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Russian

  • Top 10 in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020 and top 5 in the Complete University Guide 2020
  • Highly flexible degrees involving single or multiple languages
  • Regular guidance in your choice of degree path tailored to your strengths and interests
  • Final degree title represents your degree eg, BA Russian, BA Spanish with Russian, BA Russian and German
  • 4-year degrees with a well-structured year abroad; students taking the year abroad in Russia have a wide choice of places in which to develop their language skills and understanding of Russian culture
  • Friendly and vibrant teaching and learning environment

Studying Russian at Exeter gives you a fascinating opportunity to learn about a centuries-old culture which has had an enormous influence on our own view of the world, as well as the culture of present-day Russia under Putin. You’ll be able to experience some of the great works of literature and art such as Chekhov’s plays, and Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, and some of the lesser-known exciting novels, films, pictures and poems that make up so much of Russian cultural life. You’ll also learn a language spoken by over 288 million people as their first language alone: Russian currently ranks fifth in the number of speakers worldwide and is one of the six official languages of the UN.

You can study Russian through three pathways

Find out more

Modern Languages at Exeter ranks among the top UK institutions for student satisfaction, teaching and research. We offer excellent programmes and boast a Foreign Language Centre with state-of-the-art language-learning facilities. Our MA in Translation is taught by published literary translators, experienced practitioners and specialists in the use of computer-aided translation tools, helping prepare our students to undertake further study and become professional linguists. All teaching is directly related to our research. Modern languages postgraduates benefit from regular research seminars and scholars of international repute are frequent visitors.

Our research, and research supervision, ranges across a wide variety of disciplines including European Literature and Culture, Film, Linguistics, Medieval Studies, Gender Studies, and Translation, and reaches across time from the medieval to the contemporary. Our research-active academic staff, supported by a team of language teachers which includes native-speaker teachers, are highly successful in winning prestigious research awards from funding bodies including the AHRC, British Academy, EU, Leverhulme, and Marie-Curie.

Postgraduate taught programmes

Postgraduate research

Russian at Exeter's research is concentrated in Russian literature and cultural history of the twentieth century.

Research interests

  • Russian poetry and especially questions of the canon
  • The poetry of World War II
  • The reception of Soviet Culture in Britain and Anglo-Soviet relations
  • Literary translation in Russian culture
  • Tolstoi, Dostoevskii and other 19th century authors
  • Gender studies and Russian literature

Research projects