The Russian audio course that jumps right into learning the language with expertly designed structure of the lessons and their thematic organization. This audio book set includes essentials from vol. 1 such as greetings, travelling, numbers, food and drink, shopping, getting around town, business meetings, dating and telling the time. Followed by vol. 2 with more detailed explanation of Russian phonetics, Russian names, birthdays, taking about planet...

Second volume in the popular Easy Russian series offering Russian language learning in easy to absorb audio format, designed specifically for English speakers. The audio course features phonetics, elements of Russian grammar, rich cultural content and native Russian speakers. It can be used as a stand-alone course or in combination with other training materials. No additional software or special equipment necessary.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky "An Honest Thief" is an 1848 short story that famously tells the tale of Emelyan Ilyitch, the tragic drunk. It begins with our narrator conversing with Astafy Ivanovich, an aged soldier and temporary lodger. An unfortunate coat theft leaves Astafy dismayed one day, and a conversation is struck up between the two, who seem to share the same dislike for thieves in general. One night, however, Astafy recounts to the narrator a story...

Nine deeply moving and exquisitely crafted tales from a master of the short story After a fortnight in Yalta, Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov has grown tired of the seaside. He is looking for a more interesting way to pass his vacation when a woman with a Pomeranian catches his eye. Gurov loathes his wife, and has spent his marriage chasing women, even though the affairs always end in disappointment. But Anna Sergeyevna will be different. For the first time...

Told in two parts, Anton Chekhov's "At Christmas Time" begins with an illiterate woman hiring a local man to write a letter wishing her daughter-from who she has heard nothing since her wedding and departure four years earlier-a merry Christmas. In the second part, the letter arrives for the daughter, whose life is not what she imagined it would be. While not a traditional story of Christmas cheer, Chekhov's "At Christmas Time" has captivated audiences...

Tickets please... A phrase familiar to every train passenger. And every now and then there's one without a ticket with a good excuse ready. When Podtyagin, a seasoned ticket collector on a train, decides to give up drinking and work honestly at his job it sounds like a good resolution. And this very day he comes across an 'unreasonable' passenger who finds the very word 'tickets' cruel and absurd.

Natalya just returned from Yalta, Crimea and is telling her husband over dinner of all the charms of the Crimea. Her husband, delighted, gazed tenderly at her enthusiastic face, listened, and from time to time put in a question. Natalya's never-ceasing babble gets her into serious trouble however. She is eager to expose her friend Yulia of some indiscretion with a local guide and this leads to revelations of Natalya's own 'gay' times with one of...

On a hot summer day two carpenters, Gerasim and Lyubim, sit in a pond, floundering about in the water under a willow tree, beside the unfinished bathing shed they were supposed to be working on. Blue from cold and wrangling, they struggle to drag a large eelpout by the gills, from under the root.

I will tell you without beating about the bush. My patient ... how should I say?... Well, she had fallen in love with me ... or, no, it was not that she was in love ... however ... really, how should one say?' (The doctor looked down and grew red.) 'No,' he went on quickly, 'in love, indeed!