The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners (Penguin Handbooks)

To supplement an introductory-level college Russian class I purchased this book along with a reputable dictionary and comprehensive book on the finer points of grammar. Truth be told, it has been one of the best investments I have ever made while studying foreign languages. I spent more than $100 for mandatory textbooks that were simply inferior to this one. In my opinion, this book should be the fixture of any Russian-language class.
The author presents a clear and concise view of the most important aspects; a self-motivated student or individual learner with this book would have a solid command of basic/intermediate Russian by the end. In conjunction with good professional instruction, this book makes a fine accompaniment for the student to hone their skills. However good it is, I would recommend investing in an audio CD or enrolling in a class to get the feel for pronunciation, tone, and speed.

What a great book for anyone studying the Russian language! It's very well organized with lots of vocabulary and practice. If you learn by "doing", this book will challenge you to do just that with written exercises.

I recommend this book to anyone who is self-studying Russian (as I do with all of my languages.) It's very concise, easy-to-understand and user-friendly.

I used this course before going to Russia in 2006; there I took a two week course - and showed the course to my teacher. The course (as most courses) are filled with grammatical errors, old language forms. However, they always help to build a base. Keep expectations low -- the Russian people are kind to new language learners and will help anyone making an effort.

This book is fantastic. I'm new to the language and have several resources on hand, but this book is my favorite. It systematically presents key concepts and is very thorough.

Alright, i'll break it down for you. This book gives you EVERYTHING you need to learn how to speak russian fluently. The book itself is broken down into lessons and throughout the lessons its broken down further into Exercises. Then, at the end of the lesson they have anywhere from four to six exercises. Make sure your actually DOING THEM! they will help you immensely. At the end of the book they have a Russian to English and then after that an English to Russian vocabulary section that covers most of the common words in russian (the vocab. takes up the last 200 pages). DONT BE INTIMITADED, stay open minded, ask questions (if you have the resourses), have fun and enjoy it. Russian is an awesome language!