The present collective monograph is dedicated to the study of heteroglossia in contemporary Russian language, i. e., of the plurality of speech genres, social and generational variations, and different means of transmission (written, oral, electronic) that underlies speech practices of speakers of Russian today. The studies of the plurality of speech behavior are based on a working hypothesis according to which the principal effect for the society at large of the multiplicity of its speaking voices is not division but on the contrary, integration and mutual adaptation. To be understood by a social, professional, generational «other» and, by the same token, to be able to function in the variety of everyday situations, a speaker has to adapt, to a larger or lesser extent, his or her speech habits, in order to meet all the variety of the communicative challenges involved in his / her everyday existence. Paradoxically, it is the plurality of speech genres and modes rather than an imagined uniformity that serves, by promoting multiple speech identities of every speaker, as a catalyst of flexibility and tolerance. The monograph contains studies of various social and media dimensions of heteroglossia based on primary speech sources; together, they offer a picture of Russian as spoken today, whose principal characteristics could be described as «kaleidoscopic unity». A particular section in the book is dedicated to the analysis of the status of Russian language in the near and far abroad.