Russian is the native language of some 150 million citizens of the Russian Federal Republic. It is one of the five official languages of the UN, and ranks with English, Chinese, Hindi, Urdu, and Spanish as a major world language. Russian remains the unofficial lingua franca of the former Soviet republics, an indispensable communications tool across all of the Caucasus and Central Asia. Russian is a major language for scientific publication, and it is an increasingly important language for business and trade as Russian institutions, both public and private, integrate with their European and American counterparts. Besides a thorough grounding in the Russian language, students in the Russian major become conversant with the enormous wealth of Russian cultural heritage in literature, visual art, theater, and music. In particular, Russia has produced one of the world's most vibrant and exciting literary traditions--including the works of poets like Pushkin, Lermontov, Blok, and Akhmatova, and writers like Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov. Despite the upheavals caused by the fall of communism, Russian literary culture remains vibrant today, and only a fraction of this fascinating contemporary work is available in translation. Further information on the value of a Russian major can be found at http://www.russnet.org/why/index.html.

CLA BA degrees require 4 semesters or the equivalent of a second language. CLA degrees require students to complete 48 credits of upper division coursework taken at the 3xxx, 4xxx, or 5xxx level. For a BA at least 18 of the 48 upper division credits must be outside of the major. For some specific majors, there are exceptions to this requirement. This program requires 18 upper division credits outside the major. See your advisor for a list of courses that can or cannot be used to meet this requirement. The Russian major consists of a minimum of 32 upper division (3xxx and 5xxx) credits, of which 17 credits must be taken at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus. At least one upper division course in the major (RUSS 3xxx-5xxx) must be writing intensive. All major coursework must be taken A-F. Students may earn a BA or a minor in Russian, but not both. The major program must be approved by the director of undergraduate studies. All incoming CLA freshmen must complete the First Year Experience course sequence.