This is an all-round and accessible description of the Russian language and its historical, social, cultural context. It includes extracts representing the best of the language, by renowned writers such as Pushkin, Gogol', Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Bulgakov, Mandel'shtam, and Kharms.

Setting language learning in an entertaining, real, and enlightening real life framework, the book reveals what most readers want to know about Russian (but are usually too afraid to ask). Learn Russian will not teach you how to buy an ice-cream or ask directions to the Kremlin, but it will give you the opportunity to read some of Russia's greatest literature in the original along with learning something of Russia's rich culture and life.