To be fair, "just" reading Russian isn't that hard. A grammar textbook and a dictionary gets me through polyphonic greek lit and modern german lit. Try it! You might be surprised at how easy your brain will pick it up.

I think this is actually pretty common for graduate students of mathematics.

> students are required to demonstrate the ability to read mathematics in French, German, or Russian by passing a two-hour, written language examination.

http://www.math.harvard.edu/graduate/