I would like to thank Magali Iglesias, Director of World Languages at John Wiley & Sons, for undertaking the enormous task of preparing the second edition of Troika. With her personal encouragement and direction, and with the help of the enthusiastic staff at Wiley, this lengthy project has finally been accomplished. Lisha Perez, Assistant Editor of World Languages, has been involved in every step of the endeavor, and I am grateful to her for all the support she has provided me.
I thank all of the Russian language students at the University of Texas at San Antonio who have used multiple pilot versions of the new edition and offered me constant feedback on the process. A special recognition goes to the group of students who agreed to be filmed for the cultural video components and several still photos in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
