Product Description

A comprehensive and accessible guide to Russian society and culture, which should appeal to students of Russian, travellers and anyone who wants to know more about the country, its history and its inhabitants. The book features chapters covering a wide range of topics, from a survey of Russian history; reviews of the key landmarks in Russian literature, music and dance, and art and architecture; through cinema, theatre, scientific achievements and space exploration; to coverage of politics, the education and health systems, transport, sport and leisure; and a chapter on the Russian language - its main features, its history, and current developments. Each chapter contains a "taking it further" section and language tips on how to write or talk about each topic.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #732798 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Synopsis
A comprehensive and accessible guide to Russian society and culture, which should appeal to students of Russian, travellers and anyone who wants to know more about the country, its history and its inhabitants. The book features chapters covering a wide range of topics, from a survey of Russian history; reviews of the key landmarks in Russian literature, music and dance, and art and architecture; through cinema, theatre, scientific achievements and space exploration; to coverage of politics, the education and health systems, transport, sport and leisure; and a chapter on the Russian language - its main features, its history, and current developments. Each chapter contains a "taking it further" section and language tips on how to write or talk about each topic.

About the Author
Stephen Webber is Lecturer in International Security at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham. Tatyana Webber is a native speaker of Russian and has taught Russian at the University of Birmingham for ten years.

Customer Reviews

Excellent
What a dashing book old chap, a stunning read even old Tref agrees, if anyone needs anymore information contact Trefor Thynne one of the worlds leading Russianolgists. Hes e-mail address is above

Thank you My people

Dead Dave (sibling of Trefor)

The perfect supplement to language course
For anyone learning the Russian language this book provides loads of interesting background information which really helps the learning process. The additional knowledge picked up boosts your motivation and makes the subject seem much more interesting.
The discussions of history, politics, music literature, film and other aspects of life combine to give a good broad, general understanding that can be easily and rapidly absorbed. For anyone wanting greater depth there is a list of resources at the end of each chapter covering books, websites and, for some chapters, films, music, television etc. While it's a great source of additional information to an existing language course you will need to beware that the amount of Russian language introduced is quite small, but as it's relevant to the material being discussed it seems to stick in your memory a bit better.

A comprehensive portrait of Russia
As a Russian studying in the UK, I am often asked a lot of questions about Russia by my British and iternational friends. Very often I did not have the answers! So, I was actually looking for a suitable source on Russia. This excellent book is the best of this kind-it manages to compress a great deal of information and insights about all aspects of Russian life into just some 250 pages. It is refreshingly free of the usual stereotypes about Russia, but is still realistic. So, for a taste of what Russia is, I can certainly recommend this book.