Russian studies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While a useful major during the Cold War, it is as others have said a trust fund major. Russia will soon be just another impoverished third world country.

Yes, & God knows that third-world languages are never in demand!

[Anonymous]

I know Russian studies majors at
Barnard
Pitt
Oberlin
George Washington
Yale
Bryn Mawr
Princeton

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For employment, you compete against native speakers-not necessarily from Russia but other countries (Kazakhstan, Ukraine, etc). Also, linguist jobs may be impacted by AI in the future. For colleges, look at whether their program is focussed more on literature versus political science. Different departments have different focuses.

+1

I spent almost 10 years living in Moscow and Kyiv for work. I know a lot of people whose jobs were possible due to their Russian language skills, and they were all fluent. I don't think it is possible to become fluent in Russian just by raking it up in university as a native English speaker. Your child will have a heavy accent, will not be completely fluent, and won't have the cultural mindset or understanding of nuance to really "get" a tense or complicated situation involving native speakers. The people who had the language skills that got them these jobs were Americans with a parent from a Russian-speaking country who had used the langauge with them from childhood or were from an ex-Soviet country with a Slavic-family local language and Russian taught routinely in the local school system, etc. Don't forget that AI advances are going to narrow down the prospects for anybody intending to use their "Russian language skills" to get a job.

I can speak and read Russian at a conversational level. My accent and even my facial expressions/gestures are clearly American. This is after living in Russian speaking countries for 10 years and taking classes. I do not have the matery of the subtleties and cultural-influenced quirks/nuances to the language that would allow full fluency. And I can tell you that I wouldn't have the skills I do have unless I had spent so much time fully immersed in a Russian-speaking country.

Tell your child to take Russian for fun, for his electives/language requirements. He isn't going to be the American version of Phil Jennings.

I don’t know that I agree with this. I didn’t live in Moscow as long as you but no one ever believed I was American. From my accent and my facial expressions they all thought I was from one of the republics — Latvia or Lithuanian usually. My friend who started Russian at age 14 spoke with basically native fluency and is now a professor.

But I agree that it is hard to achieve a real level of fluency that can compete. But for positions that need security clearance, a native born American will have an advantage.

When my Russian was still pretty poor someone looked at me quizzically and asked, "Pribaltika?" The Baltics? I said no, I'm an American, and he jumped like I startled him and just walked away without another word.

Russian students in my dorm thought we were Polish. American usually wasn't the first guess, but we were clearly not Russian.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I majored in Russian at Princeton in the mid-90s, at the nadir of Russian influence. We had four people in my class in the department, which had eight tenured professors. I had never taken Russian before I went to Princeton, and I did nothing with it after school. Became a sports journalist and then a lawyer.

Someone does not know what 'nadir' means.

It seems more the case that you would benefit from studying the history of this period, particularly that of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and rise of Russian emigrants indeed created a deep need for Russian speakers. How could you possibly not know this?

That’s not a well paying field and a stupid reason for investing $90k in a major from which it is very difficult to get a good paying job in a career with a future. Even if fortunate to get into the CIA, you are stuck in a bureaucracy at a government wage the rest of your life.

I have two kids who are doing very well using their Russian Studies majors in exactly that way. Maybe you should move along if you don't even know what you're talking about?

Do you mind sharing what kind of places they work? I am the Russian major who posted previously. I works with Russian emigre community in the 90s providing legal services. But now so many of the people that came over in the 90s have kids that grew up here fully fluent…and there are fewer recent emigres so my impression was that work was not so in demand. And that work is often poorly paid — I didn’t really make a living wage when I did it.

They are intelligence analysts within the IC (different agencies).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an excellent list! It pains me how ignorant some of these comments are. My kid received four federally funded scholarships to learn Russian as it is deemed a language essential to our national security. One scholarship included a 7-week immersion study in a Russian speaking country. These programs were started by President Bush as we did have enough U.S. citizen interpreters who spoke Arabic during the Gulf war. Unfortunately, the current administration is gutting these programs. The three universities that still have the Russian Flagship program are Georgia, Wisconsin and Indiana. All three offer amazing programs in Russian. Virginia Tech, UCLA, and UNC lost their Flagship funding last year but are still excellent. Arizona State, Columbia and Chicago are excellent.

Anonymous wrote:Academic here who studied Russian and a few other off-the-beaten-track languages:

Below I've pasted a list of universities that receive federal funds (at least until recently) for Russia and Central/Eastern Europe, including a number of state flagships. Any of them will have serious courses including language training. I'd second the recommendations for Middlebury & Georgetown as well.

But I'd also recommend that your kid consider a double major, or majoring in something else and minoring in Russian studies. On its own, it's pretty limiting. Language skills are useful but AI may erode that some of that utility. And it will be impossible to achieve real fluency without extensive in-country experience, which is going to be tricky for the foreseeable future with Russia.

Title VI-funded National Resource Centers/FLAS-Granting Programs for Eastern Europe and Eurasia

Arizona State University — The Melikian Center: Russian, Eurasian & East European Studies
Harvard University — Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies
Indiana University — Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute
Indiana University — Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center
Stanford University — Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies
The Ohio State University — Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies
University of California, Berkeley — Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
University of Illinois — Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center
University of Kansas — Center for Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies
University of Michigan — Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — The Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies
University of Pittsburgh — Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies
University of Texas at Austin — Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison — Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia

Just so you are aware, it is the Biden administration that cut 1/2 the language programs, including Arabic at Maryland….give “credit” where credit is due.

I am well aware of the funding situation, thank you. The NSLI-Y scholarships that my child received have been jeopardized by the current administration. The Flagship programs are not high school programs, they are college programs, and yes, the funding for the Flagship programs were reduced at the end of the Biden administration save money. 4 of the 8 Russian Flagship programs were cut. But back to high school programs, it does not appear that NSLI-Y is sending kids abroad anymore — they did not open applications this fall although they took applications for their virtual programming. Foreign language acquisition has not been a funding priority in recent years but the budget cuts this year have practically been a death blow. I’m sorry you took offense to my post and responded politically. We are where we are with the budget and each administration has its priorities.

NSLI-Y summer is open for applications and Russian is one of the offered languages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know Russian studies majors at
Barnard
Pitt
Oberlin
George Washington
Yale
Bryn Mawr
Princeton

[/quot

Err OK. But that doesn’t mean it’s a sensible choice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I majored in Russian at Princeton in the mid-90s, at the nadir of Russian influence. We had four people in my class in the department, which had eight tenured professors. I had never taken Russian before I went to Princeton, and I did nothing with it after school. Became a sports journalist and then a lawyer.

Someone does not know what 'nadir' means.

It seems more the case that you would benefit from studying the history of this period, particularly that of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and rise of Russian emigrants indeed created a deep need for Russian speakers. How could you possibly not know this?

NP. The Russian/Ukrainian emigre and expat community is really sufficient to supply all needs that are not intelligence/security related. It's similar to Chinese in that respect. If you just want to do business you can always find a bilingual local or hyphenated-American. It's the rare person who doesn't have a family background who excels in difficult foreign languages.

And these days if you would be connected to intelligence, it would even further reduce your chances of safely visiting, working, making friends with locals, etc.

I believe that people should study what they are interested in, but I agree this is not a field where you can expect a free-flowing job market and easy job finding. That makes it more of a passion major.

You know that people working within the IC on Russian-related projects do most of their work here in the U.S., right?

PP. Yes, I do. I'm the spouse of a previous poster on this thread who majored in Russian. I also studied Russian at an elementary level and worked there for a summer. My spouse and I considered and rejected several employment possibilities involving intelligence services and security clearances during our early 20s. We wanted to be able to freely make friends and travel and experience the culture as ordinary observers. We are patriotic enough but not sufficiently motivated by national security concerns. Anyway, this was long ago. I very much regret the re-repression of Russian intellectual life and the continued kleptocracy. My current employer, like other multinationals, closed its business there when the war broke out. I may never visit again and only half regret that. Russia has squandered yet another opportunity to be a truly great power through their devastating attacks on their Ukrainian cousins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an excellent list! It pains me how ignorant some of these comments are. My kid received four federally funded scholarships to learn Russian as it is deemed a language essential to our national security. One scholarship included a 7-week immersion study in a Russian speaking country. These programs were started by President Bush as we did have enough U.S. citizen interpreters who spoke Arabic during the Gulf war. Unfortunately, the current administration is gutting these programs. The three universities that still have the Russian Flagship program are Georgia, Wisconsin and Indiana. All three offer amazing programs in Russian. Virginia Tech, UCLA, and UNC lost their Flagship funding last year but are still excellent. Arizona State, Columbia and Chicago are excellent.

Anonymous wrote:Academic here who studied Russian and a few other off-the-beaten-track languages:

Below I've pasted a list of universities that receive federal funds (at least until recently) for Russia and Central/Eastern Europe, including a number of state flagships. Any of them will have serious courses including language training. I'd second the recommendations for Middlebury & Georgetown as well.

But I'd also recommend that your kid consider a double major, or majoring in something else and minoring in Russian studies. On its own, it's pretty limiting. Language skills are useful but AI may erode that some of that utility. And it will be impossible to achieve real fluency without extensive in-country experience, which is going to be tricky for the foreseeable future with Russia.

Title VI-funded National Resource Centers/FLAS-Granting Programs for Eastern Europe and Eurasia

Arizona State University — The Melikian Center: Russian, Eurasian & East European Studies
Harvard University — Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies
Indiana University — Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute
Indiana University — Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center
Stanford University — Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies
The Ohio State University — Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies
University of California, Berkeley — Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
University of Illinois — Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center
University of Kansas — Center for Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies
University of Michigan — Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — The Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies
University of Pittsburgh — Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies
University of Texas at Austin — Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison — Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia

Just so you are aware, it is the Biden administration that cut 1/2 the language programs, including Arabic at Maryland….give “credit” where credit is due.

I am well aware of the funding situation, thank you. The NSLI-Y scholarships that my child received have been jeopardized by the current administration. The Flagship programs are not high school programs, they are college programs, and yes, the funding for the Flagship programs were reduced at the end of the Biden administration save money. 4 of the 8 Russian Flagship programs were cut. But back to high school programs, it does not appear that NSLI-Y is sending kids abroad anymore — they did not open applications this fall although they took applications for their virtual programming. Foreign language acquisition has not been a funding priority in recent years but the budget cuts this year have practically been a death blow. I’m sorry you took offense to my post and responded politically. We are where we are with the budget and each administration has its priorities.

NSLI-Y summer is open for applications and Russian is one of the offered languages.

I am SO happy to hear that. Applications weren’t open last time I checked and they were way behind schedule. It’s an amazing opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I majored in Russian at Princeton in the mid-90s, at the nadir of Russian influence. We had four people in my class in the department, which had eight tenured professors. I had never taken Russian before I went to Princeton, and I did nothing with it after school. Became a sports journalist and then a lawyer.

Someone does not know what 'nadir' means.

It seems more the case that you would benefit from studying the history of this period, particularly that of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and rise of Russian emigrants indeed created a deep need for Russian speakers. How could you possibly not know this?

NP. The Russian/Ukrainian emigre and expat community is really sufficient to supply all needs that are not intelligence/security related. It's similar to Chinese in that respect. If you just want to do business you can always find a bilingual local or hyphenated-American. It's the rare person who doesn't have a family background who excels in difficult foreign languages.

And these days if you would be connected to intelligence, it would even further reduce your chances of safely visiting, working, making friends with locals, etc.

I believe that people should study what they are interested in, but I agree this is not a field where you can expect a free-flowing job market and easy job finding. That makes it more of a passion major.

You know that people working within the IC on Russian-related projects do most of their work here in the U.S., right?

PP. Yes, I do. I'm the spouse of a previous poster on this thread who majored in Russian. I also studied Russian at an elementary level and worked there for a summer. My spouse and I considered and rejected several employment possibilities involving intelligence services and security clearances during our early 20s. We wanted to be able to freely make friends and travel and experience the culture as ordinary observers. We are patriotic enough but not sufficiently motivated by national security concerns. Anyway, this was long ago. I very much regret the re-repression of Russian intellectual life and the continued kleptocracy. My current employer, like other multinationals, closed its business there when the war broke out. I may never visit again and only half regret that. Russia has squandered yet another opportunity to be a truly great power through their devastating attacks on their Ukrainian cousins.

I never considered intelligence work either because I wanted to travel freely and live in Russia. That was the point of studying Russian for me.

I would like to be able to visit again sometime. That would mean the war is over, Ukraine is free, and Russia has become somewhat normal again.

I'm sure I will be far more likely to visit Ukraine.

[Anonymous]

Middlebury is known for languages. They have a relationship with a west coast school specifically for Russian. Sorry I can’t remember the name. Russian is in high demand right now because a lot of public sector specialists in the language are retiring.

[Anonymous]

I’ve learned spooo much here!


There’s a Russian Lit course that everyone at northwestern raves about. I’m
Going to tel my DC to take it!

[Anonymous]

I did a BA in Russian language and literature at Pitt in the late '80s (including summer Russian for year 2 level at Pitt's summer language institute)

Pitt grad here ('93), and I did the same Russian Summer Institute! Was lucky enough to get a USAID Samantha Smith Memorial Exchange Scholarship for a semester at Moscow State- one of the highlights of my academic life.
Funny enough, I remember trying to choose between study abroad in France or the soon-to-be-Russian Federation, and I said, well, I better go study in Russia before it closes up again. And...here we are, 30 yrs later.

While in school, the FBI reached out to me, but I decided to apply to work at the embassy in Moscow. Getting my security clearance ended up taking over 2 years (for me, a goody two-shoes, no rap sheet, no parking tickets, nothing, spotless record) and while I was waiting to hear back I went, on a lark, to a Delta airlines interview. They loved that I knew Russian, promptly hired me, and after training I lived in NYC and flew the JFK-SVO route for almost 8 years.
Quit and then got my MBA in international marketing. Russian was a great undergrad major and taught me so much about life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve learned spooo much here!


There’s a Russian Lit course that everyone at northwestern raves about. I’m
Going to tel my DC to take it!

Russian Lit is great. Everyone should do a course in it.

I have a graduate degree in IR with a focus on Russia and Eastern and Central Europe. It was a very useful degree at the time. Because that's where the action was for more adventurous and unconventional paths - in finance, journalism, consulting, NGOs, multi-laterals, and of course State, USAID, IC and other US government agencies. It was super interesting and there were heaps of opportunities.

It's a different era today. Russia remains an issue, but it's a nation in rapid decline. The post Cold War gold rush is long gone. Now, I think a degree in Russian Studies is only useful for the humanities students going for the PhD or the oil and gas people. If you want to be prepared for the next few decades, do Chinese Studies. Otherwise, Russian Studies is for dilettantes who don't need to work for a living in 2025.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I did a BA in Russian language and literature at Pitt in the late '80s (including summer Russian for year 2 level at Pitt's summer language institute)

Pitt grad here ('93), and I did the same Russian Summer Institute! Was lucky enough to get a USAID Samantha Smith Memorial Exchange Scholarship for a semester at Moscow State- one of the highlights of my academic life.
Funny enough, I remember trying to choose between study abroad in France or the soon-to-be-Russian Federation, and I said, well, I better go study in Russia before it closes up again. And...here we are, 30 yrs later.

While in school, the FBI reached out to me, but I decided to apply to work at the embassy in Moscow. Getting my security clearance ended up taking over 2 years (for me, a goody two-shoes, no rap sheet, no parking tickets, nothing, spotless record) and while I was waiting to hear back I went, on a lark, to a Delta airlines interview. They loved that I knew Russian, promptly hired me, and after training I lived in NYC and flew the JFK-SVO route for almost 8 years.
Quit and then got my MBA in international marketing. Russian was a great undergrad major and taught me so much about life.

Pitt Russian BA poster here. Small world. I fudged the dates a bit in my post. I graduated from Pitt in '92, so it looks like we overlapped. It was '89 when I did the summer Russian. It was held at Chatham College that year.

I knew many of the Russian majors/studiers ahead of me but only one '93 grad (who also did summer Russian in '89 -- only I was taking 2nd year and they were in 1st year). From the details you've given, I don't think I know who you are.

I attended Russian club outings (sometimes helping to organize). I remember going to see Boris Godunov at the Pittsburgh Opera, many Russian/Soviet movies, meeting with several speakers on campus. I remember volunteering when the Chataqua Conference was on campus.

I get the occasional mass email from the Russian department. I haven't kept contact with any of the professors since my career shift away from Russian stuff. Nancy Condee is still there. Padunov passed away a few years ago. Birnbaum retired a few years ago I believe. Nina Kossman, my first Russian teacher, has led a fascinating life (search if interested).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve learned spooo much here!


There’s a Russian Lit course that everyone at northwestern raves about. I’m
Going to tel my DC to take it!

Russian Lit is great. Everyone should do a course in it.

I have a graduate degree in IR with a focus on Russia and Eastern and Central Europe. It was a very useful degree at the time. Because that's where the action was for more adventurous and unconventional paths - in finance, journalism, consulting, NGOs, multi-laterals, and of course State, USAID, IC and other US government agencies. It was super interesting and there were heaps of opportunities.

It's a different era today. Russia remains an issue, but it's a nation in rapid decline. The post Cold War gold rush is long gone. Now, I think a degree in Russian Studies is only useful for the humanities students going for the PhD or the oil and gas people. If you want to be prepared for the next few decades, do Chinese Studies. Otherwise, Russian Studies is for dilettantes who don't need to work for a living in 2025.

I think Slavic Studies (which is what it is now at many places) will continue to be relevant along with another co-major.