this class was genuinely one of the easiest classes I've taken at UCLA. i didn't find it super interesting, but the topics were cool to learn about. the class covered a lot of material, all from history to languages to culture. the midterm and final was super easy, and the prof is generous with extra credit. there is a final paper that is due for this class, which again is super chill and is graded by the TAs. attendance for lectures is not mandatory, and honestly wouldn't even recommend attending lol, all I did was sleep during lectures. just take notes on your own time and you should be fine. discussions are mandatory, but are decently chill. would 100% recommend taking this class.

One midterm, one final, and one final essay
All material needed to know for exams was highlighted in blue on the lecture slides that are also posted on canvas. Heavy memorization but manageable. Professor could sometimes seem boring but he really cares about the topics and always managed to make the class material relevant to current history which was interesting.
Would recommend.

An easy class but I recommend staying far away from it if you are not good at memorizing or have any time to. Advice is to make a study guide on EVERY bold blue definitions or events in the slides. He doesn't make questions about the textbook, only the slides. There is way too much to memorize: dates, people and what they did and literature. I stopped going to class entirely after awhile and still got A's on the exams because everything on the exams was in the slides. Also gives 8% EC and lecture is not mandatory but discussion is.

Easy GE definitely take it. He gave our class basically a guaranteed 9% extra credit meaning you needed an 84% or above to get an A. 20% of the grade is participation, 25% is the final paper, and both of these are pretty much an automatic 100% if you are present at discussion sections/turn in a half decent paper (wrote my entire paper at 3 am the night before it was due and got 100%). After extra credit, paper, and participation, its basically just the midterm and final. I didn't go to class once at all. and just dialed tf in before the final and got a 103% on the final. I recommend the same thing; don't go to class or open the book for the whole quarter, just lock in before the test and you're good.

Basically, you don't do a damn thing for ten weeks, dial in for the final and midterm, and you get a free A. All the other reviews about 'too much work" or "too much memorization" are dumb, you don't need to do any work until finals week.

Had no interest in Russian history going into the class, and after still don't really. One of the most boring classes I've ever taken, he just reads off slides that you need to memorize and it gets very overbearing. That being said, Igor posts the slides on bruin learn.

After the first 2 weeks of hell of sitting in the classroom watching lectures, I smarted up and did not attend another lecture. Honestly just read the slides and make a study guide with all the highlighted info and you will be fine.

I ended with a 104% in this class. He gives up to 8% extra credit if you do some optional quizzes and essays. Essays are really short and easy. There is a final paper that I'm pretty sure they just give everyone 100% on. Honestly an easy GE and would highly recommend, just be ready to memorize a lot by yourself. Don't waste your time going to lectures.

Do NOT take this class if you are looking for an easy GE. The professor does give 8% EC, but the exams are extremely hard. You are required to memorized minute details from the lectures, each of which consists of 30-40 powerpoint slides. I ended up spending more time studying for this final than ochem. The required reading is also pretty dense, and the final consists of a lengthy research paper and in-person exam. I definitely don’t see myself taking Russian 90B

I honestly do not understand why one would complain about this class. The professor is a great lecturer and covers interesting topics. He gives 8% of extra credit, which easily lets you jump to a better grade. The extra credit involved quizzes, which students could repeat multiple times until they got a perfect score, and watching movies and writing a one-page summary for each. The important components of the class were the timed multiple choice exams, which were closed notes, but we did not use Respondus. The exam questions were very straight forward and not tricky. We also had to write a five-page-essay at the end of the quarter about an important Russian event/figure. We chose who to write about, so there was a lot of freedom. I found the paper to be really interesting to write because I learned from it. Another important thing was participating in the discussions. My TA was Katrin, and she had polls each section, which were very similar to the test questions, so we all felt very prepared. I definitely recommend this class. It is fun, interesting, and easy to get an A.

Horrible class. Would not recommend. Unnecessarily difficult for an intro class. Also the grade distribution for Spring 2020 is so inaccurate. P.S. I’m selling the textbook..... hit me up @ *************

Tbh the professor is a little difficult to understand and he expects us to know A LOT of content. Idk if it's because of the course structure or the professor himself but expecting students to learn about Russian history, art, architecture, alphabet, and literature from like 400 AD to almost modern day is unreasonable especially for a GE course. I felt extremely overwhelmed and only stuck with the class because of the P/NP option. But the professor also offers A LOT of extra credit (max of 10-11%) so that boosted my grade really high. The class consists of a pre-midterm quiz, 1 midterm, 1 final, 1 paper on any topic related to Russia in some way, and the participation grade. If you have the choice, I would take Nicholas Fedensko's discussion because he's so sweet and tries to destress his students by highlighting specifically what we need to know.

I really enjoyed this class and learning about Russian history. The content was very interesting and always held my attention. You do have to read a novel, but I actually really liked it and the novel is relatively short. One downside to this class is that the professor has an accent that can be occasionally difficult to understand. It was very helpful that the lectures were pre-recorded for this online quarter because I was able to pause and rewind. Also, there is a ton of extra credit given in this class. This makes up for the fact the midterm and the final are pretty difficult. I earned 6% extra credit for taking a few practice quizzes and writing an analysis of a Russian film.