The Russian program at Swarthmore College aims to give students the key to the nation that Winston Churchill in 1939 called “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” Historically, the Russian people have made enormous contributions to world culture in music, literature, the arts, film, engineering and the sciences. With its sheer size and wealth of natural resources, today’s increasingly aggressive and powerful Russia is an important global player, for better or worse, making the study of Russia’s language and culture of continuing strategic importance.
It may surprise you to learn that Russian is the sixth most widely-spoken language in the world, with more than 275 million speakers. Russian serves as the lingua franca for much of Central Asia, and is still widely spoken in other former republics of the Soviet Union. Over 3 million persons claiming Russian heritage live in the United States. Today you can hear Russian spoken in a number of large American cities, including New York and right here in Northeast Philadelphia!
Students of Russian can take advantage of a rich environment for language study, including intensive introductory language courses, language tables, multimedia resources, and opportunities for study abroad. Our rigorous four-year language sequence is designed to bring students at minimum to an ACTFL- rated level of Advanced in all four modalities (reading, writing, listening, and speaking). This prepares our students for potential participation in the prestigious Flagship Program. One of only four such programs in the nation, this year-long post-graduation program is designed to bring students up to the ACTFL-rated Superior level proficiency, allowing them to fully function in the professional sphere. The Flagship Program is an extraordinary opportunity for Swarthmore students; you can find more information on the Flagship Program here.
Our content courses in literature and culture are taught in English and span the history of Russia, ranging from the medieval era through Russia’s Golden Age of the nineteenth century and on to the Soviet and Post-Soviet Era. We also offer interdisciplinary courses such as Nature and Industry in Russia and The Muslim in Russia. Students of Russian language can take a Russian-language attachment to any of our literature-in-translation courses and read selections of works in the original Russian. Additionally, courses from the History Department support our program.
The small size of the Russian section means a great deal of one-on-one attention for our students as well as flexibility in our offerings. So join us and be one of the few who have the key to the enigma that is Russia!
