This is an elementary Russian Course intended for adult beginners in Russian. It can be studied both with and without a teacher. Texts of the book acquaint the learners with culture and history of Russia and provide an opportunity for enhancing communicative skills. The book consists of the following sections: A short phonetics course A pictorial dictionary introducing concrete vocabulary grouped thematically The main part consisting of 33 units Russian conventional speech cliches A key to the exercises A general alphabetic Russian-English vocabulary The course gives the student a thorough knowledge of the fundamentals of Russian. On completing the course, the student, if desires, will be able to continue an unaided deeper study of Russian.