Russian is one of the oldest accredited bachelor degree programs in Lanzhou University, whose history can be traced back to the autumn of 1946. The year 1952 saw the rearrangement of schools and colleges throughout China and the Russian department was accordingly incorporated to Northwest Russian Vocational School. In 1978, the Department began to offer a degree program at the undergraduate level and was authorized to initiate an MA degree program in 2002. Along with the discipline development of Lanzhou University, the Institute was established in 2004.

Currently, the institute has an outstanding faculty consisting of 4 professor, 2 associate professors, 5 lecturers.

In recent years, consistent with the aim of “Creating Western Features and Cultivating Inter-disciplinary Talents”, the Institute has altered its educational ideas and developed the diploma and knowledge structure of the teachers. The Institute, on the one hand, aims to maintain the traditional discipline advantage of linguistics and literature. On the other hand, it stresses an integrate mastery of the Russian language and literature and highlight its practical use. Moreover, the Institute adds social culture of Russian-speaking countries and Chinese-Russian relations into teaching and research to pave the way for a fuller integration in the field of humanities research.

Institute of Russian Language and Literature offers a variety of degree programs at different levels. After years of relentless efforts, the Institute has made great achievements in cultivating talents, quality education, course book construction, and academic research which significantly upgrades the overall strength of the Institute and was highly acclaimed by domestic peers of Russian Majors.

In June, 2014, the Research Center for Russian-speaking Countries was established.