Winter Quarter 2025

For day, time, room, and TA information, see our PDF SCHEDULE or the class search tool https://registrar-apps.ucdavis.edu/courses/search/index.cfm.
For all courses not described here, please refer to the General Catalog course descriptions: https://catalog.ucdavis.edu/courses-subject-code/rus

Lower Division

RUS 002 Elementary Russian
Liliana Avramenko

RUS 005 Intermediate Russian
Jekaterina Galmant

Russian 5 is designed as a continuation of Russian 4 and promotes pronunciation and grammar, as well as the development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. The course aims to expand the oral and written communication skills acquired in earlier classes and to broaden students’ understanding of the cultures of the Russian-speaking world. Grammatical concepts are reviewed and expanded. Students will be exposed to aspects of Russian culture and literature via music, movies and written texts. Topics include, but are not limited to, daily routine, housing, hobbies, movies and theater, and music. Students will participate in various classroom activities, including small groups and pair work, and oral presentations to give them ample opportunities to practice Russian.

A flyer for RUS 005. A course description (seen above) and art of a sketched figure opening a door, a view of russian buildings.

Upper Division

RUS 101B Advanced Russian
Liliana Avramenko

RUS 103 Literary Translation- Russian Through Theater
Valeria Mutc

Would you like to hone your advanced skills in Russian literary translation while acting in theater in a relaxed, welcoming environment? In this course, we will read and translate key works of Russian drama and study advanced grammar, style, and syntax. The course will cover the theory and practice of translating between Russian and English, include creative assignments, and culminate in a final theatrical production of a play in Russian. No previous performance training or acting skills required!

Хотите изучать художественный перевод и играть в театре в непринужденной обстановке? На этом курсе вы прочитаете и переведете ключевые пьесы на русском языке, а также изучите продвинутую грамматику, стилистику и синтаксис. Вы освоите теорию и практику перевода с русского на английский язык, а в конце курса примите участие в театральной постановке на русском языке. Актерский опыт и предварительная подготовка не требуются!

A flyer for RUS 103, a course description and actors on stage holding up a womans hair. And a man holding a plastic flamingo

RUS 122 19th-Century Russian Literature: How to Live Well
Valeria Mutc

This course examines how Russian literature made sense of what it means to live a good and fulfilling life. Throughout the nineteenth century, Russian writers grappled with fundamental questions about living in a rapidly changing world of new technologies, media, and capitalism. Taken together, their works offered a symbolic instruction manual for modern life. This course will explore Russian literature's answers to such questions as: how to live well; how to be a citizen; how to be fulfilled morally; how (not) to procrastinate; how (not) to fall in love; how to do science; how to be creative; and how to make money. Readings will include works by Pushkin, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and others. Taught in English.

A flyer for RUS122, a course description and a painting of trees

RUS 129/FMS 129 Russian Film
Professor J. Kaminer

GE: AH; WE; VL

This course provides an overview of the history of Russian-language film—famously designated by Vladimir Lenin as “the most important of all the arts”—from the early years of the Soviet Union to the post-Soviet period. Beginning with Sergei Eisenstein’s landmark film Battleship Potemkin (1925), widely acknowledged as one of the best movies ever made, we will watch representative films from the major periods of the Soviet Union’s tumultuous history, including: the Stalin era (1929-1953); the Thaw of the 1950s and 1960s; the Stagnation of the 1970s and 1980s; perestroika and glasnost’ of the 1980s; and the post-Soviet period (after the collapse of the USSR in 1991). We will explore the intersections between cinema and Soviet/Russian society while also honing our knowledge of cinematic language and the particularities of cinema as an art form. The contributions of Russia’s great auteur director, Andrei Tarkovsky, will also be considered.

Throughout the quarter, we will pay particular attention to the development of the following themes: the individual versus society/the collective; private life vs. public life; gender and family dynamics; filmic representations of history; the depiction of landscape and space.

All films will be screened in the original with English subtitles. Discussions will be conducted in English. No knowledge of Russian required.