Centre of Russian Studies
The Centre of Russian studies (CRS) is a well known Centre of Excellence for the study of Russian language, literature and culture, it was founded in 1965 as an independent Institute of Russian Studies. It became a part of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1969. The Centre has a five year integrated MA programme. Students have the option of a BA (Honours) degree at the end of the 6th semester (3rd year). Moreover, the Centre offers M.Phil and Ph.D. programmes in various aspects of Russian philology (literature and language) and Comparativistics. Apart from Practical Russian other courses include: Russian Literature (including 19th and 20th centuries and contemporary works),
- Linguistics (including theoretical courses in Phonetics and Lexicology),
- Translation and Interpretation,
- Folklore,
- Culture and civilization,
- Theory of Literature,
- Comparative literature,
- History of Literary Criticism.
These are conducted during the course of the programme. In the First two semesters the students are taught the language. From the third semester onwards, Russian is the medium of instruction for all core courses.
The Centre provides several Short-Term courses for the specific requirements of organizations. The Centre has a 15 booth Tandberg Language Laboratory and an excellent library of 60,000 books in Russian, including newspapers, journals and periodicals.
The founding of the Centre of Russian Studies gave a tremendous boost to the teaching of Russian language in India in the 1970s and 1980s. Today a large number of Indian universities and colleges have Russian departments or Russian language courses.
The CRS provided teachers and assisted in the formulation of syllabi and course structures in these institutions. Today the CRS alumni are placed all over India in various Universities and colleges as well as in the USA.
Centre qualified interpreters and translators are employed in Central Ministries of the Government of India, including The Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Defense. Our alumni are working in Public and Private enterprises and many have set up their own business concerns with offices in Moscow, St.Petersburg and other towns of the CIS countries.
