It wasn't long ago that President Reagan characterized the Soviet Union as the "Evil Empire" and across America people agreed. Sting sang about how only the Russians' love for their children could keep us out of a nuclear war and Americans lined up at theaters to watch James Bond save western civilization from the communist threat. Both the governemnt and the military were in search of Russian speakers to fill a variety of positions.

Today we view Russia differently. A Russian character in a movie no longer has to be the villain. Sean Connery's character in The Hunt for Red October (who you're hearing right now if you have Internet Explorer) is a good example of this change in attitude. As a result of the end of the Cold War and the breakup of the Soviet Union many people view the study of Russian as obsolete. Nothing could be further from the truth. These events have actually raised the demand for Russian speakers by making the former Soviet Block open to Western scholars, scientists and businessmen alike.

Graduates from the University of New Hampshire's Russian program have taken advantage of this demand to secure positions with both American and Russian employers in Russia. For those who prefer to remain in the United States, such traditional employers as the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. continue to need Russian speakers. Both organizations post employment opportunities on their web sites.

So many people throughout Eurasia learned to speak Russian under the Soviet regime that it remains an important means of international communication. Emigration has spread Russian around the world. Today Russian is the third most commonly spoken language in Canada.

Even if you're not planning on ever visiting Russia or entering a career that uses Russian, speaking the language still has certain perks. If you're applying to graduate school, speaking Russian can help separate you from the myriad of applicants who speak Romance languages. Some programs (like Linguistics) may even require you to speak Russian, since so many texts relevant to the field were originally written in Russian. Last but not least, it's fun to compare the subtitles to what's actually being said when Russian is spoken in movies like The Saint, and television shows as diverse as Cybil, Millennium, Pretender and The X-Files!