2 



The large, similar -appearing word stock which English shares with languages such as 

 French and Spanish is not a common property of English and Russian. However, the 

 scientist has one distinct advantage in the matter of vocabulary, since specific scientific 

 terms in both languages may be quite similar, e.g. Russian fil'tratsiya , "filtration". 



Difficulties there are in the learning process, but they need not be exaggerated. 

 The Russian language is an effective instrument of communication, serving, as it does, 

 as the general administrative language for the 210 millions of people in the Soviet Union. 

 Like all other languages, Russian has a definite system of sounds and sound combinations. 

 This language system is very efficiently represented by the Russian Cyrillic alphabet, 

 far more efficiently, in fact, than the English language is served by its antiquated ortho- 

 graphy. 



The writer assumes that the typical user of this manual will be used to working 

 with complex systems and so will not be intimidated by linguistic complexity. All of the 

 complications of Russian appear at the very outset of the learner's effort, and thus a 

 short period of uncertainty(sometimes bewilderment) is to be expected. But there is a 

 definite limit to the grammatical complexities of Russian, and the learner, sooner or 

 later, reaches a stage where form identification becomes almost an automatic process. 

 On the assumption, then, that the potential user of this work is a mature person, used 

 to complex structures, the writer has dispensed with the slow, shock -avoiding approach 

 of the multi-purpose textbook. The structure of the Russian language has been described 

 as briefly and efficiently as possible, so that the learner may begin at an early stage to 

 read the Russian texts contained in the manual. 



Divisions of the Manual 



This book is designed to serve both as a textbook in the development of the reading 

 skill and, thereafter, as a reference book of Russian structure. As a textbook, it may be 

 used: 1) in an organized course of Scientific Russian, 2) in conjunction with a workbook, 

 or 3) by itself in a program of self-study. The last situation will be, quite obviously, the 

 most demanding. As a reference, it is divided into definite sections, so that a person who 

 reads Russian regularly may need to consult only one section, while the occasional reader 

 may require the help of two or more such sections. The learner is advised to spend an 

 hour or so in 'browsing' through the manual, acquainting himself with its contents. 



