This interactive multimedia course, Advanced Russian: From Reading to Speaking (Lexicon Bridge Publishers, lexiconbridge.com) was created by Slava Paperno for use in conjunction with a book of the same title by Sophia Lubensky and Irina Odintsova (Slavica Publishers). The course may also be used by itself. The book is available from the publisher and from this Web site. Please see Credits and Acknowledgements for additional information.

This course may also be purchased on DVD-ROM for Windows® or Macintosh® computers.

In addition to this site and the DVD-ROM, the video recordings of our principal and supplementary texts, made by professional actors, are available on the set of three video DVDs called Russian Stories on Your Screen. The video DVDs and the interactive DVD-ROM complement each other: the video DVDs offer full-screen movies that may be watched on large-screen TVs and room projectors. They should be highly suitable for classroom demonstrations and library or media-center collections. For artistic impression and general listening comprehension, some of the individual learners may also appreciate the superior quality of their images and sound. However, in terms of content, the online course on this Web site is entirely equivalent to the disc-based edition.

All texts in this course are accompanied by detailed linguistic and cultural comments. Every word is listed in the onscreen Russian-English glossary, an expanded version of the grammatical dictionary by Slava Paperno and Richard L. Leed called The Russian Dictionary Tree.

In addition to complete sets of dictionary entries and comments for all texts, this disc offers a variety of annotated multimedia materials:

• video recordings of professionally arranged readings of all principal and supplementary texts; most texts were recorded twice, each time by a different actor; additionally, a Russian TV film based on one of the principal texts and a stage reading by the author of another principal text are included.
• around thirty video excerpts from interviews with some of the authors of our principal texts (or their television appearances).
• almost fifty short video excerpts from Russian feature films that are thematically related to the principal or supplementary texts.
• video and audio recordings of songs related to our texts, some of them performed specifically for this publication.
• annotated photographs of some of the authors featured on this disc.

All video recordings are accompanied by complete transcripts, displayed side by side with the video. Transcripts for all audio recordings are also provided. Most of the materials are followed by communicative assignments based on each specific item.

This disc includes a unique series of notes and exercises called Guided Reading. These exercises are based on "Nika," a short story by Viktor Pelevin; the complete text of the story is included.

Working with this course (whether on this or on DVD-ROM), you will be able to:

• access dictionary entries and numerous notes with one click of the mouse button.
• consult the transcripts while watching the videos or listening to the audio recordings.
• watch over a hundred excerpts from feature films, interviews and television broadcasts, listen to audio recordings, and work with photographs that are available only on the interactive disc.
• work with the unique Guided Reading section.

For detailed information on the contents and organization of this course please see Course Structure under Introduction in the Table of Contents.