Katzner's dictionary is often touted as the best reference available for the intermediate to advanced American student of Russian as a foreign language. I would guess that this stems first from the fact that more common American word-stock is found in the dictionary, and secondly that the alternative, The Oxford Russian Dictionary used to come in two heavy volumes each with a hefty price-tag.

However, I do not agree. The entries in this dictionary are often incomplete and do not reflect contemporary usage. There is only minimal morphological information provided which is very helpful to the type of student that surely forms the basis of the market of this dictionary. I think it is worth spending the extra money to buy one of the updated single volume editions of the Oxford given that it provides relatively complete phraseology and morphology for every entry and reflects a broad variety of English dialects. ( )