Published for decades and in a number of languages, Pul'kina's grammar is known as a classic to any serious student of Russian. It provides comprehensive coverage of most issues in contemporary language and exercises to drill some of the finer and more difficult nuances into the student's brain. The only problem is that the grammatical descriptions are notoriously difficult to understand and some editions do not have an answer key--making this book a troubling companion for the independent student. For English speakers, Terrance Wade's grammar with accompanying workbook from Blackwell's is a good alternative. ( )