Introductory Russian Grammar, Second Edition (English and Russian Edition)

A definite improvement over the New Penguin Russian Course book. This book adds so much more in terms of depth of explanation and lots of examples of sentences in their respective cases to demonstrate the various case forms, plus the added drill exercises, too. This was one area that was severely lacking in the New Penguin book - very few examples to clarify how a case is clearly used that left me hanging. Reading this book the grammar explanations are crystal clear, no second guessing here... You do not need an answer key for the drills in this text; all work can be checked with Google Translate. On the whole, you will not find a finer intro textbook available on the market today that will lay a strong foundation to move your Russian language skills to the next level.

This is my kind of grammar book! It may seem daunting to new or inexperienced language learners but personally when I study a topic I want EVERYTHING in one spot. Just finished unit 5 which discussed, among other things, the locative (prepositional) case. Other books I've used -- grammar and text -- did not delve as thoroughly into the subject (maybe so as not to intimidate??) as this one. My only complaint, and this is something I have noticed with Russian study aids overall, is that plurals are addressed separately. That is, in spite of how thoroughly prepositional case was covered, plural locative possessive pronouns were omitted (at least from this chapter). I looked those up and added to my own separate study info. A little annoying but not enough to downgrade the rating.Lots of good example sentences which are progressive and well thought out. Not sure why this book went out of print, but if you need to learn Russian, I say get it! I bought it used and saved a ton, and it was in great condition, just a few stray marks. Not bad for 1972.

This is undoubtedly one of the best textbooks that I have ever used. I constantly go back and review the exercises and pattern sentences. The book was printed in the early 70's so the stories and dialogs reflect that period of soviet history. The text is comprehensive and well-constructed, and provides a good index to quickly find a topic. The only fault is that there is no answer key for the exercises, but the pattern sentences atone for that omission. The book was designed to be used in the classroom; however, it is still an excellent resource for working on your own. I bought this book as a backup copy since my hardback copy is becoming worn.

In 1968, I worked with the first edition in my HS Russian class. We were told then that the text was 2 year college level equivalent, and I was astounded to find from the reviewers here, that it still is! Anyway - even all that long ago the text was brilliant and by the end of the HS year I was able to carry on conversations and even found myself thinking in Russian. Our instructor went on to take a job with the FBI as a Russian translator. I held on to the textbook but lost it several years ago to poor storage. I recently purchased a used version of the second edition (1972) from Ashtonius Online for a fraction of the cost new, have reviewed it and feel confident I'll be in better shape to make a planned trip to Russia in the near future, especially with the audio tutor found at the publisher's website: [...]Throughout the years since using this book in HS, I've purchased several other so called teaching materials - none compares to this. If you want to learn how to speak Russian best, this is the best source, evidenced by the fact that it is still used on the university level as nothing better seems to have been found to replace it :-)

Stillman et al have produced an excellent course book for studying Russian. I have used other books, the best of which emphasizes conversation and is geared toward the college and university classroom ("Russian Stage One"). Russian is a difficult language, especially for English speakers. It is not readily accessible like Spanish or French. The vocabulary is difficult and the declensions of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns make it as difficult as Latin or Greek. For this reason it is refreshing to find a text which attempts to teach the grammar first. This book is complete and comprehensible to anyone studying Russian, particularly if he or she knows English grammar well, or has already studied an inflected language. Other books might be better for those who are learning Russian as their first foreign language.

This is a great book to learn Russian. The publisher also has audio lab for the book on their website. Don't miss the audio, you need to hear, read, write and speak to fully learn.

This product arrived in excellent condition and earlier than the estimated arrival date.The book itself is superb resource for anyone making a serious effort to learn Russian as well, and I highly recommend it.

Very good book! Great explanation, many examples and exercises for drilling and nice texts. I am very satisfied with this book!

I cannot imagine this book ever being surpassed. There are some grammar books - e.g., Schaum - which give even more examples of sentences for translation. But this book has the edge in giving sample sentences - and lots of them! It also succeeds in giving a simpler explanation for most grammar points than do many authors. The only place where all the books seem to fall down in grammar is in their "rules" for the formation of the imperative. The Russian imperative is not difficult at all; yet every set of rules I have seen so far is (a) different from the others and (b) needlessly complicated. Needless to say, this arrogant creature has devised her own simplified system, based on the the sound (or the 'music') of the infinitives. After all, language is intrinsically about sound, is it not?

After hesitating some time before writing this review, eventually I've come to the following conclusion: it's a real pity that this book has not been developed further since it is a real breakthrough. I have many books on the Russian language but none of them is comparable to that as to the richness of information and the plain explanations one finds in it. Particularly impressive is how the authors deal with the subject of the verbs of motion: thanks to them, I've finally grasped the essential understanding behind the whole thing. Another subject clearly treated is that concerning the prepositions and their use with the verbs of motion. Many drills and basic language patterns are included as well.To me, this book can substitute all other textbook on this language, providing a solid knowledge of grammar and of all the main used patterns both in written and oral language.

This book its not good for learning alone. If you have a teacher probably its a great grammar reference but you are going to need a lot of time to write anything in Russian.