Category: BLOG

How to learn Russian fast. 1. Immerse yourself in the language: Surround yourself with Russian as much as possible by listening to Russian music, watching Russian movies and TV shows, and reading Russian books and newspapers. 2. Find a language partner: Look for a native Russian speaker who is willing to help you practice speaking and listening. You can find a language partner through language exchange websites or local meetup groups. 3. Use a language learning app: There are many language learning apps that can help you learn Russian quickly and effectively. Some popular ones include Duolingo, Babbel, and Rosetta Stone. 4. Take a Russian course: Consider enrolling in a Russian language course at a local community college, language school, or online. A structured course with a knowledgeable instructor can help you learn Russian more efficiently. 5. Practice speaking: Speaking is an important aspect of learning a new language, so try to practice speaking Russian as much as possible. You can do this with your language partner, by recording yourself speaking and comparing it to native speakers, or by engaging in conversation with Russian speakers. 6. Memorize vocabulary: Make flashcards or use a vocabulary app to help you memorize Russian words and phrases. The more vocabulary you know, the easier it will be to communicate in Russian. 7. Stay consistent: Consistent practice is key when learning a new language. Try to dedicate time every day to practicing Russian, whether it’s through listening, speaking, reading, or writing. 8. Immerse yourself in the culture: Learning about Russian culture and traditions can make the language learning process more enjoyable and help you understand the language in a broader context. Remember, learning a new language takes time and dedication, so be patient and persistent in your efforts to learn Russian fast. Good luck!

Learning the Russian Cyrillic alphabet can be an interesting and rewarding process. Here is a brief overview of the alphabet along with some tips on how to learn it: 1. Familiarize yourself with the letters: The Russian Cyrillic alphabet consists of 33 letters, some of which look similar to the Latin alphabet, but have different sounds. Take the time to study and become familiar with each letter. 2. Practice writing: Writing each letter repeatedly can help you to remember its shape and sound. You can use worksheets or practice books, or simply write out the alphabet yourself. 3. Use mnemonic devices: Creating associations between the Russian letters and their sounds, as well as their counterparts in the Latin alphabet, can help with memorization. For example, the Russian letter “б” looks like a “b” with a short tail, and makes the sound “buh.” 4. Seek out resources: There are many online resources, apps, and videos that can help you learn the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. Look for ones that offer interactive exercises and quizzes to test your knowledge. 5. Practice reading: Once you feel comfortable with the individual letters, practice reading simple words and phrases in Russian. This will help reinforce your understanding of how the letters sound when combined in words. 6. Be patient and consistent: Learning a new alphabet takes time and dedication. Set aside regular time for practice and review, and be patient with yourself as you progress. Overall, learning the Russian Cyrillic alphabet can be a rewarding pursuit and open up new opportunities for learning and communication in Russian-speaking communities. Good luck!  

   Many people want to read Russian literature in the original language. There’s just one big problem. It’s incredibly difficult. And in order to practice reading Russian, you already need a reasonable vocabulary. So if you’re a beginner, you can’t practice reading, since you lack the necessary experience. But you also can’t gain experience, since you don’t have the skills yet to practice reading. Bilingual books in Russian…What are bilingual books? Bilingual books sometimes (also called dual language) books are books that show the English translation next to the original text. In our case, that means that you see the English and Russian languages at the same time. In practice, most bilingual books: have the Russian version on one page, and the English on the other show the English translation underneath the Russian original hide the English translation underneath the Russian original – so you need to click it if you want to see the translation (only works online) These are the 3 most common formats. After all, the main goal is that you can test yourself, and see if you understand the Russian original. And if you do not understand the phrase, you can easily look it up. In the previous 10 years many new Russian English bilingual books have been published. The reason for that is that the internet makes it easier and simpler to create books, and to add the translation on the other page or below. If you would want to, you could even create your own bilingual book, by using Russian translate and a Google Docs document. It would require a lot of copy-pasting, and the translation from Google Translate would be missing the point once a while. But you would be able to create it. That’s not the point, though! It’s a lot easier to just read the books that others (who are often both fluent in Russian and English) have created. How do bilingual books help you learn Russian? To start, they’re the first step to reading actual books. If you’re anything like me, you’re learning Russian because you’re interested in the language, country and culture. You need a reasonably high starting point to read Russian books. Even if you’re reading Russian children’s book, those still require a small-to-moderate vocabulary. Depending on the book, they say it’s about 500 to 1000 words Bilingual books are the answer if you’re a beginner When you’re reading a book that has both the original Russian and the translated English text next to it, you can enjoy both worlds. You can read the story. See how much you know. And if you don’t understand something, just check the Enlish version. While checking the correct translation, see if you can direct words back to the original text. It almost has a ‘puzzle-like’ feeling to it. You read the Russian sentence. You understand 50% of the words. You’re almost grasping the meaning of the sentence, but cannot completely get it because of your limited vocabulary. Now you check the translation. You see that you got half the words right. And you see the translation of the words you didn’t know. Now you check in which cases they were, and who was the subject of the sentence. Everything becomes clear. You’ve learned a couple of extra words, and tested your grammatical knowledge of Russian. So bilingual books do a great job at:–     helping you start reading in Russian if you’re a beginneallowing you to read books above your level (for example there are bilingual versions of classic literature from Tolstoy or Dostoevsky. Many people wish to read them in original, but you need a good intermediate Russian level for that) teaching new vocabulary testing your grammatical skills making learning Russian fun It’s also a pretty low intensity activity, as you can choose to focus more on the story, and less on the ‘need to figure out exactly how this sentence in grammatically constructed’ type of reading, that often gets used in classes. So having one of those books next to your bed, to read for about 5 to 10 minutes before sleeping, would be a great way to improve your Russian. 3 tips to get the most out of dual language books As with any effective method, there are some things you should do to get the most progress out of it. And some things to avoid. Here are my 4 tips to successfully read the books: 1.START WITH BILINGUAL BOOKS FOR CHILDREN It might be tempting to start with world-famous Russian literature, since the translation is right next to it. However, if you’re a beginner, you better start with books at your level. Specifically bilingual books for children. The language used isn’t too difficult. The stories aren’t long. Sentences are short. Everything works together. If you already have a basic vocabulary, then it will be much easier to get into the flow of reading the book. If you’d start with difficult books, you would end up just reading the translated text. Starting with children’s bilingual books allows you to understand just enough, so that the puzzle element becomes challenging. But not too hard. If you’re unsure about your level, check this page that shows you apps that are developed by TORFL (The Test of Russian as a Foreign Language) examiners and professors. If you don’t manage to pass the B1 test satisfactorily, I recommend you start with bilingual children’s books. 2.PICK A BOOK/GENRE YOU ENJOY There’s no need to torture yourself. Read a book or genre that you want to read. If you’re not a fan of detective stories, don’t try to read the bilingual version of anything Boris Akunin wrote. If you do like that genre, please get his books. The more you enjoy the story, the easier it will be to pick up the book and start reading. And the more time you spend reading, the faster your progress will be. 3.TEST FIRST IF YOU UNDERSTAND A PHRASE BEFORE YOU CHECK THE TRANSLATION If you want to maximize…

About 10% of Russian words resemble their English counterparts. But don’t get too comfortable with guessing. These are also many words that look or sound the same but have different meanings between the two languages. For example, in English, “angina” means chest pain. But the Russian word Ангина means tonsillitis, a much less severe affliction (and all the more reason that limited English proficiency healthcare patients need access to information in their own languages!)

Russian courses and 1:1 lessons at all levels for corporate clients, on company premises in Cyprus. In a group course you will feel part of the team, practise your language skills and exchange ideas with other learners at the same level, so it can be more fun as well as more profitable! 30 lessons initial course is recommended for beginners. Corporate Russian Courses Corporate Russian Courses Course Costs

Russian, as a part of the Slavic language group, has a reputation for being difficult to learn. The question is, how difficult is it to learn Russian, really? Is Russian hard to learn?  In this article, you’re going to find out how difficult Russian is for English speakers and what you should focus on if you want to learn it quickly.  Why should you learn Russian? If you’ve searched and found this article, the chances are that you are already thinking about learning Russian, or you may have already started.  In that case, you must have a few reasons of your own as to why you decided to pick up this beautiful, yet complex language.  There are many reasons why you might want to make Russian next on your language-learning list: Whichever your reason for learning Russian, make sure it’s a strong one to keep you motivated and persistent. Here are a couple of reasons that might help you get and stay excited: Russian is a great place to start if you are interested in Slavic languages Learning Russian can greatly aid in the learning process of other Slavic languages. As a Slavic language, Russian shares many similarities in grammar and vocabulary with other Slavic languages such as Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, Czech and Bulgarian. For example, many words in these languages are very similar or even identical to their Russian counterparts. This means that once you have a grasp of the Russian vocabulary and grammar, it will be much easier to pick up new words and grammar rules in other Slavic languages, since most of them share a lot of the same grammar features such as verb declension, verbal aspect, etc. In summary, learning Russian can be a great way to get a foothold in the world of Slavic languages, as it will give you a foundation in grammar and vocabulary that will make it easier to learn other Slavic languages. Because of the Soviet Union, Russian is spoken in many countries Not only is it one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, but it’s also spoken in a variety of countries due to the Soviet Union’s past. Think about it, as a Russian speaker you have access to not only Russia but also countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Belarus, and even some parts of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This means that you’ll have the opportunity to travel and explore different cultures, all while being able to communicate with the locals in their native language. Knowing Russian can give you a significant advantage in the fields that have connections to Russian-speaking countries. In short, learning Russian is not just about understanding the language itself, but also getting a glimpse into the diverse cultures and histories that have shaped it. So take advantage of the fact that Russian is spoken in many countries and explore the world! Is Russian hard to learn? People often ask if a certain language is hard to learn. There usually is no simple answer, since it depends on whether you already speak a foreign language and if you already know a language similar to the one you want to learn.  Russian has a reputation for being a difficult language for an English speaker to learn.  This, however, doesn’t mean it’s impossible to achieve.   For an English speaker, the Foreign Service Institute places Russian in category IV (meaning it would take approximately 1100 hours to learn), along with other Slavic languages. In comparison, Category I languages, which are most closely related to English (French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, etc.) will take you up to 600 hours to learn. Russian, in comparison, will take almost twice as long.  There are a few reasons why Russian is more difficult for English speakers than some of the other languages that are more closely related to English:  Complexity of grammar Compared to English grammar and grammar of the languages closely related to English, Russian grammar is quite complex.  If you want to learn more about grammar, this article will give you more details about the verbs in Russian, and in this article you can learn more about the 6 cases in Russian. Flexible but not so flexible word order In simple sentences, Russian follows the SVO (subject-verb-object) word order, just like English.     S   +  V   +   OКатя читает книгу.[Katya] [is-reading] [book].Katya is reading a book. Although the word order seems quite flexible, some constructions will sound more familiar than others. But in general, due to the existence of the case system, you can usually move words around. For example: Я поцеловал Марию.[I] [kissed] [Mariya-(accusative case)].I kissed Mariya.  Марию поцеловал я.[Mariya-(accusative case)] [kissed] [I].I kissed Mariya.  Both of these sentences are grammatically correct and mean the same thing, just with a small nuance of emphasis. Because it is the object of the verb “to kiss”, we can see that the name “Мария” (Mariya) is in the Accusative case, and changed to “Марию” (Mariyu), and because of this change, the order is irrelevant, we know immediately who is the subject and who is the object of the sentence. Reading Learning a new alphabet can be intimidating, but for those who are interested in learning the Russian language, the Cyrillic alphabet is not as difficult as it may seem. First of all, it’s important to note that several letters in the Cyrillic alphabet look very similar to their counterparts in the Latin alphabet. For example, the letter “A” in the Latin alphabet is very similar to the letter “А” in the Cyrillic alphabet. The letters “M” and “T” and some others also have similar counterparts in the Cyrillic alphabet. This means that you already have a head start in learning the alphabet. Even the letters that may not look familiar at first glance are not that hard to learn. The Cyrillic alphabet has 33 letters in total, and many of them are formed by combining simple shapes, in a very similar way to what the Latin alphabet does. With a…

What kind of a language learner are you? To answer this question, you need to know the person who is doing the lessons, at least a little bit. Here are the factors to consider: Are they good linguists naturally, that is – do they have a good memory, can they retain words in their memory, can they imitate sounds and hear the difference between similar sounds? Have they ever learned a foreign language before, ideally, with a system of cases, like Latin? Do they understand the grammar of their mother tongue? No less important is the question of commitment and dedication. Is the new student going to do homework? And how many hours each week? Dedication and motivation are also very important. Is there a particular reason for doing this course? Is this reason good enough to keep you going and not give up when it seems difficult and time-consuming? Facts and figures about learning Russian What happens next is up to you… Some people stop at this point, and try to maintain the good level they have achieved, by regular practice. Others go further. There is no limit in language learning! Homework: to do or not to do  As far as homework is concerned, you would be expected to dedicate at least 2 hours a week to it, but of course, the more, the better. The ideal scenario is: the student learns everything at home, and the role of the teacher is to check what has been learned, answer questions about unclear points, and set the next assignment for learning. However, in real life, this is done by probably 1% of the students. Much more common is the scenario where students do not do much homework. Sometimes none at all. That is fine with us. We work with grown up people and recognise the fact that they have much more important commitments than learning Russian. So no one will be telling you off, but your progress will be twice as slow… So if you are not worried about the extent of your budget for the lessons, and not restricted by any time frames for achieving your goal in learning Russian, then not doing any homework at all is a possible option. Regular study and practice  Regular practice is very important. Unfortunately, if you do not practice a language, it goes into the “passive” state. It can be brought back with a bit of work, but a refresher course may be necessary. Initiative and motivation If you do not take the initiative in learning new things yourself, looking up new words in a dictionary – or, at this day and age, on your Google translate app – look through grammar explanations in your textbook and ask the teacher questions about it, you will make slower progress. You will only digest what is fed to you, depriving yourself of all the supplements you could have. The journey goes on   Where does the learning process end? Well, it doesn’t… even native speakers do not know their mother tongue perfectly, so there is always room for improvement – especially in a creative and vibrant language like Russian. Even if you know the grammar perfectly, there is always so much vocabulary and idiom to be learned! Slang, neologisms, popular sayings, cultural references, swear words (which are an important part of any colloquial language!) – you name it. It depends on how curious and how ambitious you are. Some people communicate successfully with a vocabulary of 500 words, others have 5000. It also depends on your objectives and your target situation: whether you aim to order a dinner in a restaurant, or discuss politics and literature with Russians. But a high level of language proficiency comes as a result of hard work and takes a lot of time. It’s a journey. If you soak a foreign language up properly, it gives you a new dimension in life, and enriches your personality. They say, you have as many personalities in you, as many languages you speak. And last but not least – please do not believe advertisements that promise to teach you Russian (or any other language) in 3 months. It’s impossible.

Parts of sentence – why do we need to know them in Russian For example, someone who does not know what a direct object is, will not be able to use the Accusative case correctly. And without understanding what the subject of a sentence is, it would be impossible to use the correct gender of the verb (predicate) in the past tense, or agree a descriptive adjective (attribute) with the subject, etc.  In English, there is a strictly regulated word order and no cases or genders, so understanding the structure of a sentence is usually quite easy (with some exceptions, of course).  Word order in Russian sentences  In Russian, there is a flexible word order, combined with the system of cases, genders, conjugations. It allows a lot of creativity and freedom in using the language, but may lead to some difficulties in understanding both the obvious meaning and the subtleties and hidden connotations.  For example, a simple sentence that means “I have known him for a long time” can only have one correct variant of the word order in English. However, in Russian you can say it in a few different ways: Я знаю его давно. (Same word order as in English, sensible and very neutral). Or: Я давно его знаю (that would be less formal, preferred in colloquial Russian). Or: Его я знаю давно, with the emphasis on Eго, as opposed to some other person. Or: Давно я его знаю, знаю я его давно, etc. The word being emphasised is put at the beginning, and the word order is not restricted by any rules at all! On the one hand, it’s great – you can play around with words put them wherever you like in the sentence.  But there is a downside to this seemingly convenient flexibility of the Russian sentence. In literary and formal Russian, people have a tendency to make long sentences. With flexible word order, you need to understand and appreciate all the case endings and agreements between different words in a sentence (which can be miles, or, rather, lines apart!), otherwise the meaning would be hard to grasp. Sometimes sentences are so long and so overloaded with participle constructions with complicated case agreement that even educated Russian native speakers get it wrong.  As complex as it gets A classical example here is Leo Tolstoy who loved immensely complicated long sentences. If you have a look at the text of War and Peace in the original, you will see that some sentences are as long as the whole page, with fancy punctuation marks such as colons, semi-colons and dashes, with numerous participle constructions and attributes following one another like a string of beads. It sounds beautiful when read aloud but it’s totally over the top. When I was at school, our Russian language and literature teacher sometimes would dictate one of these super long sentences to us, and then ask us to analyse it: find the subject, the predicate, all objects and attributes in each part, comment on all the grammatical forms and cases. Being a language lover, I enjoyed it and found it quite easy. While some kids hated it!  Of course, no one talks like Tolstoy in his novels in real life, and no one even writes like that any more, but it’s amazing to see the potential of the Russian language, its incredible flexibility and expressiveness that allows it to paint a whole huge picture of life, with many details, in one sentence.  Interesting features of Russian syntax Here are a few:

Business Russian is a vast field  I often have requests for teaching business Russian, and often people who want to do it are very vague about what aspect of Business Russian they are interested in. The fact is that business Russian is a very broad term, covering a vast range of vocabulary and functions: from telephoning and making simple arrangements for meetings and travel to carrying out business negotiations and handling business correspondence (the latter, in particular, is so specialised that not all native speakers of Russian would be able to do it without previous experience!) Types of Business Russian courses  So, if you are interested in a business Russian course, what kind of course can you do? If you are an intermediate student, you will be restricted to fairly simple things: learning how to start a phone conversation, or fix a meeting. You can expand your vocabulary into a work-related sphere. The most common vocabulary areas are: banking and finance, the work of business enterprises, negotiating vocabulary, oil and gas (since Russia is rich in it!), law (a vast field in itself). There are unfortunately no easy ways of learning specialised vocabulary, you’ll just have to make a list and learn it… If you are an advanced student, or a native speaker of a Slavic language who finds learning Russian vocab relatively easy, you could do all of the above, plus more difficult stuff: working with business documentation related to your work (translating or summing up the gist of your documents), writing business letters or e-mails (which requires a very good command of the language), and participating in work/business meetings with Russian native speakers. Needless to say, if you are a beginner, you need to build a substantial foundation of general Russian before you can start learning business Russian. Textbooks of business Russian The choice of textbooks for business Russian is not very wide (since it’s a specialised field) I can recommend “Russian for Business Studies” by Svetlana Le Fleming. It gives good coverage of different aspects of business vocabulary, and supplies good texts and exercises for practice and revision. However, this book was published many years ago, and the content is rather out of date – which doesn’t diminish the value of the vocabulary lists and exercises presented there. Another reasonably good book is Деловая Поездка в Россию (a business trip to Russia) by Lebedev and Petukhova. First published in 2002 in St Peterburg by Zlatoust Publishers, it covers a wide range of business topics (banking, insurance, tax etc), giving a general overview of the subjects but not going into great detail. There are also a lot of booklets on the subject published in Russia but they are not comprehensive course books, so they can only be used as supplementary materials for reading or translating. Some of them have promising titles such as “A course for business people” but they often just give texts and dialogues with parallel translation. One problem of all textbooks of business Russian is that the economic situation in the country has been changing so quickly in the last 20 years that texts on business and economics become obsolete almost as soon as they get published. So it’s much better and more interesting to use “fresh” authentic materials from the Russian press and the internet – something that could be done at the advanced level. And finally, I am afraid I have to say that no one learns business Russian for fun (or, at least, I’ve never met such people). It’s the most boring course a Russian tutor ever has to teach, and it’s hard work for students. But if you have to deal with Russian partners or clients in your working life, it will make a big difference and will be greatly appreciated!

Discovering the handwritten version of the Russian alphabet usually causes either a slight shock (oh my God, I’ve just learned the alphabet, and now there is another one to learn) or curiosity and desire to start using it. Either reaction is fine: these days you, the learner, have a choice – to use or not to use the handwritten version of the Russian alphabet.  The use of proper handwriting is becoming quite rare  In the past, writing legibly by hand was a practical necessity. But now, with the advance of modern technologies, people hardly ever write by hand. Handwriting is reserved for making informal notes, post cards, shopping lists and other rather trivial things. So strictly speaking, a learner of Russian does not need to master it. But it’s a nice touch if you do. I must admit, my own handwriting has deteriorated a lot: it has become less pretty, less consistent, less joined up. I cannot even remember last time I had to write a long-ish text by hand. However, every now and then the cursive style of writing is used in menus, business cards, advertising boards, just to make it look pretty and interesting. So in those cases, it pays to learn it.  Which letters look different?  To be fair, it’s not really even that different. Out of 33 letters there are about five that are completely different in handwriting: Т, Д, Г, П, М. The rest are just curvy versions of the same, with little tails extended to neighbouring letters, to join them together. After all, the main purpose of the handwritten style is to make writing by hand quick and fluent by joining all the letters seamlessly. And, done properly, a whole word should be written without taking your pen off the paper. All educated Russian native speakers can still do it if asked, but would not bother in real life. The skill of calligraphy is now almost dead in English (at least, according to my observation), and is definitely dying in Russian. The younger generation don’t care any more. And I can totally understand it – there is no point in sweating over perfecting your joint up writing if you type everything, or even dictate it to your smartphone!  Russian handwriting varies hugely from person to person Some people’s writing is absolutely illegible, with the most notorious examples supplied by doctors. In the old days, I would always ask the doctors to explain what they have written on my prescription, and then would rewrite it myself before I forgot! Yes, that bad…  Famous Russian writers didn’t excel in producing legible texts either. Looking at Pushkin’s writing, for example, a modern reader can only guess some of the words and would struggle to read whole sentences fluently. Russians joke that an illegible handwriting is a sign of a genius. So do not be discouraged if you see a piece of Russian handwriting that you cannot decipher. Chances are that Russian native speakers would not be able to read it either! When mastering the hanwritten style of writing is important All that said, I have never taught anyone advanced in Russian who would not be able to understand a handwritten or cursive text. It’s just part of the process of learning to get used to various forms of writing, and the more examples of it you see, the easier it becomes to understand and to master. Also, writing legibly by hand is still a requirement for formal Russian qualifications: the GCSE, the A-Level, the TRKI. So if you plan is to do one of these, it’s a must.  To cut a long story short – to write or not to write, by hand, is up to you. It depends on your objectives in learning the Russian language. For a short practical course, just learning the basics – perhaps not. For a long term journey into the world of the Russian language and culture – definitely yes. 

If reading War and Peace in the original is your goal to be achieved at the end of your Russian course, prepare to be patient and learn some French as well as Russian… As your Russian tutor will tell you, Leo Tolstoy wrote the longest sentences ever, and his texts are often used to test the spelling and punctuation of native Russian speakers. Russian literature would not be the same without the mightly titan of the 19th century, which is often called the golden age of Russian literature, Leo Tolstoy. The epic Russian writer  The second half of the 19th century is the time of “thick novels”, epic descriptions of the time and the people. Dickens is a classical example.  The most famous Russian epic is of course “War and Peace”: 4 volumes, hundreds of characters, about 2 thousand pages. There is an old school joke: “I hate Tolstoy! I hate “War and Peace”! – “Why? Have you read it?” – “No, I had to photocopy it!!”  It’s true that you wouldn’t want to photocopy it… But is reading it worth it? Yes – if you have time and patience. Tolstoy is heavy on very lengthy sentences – a classical example of Russian writing. So lengthy that 1 sentence sometimes takes up a whole page. It is beautifully written, but it’s not the kind of thing you could read on a train or a plane, it requires time and concentration. When I was at school, our teacher in Russian lessons liked to call someone to the board and dictate a sentence from War and Peace to this luckless student who would have to write it down, trying to preserve the correct spelling and punctuation. The board was very big, covering half the wall, and the sentence would normally take up all of it. Then we would have to dissect it, finding the subject, the predicate, and all the participle constructions that might be miles away from the word they refer to. I think I would find it difficult even now! War and Peace The name of the novel “War and Peace” is a play on words. It is called “Война и мир” in Russian, with “мир – mir” meaning both “peace” and “world, society”. The main theme of the novel is the Napoleonic War of 1812 and its impact upon Russian society and the world. It has everything a great novel needs: a good plot, well drawn characters, several love stories, and one extra – philosophical discourse about history and the role of great personalities, such as Napoleon, in history. Most of the “boring” philosophical parts are in French. In modern editions all the French parts are translated into Russian in footnotes at the back of the book (unlike 19th century intellectuals, we are not expected to know French any more!) so the kids who are required to read this novel at school always (and understandably!) miss those parts. The novel reflects Tolstoy’s views on society, family, war, religion etc. And his views, just like his life and career, are rather interesting. Key Facts of Tolstoy’s life Coming from a rich family and being a count (by the way, his surname means “fat” in Russian – a fact that always amuses my students learning Russian in London, and his first name, “Lev” means “lion”!), Tolstoy had the luxury of being able to dedicate his life to literature and philosophy. He received a good university education, although unfinished, served in the army (in the Caucasus) for 2 years, lived in Europe for a while and then got married at the age of 34. He started a family and lived on his country estate Yasnaya Polyana (Ясная Поляна), near the city of Tula, 3 hours by train from Moscow. He had a big family of 13 children (5 of them died as infants), and his long suffering wife Sophia often acted as his secretary, writing up edited copies of his novels (let alone photocopying, she had to copy them by hand!!) A Russophile and an aristocrat ploughing his own land  In Yasnaya Polyana, he ran a farm and founded a school for peasants’ children. At this time, Tolstoy became famous for his Russophile views, believing that Western ways of life and agriculture would not be acceptable for Russians, because Russia follows its own way. Unlike other Russian liberal intellectuals, who thought that the peasants should be enlightened and elevated to their level, he thought that it should be the other way round: middle classes should learn from the people who work on the land. Peasants are better, more authentic people than intellectuals. He decided to look and live like a simple farmer who ploughs his own land. He grew a beard and wore peasant clothes (hence his peculiar look in later portraits). He taught peasant kids at school and wrote didactic stories for them. He also got into trouble with the Russian Orthodox church (as serious as excommunication!) for advocating his own brand of religion which became known as “tolstovstvo”. Its main principle is non violence and not actively resisting violence. In 1910, being already in his 80-s, secretly from his family, he left home and went on a journey somewhere, but caught pneumonia on the way, and died at a small train station – a strange and unexpected death. Anna Karenina Tolstoy’s other big novel, Anna Karenina, is probably famous all over the world for one quotation, the opening phrase of the novel: “All happy families are alike, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” The main plot line is the life and death of the beautiful Anna who falls in love with a dashing army officer Vronsky, leaves her boring old husband and a young son, whom she misses very much, has a short spell of happiness and a daughter with the lover, but then he grows cold towards her, and she commits suicide by throwing herself under a train. A rather obvious moral tale, with…