Founded in 1950, the Department of Russian Language and Literature (Russian Department for short) was formerly a special training program in Northeast People’s University. In 1979, it welcomed its first batch of postgraduate students, and two years later, it was authorized as one of the earliest Master Degree Programs for Russian Language and Literature students nation-wide. In June 1993, expansions have been made as it formally changes its name to the Russian Department of Foreign Language School, Jilin University. In 2011, Master Degrees for Russian-Chinese Translation was added.

With a strong teaching team, the Russian Department now has eight supervisors of Master Degree Candidates, four professors, five associate professors, and 5 lecturers. All the teaching faculties studied or had on-job training experience in Russia, eight hold Doctor’s Degrees and two are Ph.D. Candidates. The teaching faculties are highly competent in teaching, strong in research, with a well-coordinated team that integrates the young, the middle-aged, and the senior, full of vigor and vitality. Professor Tan Lin, the world-renowned Pushkin medal winner had been teaching here. A group of young and experienced scholars, with profound scholarly prudence, teaches and conducts research in the department.

For a long time, it has been the fine tradition of the Russian Department to prioritize the training of students’ basic language skills and practical abilities. The students are, therefore, equipped with a solid professional foundation and high comprehensive qualities. The students have been winning the top prizes in both national and regional contests and in the TRM4 and TRM8 they also give excellent performance. At the same time, the Department maintains close contacts with universities like Moscow University, St. Petersburg University, Pushkin Russian Institute, Tomsk Science and Engineering University, and Far East University. Every year, six to ten students are sent overseas to be further educated on state scholarships to such countries as Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, Armenia, and others; five to seven students on university-to-university exchange projects and five to seven on short-term exchange programs.

Equipped with sound theoretical competence, highly comprehensive qualities, as well as strong practical skills, and adaptive abilities, the students have won much praise from companies and enterprises. In recent years, up to one-third of our graduates pursued postgraduate studies every year. The rest are working in such fields as national security, immigration affairs, customs, finance, foreign affairs, foreign trade, media, publishing houses, and colleges and universities.

The Russian Department is subdivided into three branches, namely, Russian Theory, Russian-Chinese Translation, and Russian Literature. Currently, the courses cover Grammar, Linguistics, Semantics, Pragmatics, Translation theory, Translation Practice, Russian Literature, Discourse Analysis, Rhetoric, Language and culture, and Oral courses. Starting from 2012, Masters of Russian-Chinese Translation were enrolled. In recent years, a good number of our graduates were admitted for doctorate studies at Shanghai International Studies University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Heilongjiang University, Nanjing University, and other majors in Jilin University.

The Russian Department is currently undertaking or taking part in over 10 state or provincial research projects. Since 1990, more than 200 academic papers and over 20 academic monographs, textbooks, translation works, dictionaries have been published. Main accomplishments include Russian Language and State Analysis, Translation Theories, Herzen, Kuprin, Contrast Analysis of Russian-Chinese New Words, An Analysis of Scientific Literature from the Perspective of М.М.Бахтин Speech Genre theory, Russian Life and Customs, Living in Russia, Russian Literary History, Russian Syntax Outline, Russian Lexicology Outline, Russian Rhetoric, Selected Readings of Russian Newspapers and Magazines, Theory of Modern Russian Tutorial, Chinese-Russian Dictionary, Sino-Russian Trade dictionary, and assorted Russian-Chinese Dictionaries.

The Russian Department places great emphasis on the research of language and culture. An influential and distinctive research team has been thus formed and numerous valuable research accomplishments published. Since 1994, the Russian Department has attracted great attention from the field by successfully sponsoring or jointly holding many Russian Language and Culture Seminars.

Office: Room 308, Foreign Language Building, Central Campus of Jilin University

Telephone: 85166209

Chair: Li Shujin