The Advanced Russian Tabloid Reader contains a selection of ten texts in Russian which are typical of tabloid journalism in any language - subjects range from the incredible and ridiculous to the horrendous and outrageous. The language is highly provocative, peppered with social stereotypes, and frequently characterized by "tongue-in-cheek" understatement. It abounds in quips and expressions which are representative of the everyday banter of relaxed conversation. Most of the texts included here were collected over the past decade from the "Weekend" section of the Sunday edition of Novoe russkoe slovo. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, that one-page section (page 13!) of the New York emigrant newspaper was perhaps the only source of tabloid journalism in the Russian language anywhere. Since then, however, post-totalitarian Russia has seen tabloid journalism rapidly spread to its printed and electronic media. Although decried by many as contributing to the decline of Russia's rich cultural tradition, tabloid journalism will, no doubt, continue to flourish in Russia for years to come.

Students of Russian will find that the materials in this volume provide considerable insight into the informal language of today's average Russian. Learning this idiom, however, is not easy, and students will find some of the readings quite challenging. To facilitate the learning process, each text is accompanied by an on-page glossary and ample exercises to help the student practice the language of the given text. Among the exercises are aspect and conjugation drills, root presentations, two sets of questions about the texts for written or oral practice, a list of key phrases to help students retell the events reported in the texts, fill-in-the-blank exercises, and short sentences in English for translation into Russian. The texts are ordered from the lexically and grammatically easier to the more challenging, but since each text is autonomous in its presentation, instructors can alter the order to fit their needs.

Over the past five years I have successfully used the materials included in the Advanced Russian Tabloid Reader to enliven my upper-level Russian conversation and reading classes. Most of the texts have vivid and straightforward "plot lines," and students can readily "visualize" the narrated events, which in turn makes discussion in the "target language" far easier. I have also found that the readings serve as catalysts for more serious discussions of the broader issues implicit in the texts. Once students have gained initial command of the vocabulary of a given text and can readily answer the "who," "what," "when," "where," and "how" questions pertaining to it, they are able to move easily to a discussion of their own ideas and opinions on a particular topic.

Stress marks are given in the texts, verb lists and drills, root exercises, and questions for oral or written practice. Participles and verbal adverbs (deverbals) are marked with an asterisk and are defined at the end of each reading text. An easy to use conjugation key is found in the back of the book, which is provided as an aid to beginning and intermediate students in learning the major conjugation patterns in modern Russian.