For Students
April 12, 2026, 12:00-4:30 EST - Harvard University, Davis Center
12:00-1:00 - Arrival and check in. All participants are welcome to join us for lunch (provided by the Davis Center)
1:00-1:15 - Official opening
1:15-3:00 - Speech contest by level
- 1st year
- 2nd year
- 3rd and 4th year
3:00-4:00 - Judges convene [Tea and snacks]
4:00-4:30 - Award ceremony
Monologue Requirements
Monologues will be performed live in front of judges on the day of the Olympiada.
In order to ensure fairness of the competition, participants must present language that is verifiably their own. This means that you are not allowed to use online translation sites. Note that there is a difference between looking up individual words or set phrases needed to express intended meaning and plugging entire sentences or paragraphs into an online translation service to generate texts in Russian. Therefore, while you are free to use class materials and various dictionaries in preparing the drafts and final versions of your speech, you may not:
- use machine translation or
- ask native speakers to create portions or all of your work for you.
For the speech contest, you can get one-time help from your instructor with the first draft, receiving general comments. For example, your instructor may highlight a word and suggest that you reconsider the use of case (or number), check gender or review verbs of motion, etc. You can also have one coaching session with your instructor (or TA) rehearsing the speech and working on intonation, pronunciation, gestures, eye contact, etc.
We look forward to hearing your speeches during the contest on one of the following topics:
1st year students (2-4 mins)
1. Моë самое любимое место на Земле./ My favorite place in the world. (For this topic you can discuss a place that you like, for example, a place where you live, work, study or vacation, or a place where your family lives. Describe it and say why you like it).
2. Самый интересный человек на Земле. / The most interesting person in the world. (For this topic, you can talk about the most interesting person in the world for you. For example, who this person is and why you think they are interesting. You can describe their biography, their job, their personality, or their talents).
3. Мой идеальный день. / My ideal day. (For this topic you can discuss a day that you consider ideal: what do you do? Where do you go? Who do you see? What do you eat?... You can pick any approach!)
4. Жизнь на Земле через 100 лет./ Life on Earth in 100 years. (For this topic you can discuss, what life will be like in a hundred years. Where will people live and work? What will they do in their free time? What languages will they speak? What music will they listen to? What food will they eat?... You can be creative and add other information!)
2nd year students (3-5 mins)
1. Путешествие, которое я запомнил(а). / A memorable trip. (For this topic you can describe a trip that you remember especially well: where you went, with whom, and in what season. Tell what you saw there, what you did every day, and why this particular trip stayed in your memory.)
2. Где я чувствую себя дома? (Понятие «дом» — это место, люди, культура?) / Where do I feel at home? (Is the concept of “home” a place, or the people, or the culture?) (For this topic you can talk about a place where you truly feel at home: is it your city, your room, your grandparents’ house, or maybe even another country? Explain what makes this place feel like “home” to you – the people, the memories, traditions, language, or something else.)
3. Люди на Земле — похожи или разные? / A people of the world similar or different? (For this topic you can compare people from different countries you have met, seen in films, or read about. Describe how their clothes, food, habits, or behavior may be different, but also explain what common human qualities you notice in all of them (kindness, curiosity, desire for friendship, etc.).
4. Жизнь на Земле через 100 лет./ Life on Earth in 100 years. (For this topic you can discuss what everyday life on Earth might look like in 100 years: where people will live (on Earth, in space, underwater), how they will work and study, and what technologies they will use. Think about how medicine, transport, the internet, and the environment could change, and whether life will be easier or more difficult.)
3rd-4th year students (5-7 min)
1. “Земля – наш общий дом”. Проблемы окружающей среды в моем регионе./ “The Earth is our shared home.” Environmental problems in my region. (For this topic, you can discuss what specific actions individuals and communities can take to protect the environment and preserve the Earth for future generations. Describe how people in your region care (or do not care) about nature, and explain why it is important to think about the long‑term future of our planet.)
2. Глобализация и утрата чувства дома. / Globalization and losing one’s sense of belonging. (Globalization erases borders, but at the same time the sense of belonging can become blurred. People live in megacities, travel, work remotely — but do they feel “at home”? How does globalization affect the way we perceive home and homeland? Can the Earth become a universal home for everyone?)
3. Как я влияю на мир вокруг. / How do I influence the world around me? (For this topic you can reflect on the different ways you influence the world around you — through your daily choices, your profession or studies, your relationships, and your online presence. Consider both visible actions (volunteering, participating in social projects, creating something) and invisible ones (the ideas you spread, the example you set, the way you speak to others), and evaluate whether this influence is mostly positive, negative, or neutral.
4. Кибермир как новый дом: теряем ли мы связь с Землёй? / The cyberworld as a new home: are we losing our connection to Earth? (For this topic, you can reflect on various aspects of life in the digital age and virtual reality. Can virtual reality replace the real feeling of home? How does the digital environment influence a person’s emotional connection to nature? You can reflect on the psychological, social, and environmental consequences of living between the real world and the digital one. Of course, you can choose any other approach to this topic!)
You are allowed to use notes written on one side of a 3X5 index card during their speech. After the speech, the judges will ask three questions related to its content. These questions will be fairly open-ended and may ask you to clarify a point you made (Could you please expand, clarify? Why do you believe so? etc.).
Your speech will be evaluated based on its content, originality/creativity, grammatical and lexical accuracy, pronunciation, and the delivery. Your ability to answer questions will also be evaluated along similar criteria based on the content as well as lexical and grammatical accuracy, but the total score has a much lower weight in comparison with the speech evaluation.
Click here to see the assessment rubric for the monologue.
Poetry Requirements
For the Poetry Contest students are invited to submit a video recording for evaluation by the judges. This year's contest focuses on poems about home, nature, feelings of belonging, and other related topics. You can chose one of the poems in your corresponding level from the list (click here) or ANY OTHER poem as long as it satisfies the requirements for your level.
Guidelines for Creating the Video
Be sure to introduce yourself and state which university you are from at the beginning of your video. Next, introduce the poet and the poem in English or in Russian and explain why you chose it. The introduction will not be evaluated, however it might be used by the judges to add bonus points to your final score. Then recite the poem.
Important requirements:
- First- and second-year students should memorize a poem of 8-12 lines (or more) and third- and fourth-year students should memorize a poem of 12-20 lines (or more).
- The camera should be set far enough from you so that judges could see your entire body, from feet up to your face. This requirement is set to ensure that you are not reading your poem from a paper or computer screen.
- You may not have notes on you or anywhere else. You may not read your poem.
- The recording has to be done “in one take” from beginning to the end.
- Please record in a quiet space and
- Make sure that the sound quality of your video is good before you submit it.
To prepare for the poem recital, you can meet with your instructor two times at the most in order to discuss the poem's meaning, rhythm, tone, poetic language, the author's intent, etc., and to rehearse reading the poem. You can then use various resources (including recordings of native speakers reading the chosen poem if such exist) to prepare for the recital.
Please, upload your file via Dropbox (CLICK HERE) no later than Tuesday, April 7th, 11:00pm EST. Late submission will not be considered. Please, save your video in one of the following formats: MP4, M4P, AVI, WMV, or MOV. Each video has to be saved as LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME_UNIVERSITY_LEVEL#, for example, SMITH_JOHN_HARVARD_2
Click here to see the assessment rubric for the poem recitation.
Singing Contest
Any student from a New England college or university, regardless of studying Russian currently or in the past, can participate in a Russian singing contest and regardless of their participation in the speech contest.
Participants must submit a video recording of themselves singing in Russian with or without an accompaniment (regardless of their participation in the speech contest). The song must have lyrics in Russian and consist of at least 2 verses. All submissions are due by Tuesday, April 7th, 11:00pm EST. Please upload your file via Dropbox (CLICK HERE). Please, save your video in one of the following formats: MP4, M4P, AVI, WMV, or MOV. Each file has to be saved as LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME_UNIVERSITY, for example, SMITH_JOHN_HARVARD