Start speaking Russian today! Now in an updated second edition, Beginner's Russian with Interactive Online Workbook offers an innovative, easy, and thorough way to speak, and read Russian confidently. This complete Russian course includes a user-friendly textbook and interactive online workbook. The carefully-paced, relevant lessons cover grammar and language basics in the context of everyday situations related to family, jobs, introductions, dining out, the Internet, and much more. The chapters are designed for the beginning student, and are full of photos, cartoons, games, and exercises alongside easy-to-understand lessons. This new edition includes updated vocabulary to reflect ongoing changes in contemporary Russian culture and society, new speaking and writing activities that allow students to interact with technology and media, and new individual and group projects and oral presentations to engage learners' creativity and help them develop communicative competency. In addition to the book, you have access to an interactive website full of videos, audio, and self-correcting exercises. The enriching material on the website reinforces the basics of the lessons in the book, helping you acquire Russian skills in a natural, engaging way. Thorough explanations and instructions offer a gradual introduction to the language, Cyrillic alphabet, and grammar An interactive website features correct pronunciation by native speakers and helps learners start speaking Russian right away Ideal for individual self-study or classroom use Each chapter will take 5-6 hours of classroom instruction, or approximately 10-12 hours of study for the independent learner. Students should be able to attain the ACTFL Novice High or Intermediate Low levels of proficiency by the end of the course

After the First Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934, folklore, like literature, became an instrument of the political propagandist. Folklorists devoted considerable efforts to attending to what purported to be a rebirth of the Russian epic tradition, producing works of pseudofolklore that as often as not featured Joseph Stalin in the hero's role. Miller's account of this curious episode in the history of popular culture and totalitarian politics, and his synopses and translations of "classic" examples of folklore for Stalin, seek to serve as a resource not only for the study of contemporary folklore but also for the political scientist.