new to Dostoevsky (specifically, for use in my college courses on Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky, and Russian Religious Philosophy), it may also be of interest even to those already familiar with his work.

I’ve included the original Russian (or Greek, etc.!) text with facing translation, as usual, though there’s no vocabulary here, since this isn’t really one of my usual Russian readers.

I will likely edit, supplement, and update this text from time to time. Just click to download.