Introduction

For many people around the world, the Russian language is mostly associated just with one country: the Russian Federation. What many people don’t realize is that Russian is spoken in many fascinating places around the world, and Russia itself is extremely diverse. The goal behind this book is to help you start to get acquainted with some of these places, using the Russian language as your tool to do so. While we really only have time to scratch the surface of these complex and compelling places, we hope that after finishing your work with the book, you will continue to engage with the many cultures that include the Russian language as part of their rich tapestry.

We did not have space to include all of the places where people speak Russian or all of the interesting groups within Russia. There will be opportunities for you to learn more about some additional places throughout the chapters, and we encourage you to take advantage of that, especially if you have a personal history or a special interest in a particular place.

We have to acknowledge that a book like this can bring up some complicated issues. The topic of the Russian language and its relationship to other places and to the minority groups within its borders inevitably involves the topic of identity, which can be complicated, confusing, and even troubling. Similarly, many of the places and people in focus in this book have a complicated relationship with Russia, and some of these difficulties will come out in these chapters. Each place has a very unique history and, in many cases, a contradictory and ambiguous relationship with Russia and the Russian speakers that live in it.

Similarly, culture and history are complicated, and many people have differing views on them. The materials included in the book are sometimes from the perspective of one person. Remember that they may not represent the views of all people who experienced these events.

It’s also important to realize that names and how we talk about places are very important, and in some of the chapters you will notice that places are talked about in more than one way. That language can sometimes reflect historical shifts, or attitudes that people have. Many of the places that you will learn about tended to be referred to in one way during the Soviet era, but now that they are independent countries, their citizens tend to prefer other names, while some speakers continue to use the old names.

Some examples of this include:

Notice instances of these differences for yourself, and the topic will be revisited in several of the chapters of the book.

To learn more about the following features of the textbook, click the plus signs to open them.

Chapters

The book has 6 chapters, with the following themes:

Chapter Structure

Each chapter has a similar structure.

Part 1: Introduction to the place (may include basic facts, geography, ethnic and religious makeup, interesting facts, history, information about language and language policy, information about major cities)

Part 2: Review of vocabulary related to the lexical topic, New vocabulary related to the lexical topic, Grammar related to the lexical topic, along with practice of this vocabulary and grammar

Part 3: Reading, listening, and speaking related to the place and lexical topic, including an activity that gives students an opportunity to share with each other and others outside of their university

Part 4: Reference, which includes pages that have the vocabulary gathered onto one page, a page with all speaking activities, a page with all texts.

Diverse Russian has a system of color-coding the activities that are included in it to help you orient yourself quickly as you are working through it.

Many activities include drop-down glossaries labeled with Лексика. In most cases, these are vocabulary items that will help you understand a text or video, but you are not necessarily expected to learn them all as part of your work in the chapter. Usually they occur in the order that they appear in the text or video. If you want more information about them, or to look them up later, you can consult the Лексика reference page for each chapter. That page includes searchable lists of the vocabulary that appears in the chapter, as well as spreadsheet and Google doc versions of that full vocabulary list.

Navigating lessons

You can open the Table of Contents to the book by clicking “Contents” on the top left. You will see the names of the chapters. You can click the plus signs to open the chapter and see the names of the pages in the chapters. You can jump around among the pages using these links in the Table of Contents. Or you can navigate the lesson by clicking on the red “Previous” or “Next” buttons that are at the very bottom of the page.

Technical Information

We have found that the Chrome browser works the best with these materials, and the Safari browser has problems on occasion.

While the lessons may work on mobile devices, they were made with a larger screen in mind, and we recommend that you use the book on a larger screen.

Grammar Hints and Case Questions

We will sometimes use case question words to give you a hint about which case to use in a sentence. In Russian, case question words are a helpful tool for identifying the right grammatical case. These words can guide you to use the correct case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives and also help you to form questions correctly. In the table below, study the key question words associated with each case as well as some of the most common functions of the cases.

Get Started!

Jump in to learn about these exciting places!

Урок 1: Украина

Урок 2: Казахстан

Урок 3: Народы России

Урок 4: Страны Балтии

Урок 5: Сакартвело (Грузия)

Урок 6: Соединённые штаты Америки