The world of work: Мир труда, возможности и равноправие — Russian · A-Level Revision Notes

Notes · RussianUK · A-Levels

This topic carries the third sub-theme of Edexcel's Тема 1, Развитие российского общества: Мир труда, which the specification exemplifies in three aspects — отношение к труду, возможности для молодых россиян and равноправие. It takes one sub-theme rather than two because the three aspects interlock and because равноправие on its own is a substantial strand that a hurried treatment turns into a cliché. Тема 1 is set in the context of Russia only, so the evidence must be Russian throughout. The notes give the real ground — the collapse of the Soviet guarantee of employment and what replaced it, the трудовой договор and the трудовая книжка that still define a proper job in Russian eyes, the circular trap of a diploma without experience, the very high labour-force participation and university attainment of Russian women set against a persistent gap at the top and the двойная нагрузка at home, the shortening of the list of occupations closed to women from the start of 2021, and the new legal categories of самозанятый and удалённая работа — together with the Russian needed to argue about all of it: aspect chosen for meaning, short-form passive participles, comparatives, and the не … , а … frame that lets you reject a claim and replace it in one sentence.

5 sections~38 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Standard 1 · Advanced 4

T·0222 / 13

Exam profile

AO1 · Understand and respond, in speech and in writing, to spoken Russian about work, careers and equalityAO2 · Understand and respond, in speech and in writing, to written Russian about the Russian labour market and its rulesAO3 · Manipulate Russian accurately, using a range of lexis and structure to argue about opportunity and fairnessAO4 · Show knowledge and understanding of, and respond critically to, work and equality in contemporary Russia

Operators:описатьсравнитьобъяснитьпроанализироватьоценитьобосноватьперевести

basic level

At first-year standard the expectation is accurate description: naming jobs and conditions in Russian, describing what a young Russian looks for in work, saying what has changed since the Soviet period and giving a clear personal opinion, with secure aspect in the past tense, correct cases after the commonest prepositions, and correct agreement in comparative constructions.

higher level

The full A-Level expects the mechanism rather than the label. Why does a country that educates more of its young people than most of Europe still argue that a diploma no longer guarantees anything? Why does very high female labour-force participation coexist with a visible gap at the top of organisations? Why did the state build a new legal category for the self-employed rather than enforce the old one? Answers must concede, weigh and conclude in Russian, using short-form participles, чем … тем …, не … , а …, and vocabulary precise enough to distinguish equality of rights from equality of opportunity.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

The world of work: Мир труда, возможности и равноправие

Отношение к труду: what a proper job means in Russian#

StandardPearson Edexcel 9RU0 Тема 1 - Мир труда: отношение к трудуDfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

Russian has two words where English has one, and the difference is the sub-theme in miniature. Труд is labour in the abstract and dignified sense — the word of constitutions, monuments and the phrase мир труда that the specification itself uses. Работа is the job you actually go to, and also the work you actually do. So отношение к труду asks about values, while искать работу is a practical activity, and a candidate who uses the two interchangeably sounds like someone translating rather than speaking. Around them sit the vocabulary of employment: занятость and безработица, зарплата with оклад for the fixed part and премия for the bonus, работодатель and работник, сотрудник and коллега, начальник and подчинённый, стаж for length of service and опыт работы for relevant experience. Note that увольнять is to dismiss someone and увольняться is to resign — the reflexive particle reverses who is doing what, and getting it backwards is a real and embarrassing error.

Two institutions define what Russians mean by a proper job, and neither has an exact English equivalent. The first is the трудовой договор, the written contract of employment: работать по трудовому договору means being employed on the books, with paid leave, sick pay and pension contributions, and its absence — работать неофициально, or в конверте for a wage paid in cash — is the standard shorthand for precarity. The second is the трудовая книжка, the employment record book that traditionally travelled with a worker from job to job as the physical archive of a career; since 2020 it has been shifting to an electronic form, and the fact that this shift was national news says how much weight the object carried. Being able to use both terms accurately is a small, verifiable signal that you know the country: у него есть трудовой договор, а стаж записан в электронной трудовой книжке.

The historical break gives you your best analytical material and can be described without any invented figures. In the Soviet Union employment was in principle guaranteed and unemployment was not an official category; the slogan Кто не работает, тот не ест expressed a duty rather than an opportunity. The 1990s brought the opposite experience — mass insecurity, wages paid late or not at all, and a whole vocabulary that Russians still remember, including челноки for the traders who carried goods across borders in bags. What has settled since is a strongly pragmatic attitude among the young: стабильность is prized, the state sector and large companies attract precisely because they offer it, and a job is judged first by whether it pays reliably. Alongside that, newer words have entered ordinary Russian — выгорание for burnout, баланс между работой и личной жизнью for work-life balance, удалёнка for remote work — and the arrival of that vocabulary is itself the evidence that expectations have changed.

For the exam, hold one comparison and one caution. The comparison: раньше работа была обязанностью, сегодня она чаще воспринимается как способ обеспечить себе определённый образ жизни. That sentence contrasts an imperfective past with a present, uses a reflexive passive воспринимается, and gets a purpose infinitive in — three separate things the AO3 grid counts. The caution: do not tell an examiner that Russians do not want to work or that everyone dreams of a government job. Both are caricatures, and a caricature costs AO4 marks precisely where you thought you were being knowledgeable. The safe move is to attribute: принято считать, что молодёжь стремится к стабильности, но данные о самозанятости говорят и о другом.

Worked example

Paper 2 Section A: translation into Russian, with every decision justified

Translate into Russian. Attitudes to work in Russia have changed considerably since the 1990s. Young people today talk about a balance between work and private life, which their parents almost never discussed. Nevertheless, a stable job with a written contract is still valued more highly than an interesting one, especially outside the largest cities.

Attitudes to work in Russia have changed considerably since the 1990s
Отношение к труду в России заметно изменилось с девяностых годов. Отношение is singular in Russian even where English pluralises attitudes, and it governs к plus the dative. Труду rather than работе, because the sentence is about values. Since in the sense of from a point in time onwards is с plus the genitive: с девяностых годов, or с 1990-х годов in figures. Изменилось is perfective: the change is complete and its result stands. Заметно, noticeably, is the safe rendering of considerably; значительно is also correct.
Young people today talk about a balance between work and private life
Сегодня молодые люди говорят о балансе между работой и личной жизнью. Говорить о takes the prepositional, балансе. Между governs the instrumental and does so for both nouns: работой и личной жизнью, with личной agreeing with жизнью in the instrumental feminine. Private life is личная жизнь; частная жизнь exists but leans towards privacy in the legal sense. Note that Russian puts сегодня first here without inversion, because the time expression is the frame rather than the new information.
which their parents almost never discussed
о котором их родители почти никогда не говорили. The relative pronoun который agrees in gender and number with its antecedent, баланс, and takes its case from its own clause — here the prepositional after о, so о котором. Russian requires the negative particle не with никогда: почти никогда не говорили, a double negative that is obligatory and not a mistake. Говорили is imperfective past, because the point is the absence of a repeated activity rather than a single unperformed act.
Nevertheless, a stable job with a written contract is still valued more highly than an interesting one
Тем не менее стабильная работа с трудовым договором по-прежнему ценится выше, чем интересная. Тем не менее is the standard discourse marker for nevertheless and needs no comma after it. С plus the instrumental for accompaniment: с трудовым договором — and note that Russian says трудовой договор, not письменный контракт, which would be a Latinate calque. Ценится is a reflexive verb doing the work of the English passive, which the grammar list names as the preferred way to avoid a passive construction. The English pro-form one has no Russian equivalent: интересная simply stands alone with работа understood.
especially outside the largest cities
особенно за пределами самых крупных городов. За пределами governs the genitive and is the ordinary Russian for outside in this abstract sense; вне is also possible and more formal. For the superlative, prefer самый plus the adjective — самых крупных — over the suffixal form крупнейших: the specification's grammar list marks the suffixal superlative in -айший and -ейший as receptive only, so it is a form you should recognise in a reading passage but not one you are expected to produce. Choosing the productive form on purpose is exactly the kind of decision the accuracy grid rewards.

Result: Отношение к труду в России заметно изменилось с девяностых годов. Сегодня молодые люди говорят о балансе между работой и личной жизнью, о котором их родители почти никогда не говорили. Тем не менее стабильная работа с трудовым договором по-прежнему ценится выше, чем интересная, — особенно за пределами самых крупных городов.

Typical mistakes

Swapping увольнять and увольняться. Его уволили means he was dismissed; он уволился means he resigned.
Writing работать в компании X as though it were the only option. Russian distinguishes работать в plus prepositional for an organisation from работать на plus accusative or prepositional for a person or platform: работать на себя, работать на заводе.
Using карьера as a neutral word for a job. Карьера is a career trajectory; the job itself is работа or должность, the post.
Saying зарплата большая when you mean высокая. Wages are высокая or низкая in Russian, not большая or маленькая.

Active revision

Напишите по-русски 140 слов на тему «Как изменилось отношение россиян к труду за последние тридцать лет». Постройте текст в три шага: советская гарантия занятости, нестабильность девяностых, сегодняшний прагматизм. Используйте не менее двух возвратных глаголов в значении пассива и одну конструкцию «не … , а …».

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Russian (9RU0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

Возможности для молодых россиян: the circle, and how it is broken#

AdvancedPearson Edexcel 9RU0 Тема 1 - Мир труда: возможности для молодых россиянDfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

Круг молодого специалиста

Fig. 1The chain young Russians describe when they explain why a degree is not enough. It is drawn as a chain rather than a list because the chain is itself the argument: each link is the reason for the next, and the marked link is where an internship or a course placement can cut it.

The single most useful thing to be able to say about young Russians and work is that the obstacle is not qualification. Russia sends a very high proportion of its school leavers into higher education — comparatively speaking, among the highest in Europe, and that is how to say it, never with an invented percentage — so the shortage is not of diplomas. What Russian public debate returns to instead is the gap between the diploma and the job: работа не по специальности, working outside the field you trained in, is so common that the phrase needs no explanation, and the reason usually given is a circle. Работодатель требует опыта, а получить опыт без работы невозможно. Say the circle in Russian and you have an argument rather than a complaint, and you have it in two clauses.

The vocabulary of the entry problem is worth having exactly. Молодой специалист is the formal category of a recent graduate. Стажировка is an internship and практика is the placement built into a degree course, and the two are not the same thing; a candidate who distinguishes them sounds like someone who has read about the system. Испытательный срок is the probation period, вакансия the vacancy, резюме the CV, собеседование the interview, and устроиться на работу the ordinary verb for getting a job — note the reflexive, and note that it takes на plus the accusative. Add подработка for a side job and сарафанное радио, literally the calico radio, for word of mouth, which is how a great deal of Russian hiring still works and which makes a memorable and accurate point about networks.

Geography does more work in this sub-theme than in almost any other, and it is what turns a general answer into a Russian one. Opportunity is heavily concentrated: Moscow and Saint Petersburg between them hold a disproportionate share of the country's well-paid professional jobs, so for many young people the career decision and the migration decision are the same decision. Переехать в Москву is a life event, not a commute. Two other routes are genuinely Russian and worth naming: вахтовый метод, the rotational shift system under which workers fly to the far north or to an oil or gas field for weeks at a time and then home again, and госслужба, the state service, which attracts precisely because it offers the стабильность the previous section described. Naming вахта in a speaking test is the kind of concrete detail an examiner remembers.

Turn all of that into argument with three structures. First, the circle itself, stated as a chain: без опыта не берут, без работы нет опыта, круг замыкается. Second, the escape, expressed with a fronted infinitive: разорвать этот круг помогают стажировки и практика во время учёбы. Third, the qualification that keeps you honest, expressed with word order that puts the subject last because the subject is the new information: однако предлагают их прежде всего крупные компании в Москве и Петербурге. That last sentence is worth studying as a piece of grammar: the verb comes first, the object second, and the subject arrives at the end carrying the point of the whole sentence. Doing that on purpose is precisely what the specification means when it lists position at the end of the sentence for new information among the structures you must control.

Worked example

From a bare fact to a paragraph of argued Russian

You have one fact: many graduates of Russian universities work outside the field they trained in. Build it into the kind of paragraph the AO4 grid calls developed and justified.

State the fact in the standard Russian phrase
Многие выпускники российских вузов работают не по специальности. По специальности takes по plus the dative and is the fixed expression; работать в своей области would be understood but would sound translated. Starting from the phrase a Russian would actually use costs nothing and signals immediately that the content is known rather than assembled.
Report the usual explanation, then reject it
Обычно это объясняют тем, что вузы готовят слишком много юристов и экономистов, но такое объяснение неполно. Объяснять что-либо чем-либо puts the explanation in the instrumental, hence тем, что. The third-person plural объясняют with no subject is the ordinary Russian impersonal, avoiding the passive as the grammar list recommends. Неполно is a short-form neuter adjective used predicatively — economical, correct, and counted by the AO3 grid as complex language.
Give the mechanism as a chain, in one sentence
Работодатель требует опыта, а получить опыт без работы невозможно, и круг замыкается: без опыта не берут, без работы нет опыта. Two case decisions inside one sentence: требовать governs the genitive, опыта, while получить governs the accusative, опыт. Невозможно plus infinitive is impersonal. The colon and the two short parallel clauses give the reader the circle as a shape, not just as a statement.
Name the escape route with a fronted infinitive
Разорвать этот круг помогают стажировки и практика во время учёбы. Fronting the infinitive is idiomatic Russian and puts the emphasis on what has to be done rather than on who does it. Помогать plus infinitive needs no preposition. Во время plus the genitive is during. Distinguishing стажировки from практика inside the same clause quietly demonstrates that you know the difference.
Qualify it with word order, then relocate the question
Однако предлагают их прежде всего крупные компании в Москве и Петербурге. Поэтому речь идёт не о переизбытке дипломов, а о том, что вход в профессию распределён географически неравномерно. In the first sentence the subject arrives last because it is the new information — that is the point of the sentence and the reason for the order. In the second, речь идёт не о … , а о том, что … rejects one framing and installs another; распределён is a short-form past passive participle. Ending on the relocated question invites the examiner to follow up, which is what you want in a discussion.

Result: Многие выпускники российских вузов работают не по специальности. Обычно это объясняют тем, что вузы готовят слишком много юристов и экономистов, но такое объяснение неполно. Работодатель требует опыта, а получить опыт без работы невозможно, и круг замыкается: без опыта не берут, без работы нет опыта. Разорвать этот круг помогают стажировки и практика во время учёбы. Однако предлагают их прежде всего крупные компании в Москве и Петербурге. Поэтому речь идёт не о переизбытке дипломов, а о том, что вход в профессию распределён географически неравномерно.

Typical mistakes

Writing требовать опыт. Требовать governs the genitive when the object is abstract: требовать опыта, требовать стажа — but получить опыт, with the accusative.
Using практика and стажировка as synonyms. Практика is the placement inside a course of study; стажировка is an internship taken with an employer.
Saying найти работа. Найти takes the accusative: найти работу, искать работу.
Claiming that all young Russians want to move to Moscow. Attribute the tendency — многие стремятся переехать — and then note the counter-evidence; the AO4 grid punishes the unqualified generalisation.

Active revision

Ответьте по-русски примерно в 150 словах на вопрос «Почему российский диплом больше не гарантирует хорошую работу?». Опишите круг «нет опыта — нет работы», назовите два способа его разорвать и закончите замечанием о географическом неравенстве возможностей.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Равноправие: equality of rights against equality of opportunity#

AdvancedPearson Edexcel 9RU0 Тема 1 - Мир труда: равноправиеDfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

Begin with a distinction that organises the whole sub-theme and that most candidates never make: равенство прав is not равенство возможностей. Rights are what the law grants; opportunity is what the situation actually allows. Russian gives you the pair cleanly, and using it in the first sentence of an answer immediately raises the register of the argument. Around it sit равноправие itself, дискриминация, предрассудок for a prejudice, стереотип, and the useful verb-phrases наравне с plus the instrumental for on an equal footing with, и добиваться равенства for to fight for equality. Note the register: люди с инвалидностью, people with disabilities, is now the standard careful term in Russian, and инвалид, while still current, is increasingly avoided in considered writing — knowing that shift is itself a piece of cultural knowledge the AO4 grid can reward.

The gender picture in Russia is genuinely interesting and is spoiled by simplification in either direction. Two things are true at once. Russian women participate in paid work at a high rate and are, if anything, more likely than men to hold a university qualification — a pattern established in the Soviet period and never reversed. And yet the higher levels of management and of political life are visibly less female, a gap Russian sociologists describe with the borrowed metaphor стеклянный потолок, and pay differs on average between men and women as it does across Europe. Alongside that runs двойная нагрузка, the double burden: a full working day followed by the larger share of domestic and caring work at home. The term is not a foreign import — it was already used in Soviet sociology, which is worth saying, because it dates the problem rather than treating it as new.

Two dated facts let you argue rather than assert, and both are worth memorising. First, since 2013 it has been unlawful in Russia to specify sex or age in a job advertisement; the practice was previously routine, and the change is the reason vacancy notices now read differently. Second, the list of occupations closed to women, inherited from Soviet labour protection and long criticised as paternalistic, was substantially shortened with effect from 1 January 2021 — reduced from several hundred entries to roughly a hundred, opening trades such as driving heavy vehicles and a range of industrial work. Both are precise, both are datable, and both let you make the same analytical move: закон изменился раньше, чем изменилась практика. That sentence is the whole sub-theme in seven words.

Do not let the topic collapse into gender alone, because the specification's word is равноправие in general. Три other strands are available and each is concrete. Disability: the state programme Доступная среда has run since 2011 to make transport, buildings and services accessible, and доступная среда, безбарьерная среда and пандус are the words to use. Age: возрастная дискриминация is discussed openly, and the 2013 advertising rule was aimed at it as much as at sex. Region: the concentration of opportunity described in the previous section is itself an inequality, and connecting it here shows the examiner that you are reading the sub-theme as a whole. Then keep one balanced closing sentence ready: в России равноправие закреплено законом, но между законом и повседневной практикой остаётся расстояние, которое законом не сокращается.

Worked example

Paper 3 Task 1: a spoken answer built from a stimulus statement

The stimulus card for the sub-theme Мир труда carries this statement: «В России женщины и мужчины имеют равные возможности на работе.» You have chosen it during your five minutes of preparation. Build the answer.

Announce the choice, then split the claim in two
Say which statement you have chosen in one sentence — the specification requires it and it costs five seconds — then open on the distinction: Формально это так, но равенство прав и равенство возможностей — не одно и то же. Формально это так concedes the legal position immediately, which buys you the right to complicate it; не одно и то же is the compact Russian for not the same thing. You have now set up a two-part answer, and the examiner knows it.
Give the evidence for the statement, with a date
По закону дискриминация запрещена, и с 2013 года в объявлениях о вакансиях нельзя указывать пол или возраст. Запрещена is a short-form past passive participle agreeing with дискриминация. С 2013 года is с plus the genitive for since. Нельзя plus an imperfective infinitive expresses prohibition — нельзя указывать, it is not permitted to specify — where нельзя plus a perfective would mean impossibility rather than prohibition, a distinction worth making deliberately.
Give the evidence against, and name the metaphor
Российские женщины учатся в вузах не меньше мужчин, а часто и больше, однако на верхних этажах управления их заметно меньше; социологи называют это стеклянным потолком. Не меньше мужчин puts the standard of comparison in the genitive. Называть что-либо чем-либо takes the instrumental: стеклянным потолком. Attributing the metaphor to социологи rather than asserting it in your own voice is exactly the reporting habit the AO4 grid rewards.
Add the domestic dimension, then a genuine countervailing fact
К этому добавляется так называемая двойная нагрузка: женщина работает полный день, а домашние обязанности всё равно остаются в основном на ней. Есть и движение вперёд: с 2021 года список профессий, закрытых для женщин, был значительно сокращён. Так называемая signals a term of art without endorsing it. Закрытых is a long-form past passive participle in the genitive plural, был сокращён a short-form one in the predicate — two participles in one sentence, both required by the meaning. A balanced answer must include the countervailing fact; an answer that only accuses is not analysis.
Conclude on the gap between law and practice, and hand back
Поэтому я бы сказал, что равноправие в России — это скорее направление, чем достигнутый результат. А как вы думаете, что здесь важнее: закон или привычка? Скорее … , чем … is the hedged comparative that lets you take a position without overclaiming. Достигнутый is a past passive participle used attributively. The closing question serves the Interaction grid, which is worth six of Task 1's thirty marks and explicitly requires you to elicit the examiner's view; place two or three such questions across the discussion rather than saving them all for the end.

Result: Я выбрал утверждение Б. Формально это так: по закону дискриминация запрещена, и с 2013 года в объявлениях о вакансиях нельзя указывать пол или возраст. Но равенство прав и равенство возможностей — не одно и то же. Российские женщины учатся в вузах не меньше мужчин, а часто и больше, однако на верхних этажах управления их заметно меньше; социологи называют это стеклянным потолком. К этому добавляется так называемая двойная нагрузка: женщина работает полный день, а домашние обязанности всё равно остаются в основном на ней. Есть и движение вперёд: с 2021 года список профессий, закрытых для женщин, был значительно сокращён. Поэтому я бы сказал, что равноправие в России — это скорее направление, чем достигнутый результат. А как вы думаете, что здесь важнее: закон или привычка?

Typical mistakes

Treating равноправие as if it meant only women's rights. It is equality of rights in general and covers disability, age and origin as well.
Saying российские женщины не работают. The opposite is true and has been for generations; the argument is about the ceiling, not about participation.
Writing дискриминация против женщин. Russian says дискриминация по признаку пола, discrimination on the ground of sex, or дискриминация женщин.
Using равный and одинаковый interchangeably. Равные права are equal rights; одинаковые условия are identical conditions — and the difference between the two is the point of the sub-theme.

Active revision

Подготовьте по-русски устный ответ длиной примерно в две минуты на утверждение «Равноправие в России уже достигнуто». Начните с различия между равенством прав и равенством возможностей, приведите один датированный факт в поддержку и один против, упомяните хотя бы одну группу, кроме женщин, и закончите вопросом к собеседнику.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Новые формы занятости: самозанятые, удалёнка и the platform economy#

AdvancedPearson Edexcel 9RU0 Тема 1 - Мир труда: отношение к труду; возможности для молодых россиянDfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

Two legal changes have altered how Russians describe their working lives, and both are recent enough that the vocabulary is still settling — which makes them excellent material, because an examiner will not have heard them from every candidate. The first is самозанятый, a legal status introduced as an experiment in 2019 and extended across the country in 2020, under which an individual registers through an app and pays a low налог на профессиональный доход instead of the ordinary regime for a business. It was designed to bring into the open the enormous informal economy of private tutors, repairers, drivers, hairdressers and designers, and to a significant extent it has. The second is удалённая работа, remote work, which was written into the Labour Code with effect from January 2021 and which ordinary Russian shortens to удалёнка. Both changes give you dates, mechanisms and a debate.

The debate is the valuable part. On one side, the самозанятый status is genuinely easier: registration takes minutes, the rate is low, and a person who was previously invisible to the state now has documented income and can, for instance, take out a loan. On the other side, the status carries no трудовой договор and therefore none of what a contract brings: самозанятый сам платит за отпуск и за больничный, and nothing accrues in the way an employer's contributions would. Russian has a term for the resulting worry, прекарная занятость, and a more everyday way of putting it: свобода без гарантий. Beside it sits платформенная занятость, platform work — the couriers and drivers of the delivery and taxi apps — which raises the same question in its sharpest form.

Remote work changed something different: geography. If a job can be done from anywhere, the concentration of opportunity in two cities described earlier becomes less absolute, and a developer in a regional capital can earn a Moscow salary without moving. That is a genuinely new possibility in Russian working life and it is worth stating as one, with its limits attached: удалёнка расширила географию хороших зарплат, но далеко не для всех профессий. Note the useful phrase далеко не, which negates emphatically — far from all — and which is the kind of idiom that lifts spoken Russian above the textbook. Note also that remote work has produced its own complaints in Russian exactly as elsewhere: размытые границы между работой и домом, and again выгорание.

For the exam, this section is where you can be genuinely up to date, so use it as your point of difference. Prepare one sentence that dates the change, one that names the trade-off and one that qualifies it: с 2019 года в России появился статус самозанятого; он даёт свободу, но не даёт гарантий; и воспользоваться им проще тем, у кого уже есть клиенты. That last clause — тем, у кого уже есть клиенты, to those who already have clients — makes the inequality point compactly and uses a relative clause governed by a dative antecedent, which is a real piece of Russian syntax rather than a decoration. A candidate who can say all three sentences has a complete argument in under a minute.

Worked example

Paper 1 Section C: translation into English, worked sentence by sentence

Translate into English. Ещё десять лет назад слово «самозанятый» ничего не значило для большинства россиян. Сегодня так называют тех, кто работает на себя и платит налог на профессиональный доход: репетиторов, мастеров по ремонту, водителей, дизайнеров. Государство рассчитывало вывести из тени миллионы людей, и отчасти это удалось. Однако у нового статуса есть и обратная сторона: самозанятый сам платит за отпуск и за больничный, а трудовой договор ему никто не предлагает.

Ещё десять лет назад … ничего не значило для большинства россиян
Ещё before a time expression means as recently as or even: as recently as ten years ago. Ничего не значило is the obligatory Russian double negative, rendered by a single English negative: meant nothing. Для большинства россиян takes the genitive after для and again after большинства. A decision to make and to justify: слово «самозанятый» is a term with no settled English equivalent, so the safest rendering is the term self-employed with a short gloss, or the Russian word retained; what loses marks is translating it as freelancer, which is a different concept.
Сегодня так называют тех, кто работает на себя и платит налог на профессиональный доход
Так называют, with no subject, is the ordinary Russian impersonal: it is what people call, or in natural English it is applied to. Тех, кто is the accusative of те plus a relative clause, and кто takes a singular verb, работает, even though те is plural — English simply pluralises: those who work. Работать на себя is to work for oneself. Налог на профессиональный доход is a named tax and should keep its shape in English: the tax on professional income.
репетиторов, мастеров по ремонту, водителей, дизайнеров
The list is in the accusative-genitive, agreeing with тех. Репетитор is a private tutor, not a repetiteur; мастер по ремонту is a repair worker or handyman, and по plus the dative here means specialising in. A list of four concrete occupations is doing rhetorical work in the original — it makes the abstract status visible — so keep all four rather than compressing.
Государство рассчитывало вывести из тени миллионы людей, и отчасти это удалось
Рассчитывать plus a perfective infinitive means to count on doing, to expect to do. Вывести из тени is a fixed metaphor: to bring out of the shadow economy — do not translate it as to lead out of the shade. Удалось is impersonal and takes a dative that is here omitted: и отчасти это удалось, and to some extent it worked, or and it has partly succeeded. The imperfective рассчитывало against the perfective удалось is the aspectual spine of the sentence: an ongoing intention, a completed outcome.
Однако у нового статуса есть и обратная сторона … а трудовой договор ему никто не предлагает
У plus the genitive plus есть is the Russian have-construction: the new status has. И here is not and but also, an emphatic particle: has another side to it as well. Обратная сторона is the reverse side, and English idiom prefers there is another side to it. Сам платит за отпуск и за больничный: сам is emphatic, pays for his own. The final clause inverts — object first, subject никто last — and carries a double negative: никто не предлагает, nobody offers. Ему is the dative of the person offered to.

Result: As recently as ten years ago the term self-employed, in its present Russian sense, meant nothing to most people. Today it is applied to those who work for themselves and pay the tax on professional income: private tutors, repair workers, drivers, designers. The state expected to bring millions of people out of the shadow economy, and to some extent it has succeeded. The new status has another side to it, however: a self-employed person pays for his own holiday and his own sick leave, and nobody offers him a contract of employment.

Typical mistakes

Translating самозанятый simply as freelancer. Фрилансер is the informal description; самозанятый is a specific tax and legal status with a registration procedure.
Writing на удалёнке in a Paper 2 essay. Удалёнка is colloquial; the written form is удалённая работа or дистанционная работа.
Confusing больничный and отпуск. Больничный is paid sick leave; отпуск is annual leave.
Saying платить налог за доход. The verb takes the accusative directly and the tax has a fixed name: платить налог на профессиональный доход.

Active revision

Напишите по-русски 140 слов на тему «Самозанятость: свобода или незащищённость?». Приведите две даты, назовите один выигрыш и одну потерю по сравнению с трудовым договором и закончите оговоркой о том, кому этот статус подходит лучше всего.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Exam technique: the Section A summary question, in Russian, under listening conditions#

AdvancedPearson Edexcel 9RU0 Paper 1 Section A - listening, 30 marks over four questions, including questions testing summary skillsPearson Edexcel 9RU0 Paper 1 - individual control of the recording; recommended 50 minutes for Section A

The specification says that Section A includes questions testing summary skills and that the student summarises information from spoken sources, reporting key points and subject matter. Two words in that sentence carry the whole technique. Reporting means putting the content into your own Russian rather than transcribing it. Key points means choosing: a summary is an act of selection before it is an act of compression, and a candidate who tries to fit everything in has already lost the marks that were available for judgement. Since each student controls the playback and may stop, revisit and replay as they wish, the summary question is the one place in the whole qualification where a deliberate multi-pass method is not just allowed but assumed.

Use three passes with three different jobs. The first pass is for structure and nothing else: how many speakers, what the question at issue is, and how many distinct claims are made. Write nothing but a numbered skeleton — 1, 2, 3 — with two or three words against each. The second pass fills the skeleton: for each numbered claim, one supporting detail, in Russian, in your own words, abbreviated. The third pass is a check for the things that invert meaning if missed: negation, particularly the emphatic далеко не and вовсе не; concession markers such as хотя and тем не менее; attributions such as по словам эксперта, which tell you whose claim it is; and numbers or dates, which are easy to hear and easy to misplace. Three passes, three jobs, no rereading of what you already have.

Then write, and write in frames. A small stock of reporting expressions will carry the organisation so that you can spend your attention on accuracy: в тексте говорится о том, что; автор подчёркивает, что; по словам эксперта; речь идёт о plus prepositional; кроме того; в заключение; из этого следует, что. Two grammatical warnings. First, о том, что takes the prepositional in том and then a full clause, and dropping the том is a common learner slip. Second, indirect speech in Russian keeps the tense of the original utterance rather than shifting it back as English does: он сказал, что работает в Москве means he said he was working in Moscow. The specification's list of complex language names sequence of tenses in reported speech explicitly, so getting this right is directly rewarded.

Finally, protect the marks that are lost silently. Answer in complete Russian clauses, because a fragment that would be clear in speech can be ambiguous on paper. Do not import the passage's own connectives; if the speaker said поэтому, you should be able to say следовательно or таким образом. Watch case after every preposition in a hurried answer — о том in the prepositional, из этого in the genitive, к выводу in the dative — and watch aspect: a summary of what someone described uses imperfectives, a summary of what happened uses perfectives, and mixing them at random reads as carelessness. Leave three or four minutes at the end of Section A for one targeted check: not a rereading, but a hunt for the three errors you personally make most often.

Worked example

Building a summary in Russian from a heard passage

A Section A recording carries an interview in which a specialist on the labour market makes three points: that Russian graduates are more numerous than ever; that employers nonetheless complain of a shortage of skilled workers; and that, in her view, the mismatch is regional rather than educational. Show how the summary is built and written.

Pass one: skeleton only
Listen once and write three numbered stubs and nothing else: 1 — выпускников больше; 2 — работодатели жалуются; 3 — по её мнению, дело в географии. Resist the urge to record wording. The purpose of this pass is to establish that there are exactly three claims and that the third is an interpretation rather than a fact, which changes how it must be reported.
Pass two: one detail each, in your own Russian
Replay and hang one detail on each stub, converting as you go. Against 1: доля молодых людей с высшим образованием выросла. Against 2: не хватает квалифицированных рабочих, а не выпускников вузов. Against 3: специалисты есть, но не там, где есть вакансии. Notice that each of these is already reformulated; converting at the moment of noting is far easier than converting afterwards from a transcript.
Pass three: negation, concession and attribution
Replay once more and check only three things. Did the speaker say нехватка or далеко не нехватка? Was there a concession — тем не менее, хотя — that changes the relation between claims 1 and 2? And whose claim is the third? Here it is hers, so it must be reported as по её мнению or она считает, что, never as fact. Missing an attribution in a summary is a comprehension error, not a stylistic one, and it is marked as such.
Write with frames, not with the speaker's connectives
Assemble from your own stock: В интервью говорится о том, что … Тем не менее … По мнению эксперта, … Do not reuse the speaker's поэтому or ведь; if the relation was causal, say следовательно or таким образом. Keep every clause complete. Watch о том, что with the prepositional, по мнению with the genitive following, and не хватает with the genitive of the thing lacking — не хватает рабочих.
Check the aspect and the reported tense
The rise in graduate numbers is a completed change with a present result, so выросла, perfective. The employers' complaints are ongoing, so жалуются, imperfective present. And if you report her words as она сказала, что специалисты есть, the present есть stays present — Russian does not shift the tense back as English does. Three checks, twenty seconds, and they defend the marks you have already earned.

Result: В интервью говорится о том, что доля молодых россиян с высшим образованием заметно выросла. Тем не менее работодатели жалуются на нехватку квалифицированных рабочих, а не выпускников вузов. По мнению эксперта, дело не в системе образования, а в географии: специалисты есть, но не там, где открыты вакансии.

Typical mistakes

Transcribing the speaker's own sentences instead of reporting them; the marks are for reporting key points, which requires reformulation.
Dropping том from о том, что. The preposition governs a prepositional pronoun that then introduces the clause.
Shifting the tense back in indirect speech on the English model: он сказал, что работал when the original was он работает.
Missing an emphatic negation such as далеко не or вовсе не, which reverses the meaning of the claim being summarised.

Active revision

Найдите русское радиоинтервью примерно на три минуты о работе или об образовании. Прослушайте его трижды: первый раз запишите только структуру (1, 2, 3), второй раз добавьте по одной детали к каждому пункту, третий раз проверьте отрицания и ссылки на источник. Затем напишите изложение в 70 слов, не использовав ни одного целого предложения говорящего.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages (Department for Education)

References & sources

Sources

Pearson Edexcel

Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Russian (9RU0) specification

Department for Education

GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

The world of work: Мир труда, возможности и равноправие

5 sections~38 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Standard 1 · Advanced 4