Russian words are transliterated differently by every translator: some attempt to give English equivalents, which, even if they were correctly chosen (they seldom are), cannot possibly give an idea of the phonetic values in Russian; others follow the simpler method of an etymological transliteration of letter by letter, but needlessly encumber the words with diacritical marks and difficult consonant combinations. The method pursued here, though far from ideal, recommends itself for its simplicity. Where the Russian and English alphabets are practically identical, the corresponding letters are used; in the other cases, the combinations are made with _h_, for which there is no corresponding sound in Russian; for the guttural vowel _y_ is used, which does also the duty of the English _y_ in _yes_. There can be no confusion between the two, as the guttural _y_ before or after a vowel is extremely rare. It is useless for anyone without oral instruction to try to pronounce Russian words as the natives do. The nearest approach will be attained if the consonants be pronounced as in English (_g_ always hard, _zh_ as _z_ in _azure_, _r_ always rolled, _kh_, guttural like German _ch_ in _ach_), and the vowels always open as in Italian (_a_ as _a_ in _far_, _e_ as _e_ in _set_, _o_ as _o_ in _obey_, or a little longer when accented, _u_ as _oo_ in _foot_, or a little longer when accented, _y_ between consonants is guttural, which it is useless to attempt and had better be pronounced like _i_: _i. e._, like _i_ in _machine_ or _bit_, according to the accent). The accents are indicated throughout the work. Accented _é_ is frequently pronounced as _yó_, but it would be useless to indicate all such cases. It has not been found practicable to spell Russian names uniformly when their English forms are universally accepted. It will not be uninteresting to summarise all that Englishmen and Americans have done to acquaint their countrymen with the language and literature of Russia.