Russian and History

Russian and history is a combination that allows you to engage with one of the most dramatic and consequential national stories of the modern era through both its language and its historical record. Russia's history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, encompassing industrialisation, revolution, the Soviet experiment, the Second World War, the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, is among the most studied and debated in the world. Studying it through the original language and its literary and cultural traditions gives you access to a depth of understanding that neither discipline alone can provide.

University College London offers this four-year full-time programme, developing advanced Russian language skills alongside a serious engagement with the broad sweep of historical study. The Russian strand takes your language from its foundations through to the advanced communicative and literary-analytical competence that a four-year programme allows, while also developing knowledge of Russian and Soviet literature and cultural history. The history strand at UCL is broad in its chronological and geographical scope, and you will develop both historical methods and substantial empirical knowledge across the periods and themes you choose to pursue.

The combination allows you to study the history of Russia and the Soviet Union with the linguistic and cultural tools to read primary sources and secondary literature in the original.

The degree develops linguistic precision, the ability to work with complex historical evidence, an understanding of how language, culture and political history interact, and the research and writing skills that both disciplines demand at the highest level.

Graduates work in diplomacy, the foreign service, academia, journalism, intelligence analysis, international organisations, the cultural sector and a range of professional roles where Russian expertise and historical analytical skill are valued. Postgraduate study in Russian studies, history, Soviet and post-Soviet studies or related fields is a natural option for those wishing to pursue academic or research careers.