The Department supports coordinated study of Russian language, literature, literary and cultural history, as well as literary theory and criticism. Its programs may also be combined with the programs in Russian, East European and Eurasian history, Jewish Studies, Film Studies (Russian and East-European film), modern Russian theater, International Relations, Stanford’s Overseas Studies, the Special Languages Program, and the Honors Program in Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities. Our undergraduate program has attracted students seeking careers in journalism, business, international relations, law, and human rights, as well as academia. Russian is still the lingua franca over the vast territory of the former Soviet Union, and a good command of this language offers a gateway to Eurasia’s diverse cultures, ethnicities, economies, and religions, including Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam. Stanford students are in a privileged position in relation to Russian and, more broadly, East European and Eurasian Studies, because of Stanford's tremendous faculty resources that are without peer in the US. Green Library and the Hoover Institution libraries and archives possess the premiere Russian and East European collections, which our undergraduates and graduate students use in their research. Our students master a difficult language and a rich and challenging literature, and are rewarded by gaining entry into a unique, powerful, and diverse civilization that defined major trends in the past century and plays an increasingly significant role in the world today.
