Ilya is one of the best instructors I've found on iTalki. Sessions with him are fun and educational and he seems to really care about helping you improve your Russian. In fact, I've had several online instructors during the past year, but oddly enough, Ilya is the first one to actually ask me for feedback at the end of class, but he didn't just ask for it in a routine, perfunctory way. He requested it with such a quiet confidence, directness, and sincerity that it made me really want to tell him how I felt (once I got over the shock that an instructor actually cared enough to know!). You can shop around for a good Russian instructor like I have during the past year, but save yourself some time and effort and book a session with Ilya. He is one of iTalki's best.

My Russian has come along way since I first started taking classes with Ilya in March 2020. I could only really say, "How are you?" Now I am talking to locals and going on dates speaking only in Russian (I also feel comfortable doing it)! Ilya has been a huge part of my Russian language development and I can't thank him enough. He is such an encouraging teacher, always making good corrections. He spends time working on my classes even after my lesson is finished! So each lesson is self tailored and extremely productive. Incredible teacher! If you can go ahead and book a lesson with him. I highly recommend it (I am almost near 500 classes now on italki with about 20 different tutors. Thanks for everything buddy. See you next class!

Excellent lesson today! Very good speaking practice, relaxed atmosphere, useful new words and phrases added to chat which I will review and work on learning

I have attended over 50 lessons with Llya since last year, at first I was concerned that I might find it hard to stay engaged being such a difficult language. However, with Llya I have found this not to be the case, I absolutely loved my lessons and I am starting to feel like I am making progress and understanding Russian better each lesson. Llya always makes the lessons interesting and interactive and the time always flies by as he is a fun and patient teacher. I would highly recommend booking with Llya if you want to learn Russian too!

Very interesting lesson, thanks Ilya!

Great lesson and interesting discussions, as usual! Thanks a lot Ilya! :)