K TEACH YOURSELF BOOKS M. Fourman RUSSIAN An elementary course TEACH YOURSELF BOOKS RUSSIAN ThiscourseintheRussianLanguageisdesignedforstudents working by themselves. Each lesson consists of the bare elementsofRussiangrammar,aselectionofwordsineveryday- use and ample exercises made up of colloquial sentences. A sectionofextractsfromproseandverseisincludedattheend ofthecourse.Anyonewhoworksconscientiouslythroughthis book should be able to understand much of the Russian he subsequentlyhearsorreadsandtoexpresshimselfonsimple topics. n TEACH YOURSELF BOOKS RUSSIAN Maximilian Fourman, lljb. (University oi Kiev) ST. PAUL'S HOUSE WARWICK LANE LONDON EC4P 4AH First Printed 1943 This Impression 19J4 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. This volume is published in the U.S.A. by David McKay Company Inc., 750 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017. ISBN o 340 05813 7 Printed in Great Britain for The English Universities Press Ltd. by Hunt Barnard Printing Ltd., Aylesbury, Bucks. FOREWORD QUALIFIED Russian teachers are still scarce in England. Consequently not many evening school classes in Russian are held for adults. More- over, there are manywhocannot attendwhatclasses there are, and would be glad to put in an hour or two studying Russian when they have any spare time. For suchbeginners thisbookisintended. Many, though they can speak andwrite their own language correctly, have never bothered to study grammar the grammaticalnotes given in thisbook : will make some of the rough places plain for them. Studentswhoknowthegrammaroftheirownorany otherlanguage willbe able toskipsuchnotes. Each lesson consists of the bare elements of Russian grammar, of a selection of words in every- dayuse, andofample exercisesmadeupofcolloquial sentences, and finally of short reading extracts in prose and verse. Such material would, in our opinion,be sufficientforastudenttopreparehimself for a more thorough study of the Russian language. The exercises havebeenmadelongfor the express purpose of enabling the student to repeat the same words andlearntheuseofgrammaticalrulesuntilhe has acquired the habit of saying what he knows fluently andcorrectly. AT THE END OF THE BOOK IS A COMPLETE KEY GIVING TRANSLATIONS OF ALL THE EXERCISES. THE TEACH YOURSELF RUSSIAN •vi STUDENT IS ADVISED TO PREPARE THE EXERCISES, FIRST USING THE KEY FREELY, SO AS TO ARRIVE AT THE MEANING OF THE WORDS AND THE GRAMMATICAL NOTES, NOT BY ROTE, BUT BY COMPARING EVERY PECULIARITY OF THE RUSSIAN WITH HIS MOTHER TONGUE. WHEN AN EXERCISE HAS BEEN FULLY ASSIMILATED WITH THE HELP OF THE KEY, IT CAN BE DONE AGAIN INDEPENDENTLY OF THE KEY, TO MAKE SURETHATALLTHE WORDSHAVE BEENLEARNT, TOGETHER WITH THEIR GRAMMATICAL RELATION IN THE SENTENCES. The material in the Key can, of course, be used as additional exercises and worked so that the main part of the book is turned into a Key. The advantage of this book when used in evening classes is that students missing lessons can easily catch up by preparing the exercises and using the Key, and this will prevent them from dropping out of their class. The author wishes to express his thanks for the valuable help given by his friends Walter J. Read, F.I.L., and John 0. Burtt, M.A. INTRODUCTION A T the mere sight of Russian print an English -^*- person is apt to exclaim : " How funny the Russian letters look, rather like ours upside down." This first impression of the Russian alphabet as something peculiar and grotesque is followed as likely as not by the request : " Say something in Russian,"andwhenIrepeatafewversesofaRussian poem, my English friends are often quite astonished at the sounds, which seem to them completely strange' Their usual comment when the perform- ance ends is : " Good gracious ! I could never learn to speak Russian. It must be a fearfully difficult language." Nevertheless, some of them, with characteristic British determination, have taken up Russian with enthusiasm as a fascinating hobby. Theyhavedonesoprobablybecauseitisthelanguage of a countrywhichat the present timeis stirringthe minds of men and women in all walks of life, in Englandandprobablyintherestoftheworld. They soon find out that Russian is no harder than any other language commonly studied in this country. True,ithasitspeculiaritiesforEnglishstudents,just as English has peculiarities for Russians, and the grammar is rather more complicated than the English. But it has one great advantage : Russian words are comparatively easy to learn to pronounce since the language is virtually phonetic, that is to say, most of the letters can be pronounced in onry one way. This meansthat although, in English, the viii TEACH YOURSELF RUSSIAN letter "a" represents as many as seven different sounds, " e " and " i " six, " o " eight, and " u " seven, the correspondinglettersin Russian stand, on the whole, for only one sound each. Every language presents some difficulties in grammar and pronunciation which can only be overcome by patient work and concentration, but Russian makes no greater demand on the student in this respect than French, Spanish or any other European language. Every year now one meets a growing number of peoplewhoknowone ormorelanguagesbesidestheir own, and this is also true of the English-speaking nations, whoareno worselinguiststhanthemen and women of other countries if they take up a foreign language as a hobby and persist in their efforts to master it. There is this further advantage in Russian : it is amazingly uniform ; the same language is spoken over the vast extent of the globe where the flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republicsflies ; andyouwillbe understoodwhether you are speaking to a peasant or a University professor. There are no dialects to bother you, although, of course, there are parts of the Soviet Union where Russian may be spoken rather differ- ently, as, for instance, English is spoken differently by a Londoner, a Scot, a Welshman, an Irishman, ornativesofYorkshire andCornwall. Insomeparts Russian is spoken with a slight drawl; in others a kind of sing-song is adopted; some speak lightly, others heavily, and so on ; but they all speak the