(no subject)

[hopeinagpa.livejournal.com]

In Russian, are there special formatting requirements when writing the title of a book or an article or a movie or a song or an album, etc etc? For instance, in English convention, book titles are either underlined or in italics, articles and songs in quotes, etc.

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

You normally put all book titles, song names etc. in quotes, and that's it. Italic is not normally used for anything.

Лев Толстой, "Война и мир" (a novel)
Саврасов, "Грачи прилетели" (a painting)
Гребенщиков, "Пой, пой, лира" (a song)

or you can say
"Война и мир" Льва Толстого
"Грачи прилетели" Саврасова etc.

[ekeme-ndiba.livejournal.com]

And, to be exact, straight quotes aren't legible in Russian typography. Primary quotes are «Война и мир» and auxiliary quotes are „Война и мир“.

In the normal text body, italic typeface is used for emphasizing only (for example, if some new term is introduced). Also, it may be optionally used in titles/subtitles. In explanatory dictionaries, words in italic are referrals to the corresponding entries in the dictionary:

ALEXANDER III — Emperor of Russia, son of Alexander II.

[hopeinagpa.livejournal.com]

When are auxiliary quotes used instead of primary quotes?

[ekeme-ndiba.livejournal.com]

By default, you use primary quotes, but if you want to quote something within them, auxiliary ones are used.

[solito.livejournal.com]

There is a national standard ГОСТ 7.1-2003. A brief description of the main conventions you may find for example here (content in Russian!) - http://www.filology.ru/28

In the colloquial language these conventions are not used (the same thing as in English) - a good example of colloquial usage was given to you by oryx_and_crake in her answer.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

As for the songs, groups, albums etc., there is an industrial standard introduced by InterMedia news agency in mid-1990s and widely used in specialiized music press. We put all song and/or album titles in straight (Internet) or "paired" («», printed media and Internet) quotes; the names of the bands go surrounded by quotes only if they're in Russian, or transliterated from English; if the band names are in original English (or whatever Latin) form, there is no quotes.
группа "Три забора", альбом "I Want Your Sex Pootie", песня "Do Cut It".
группа "Битлз", альбом "Rubber Soul", песня "Drive My Car".
группа The Beatles, альбом "Оркестр клуба одиноких сердец сержанта Пеппера", песня "С небольшой помощью моих друзей".
etc.

[zombie-laika.livejournal.com]

Wow, Sgt. Pepper по-русски! (In Russian)

[solito.livejournal.com]

For those of you who are interested here is a link to the full text of the standard - content in Russian!!!:

ГОСТ 7.1-2003. БИБЛИОГРАФИЧЕСКАЯ ЗАПИСЬ. БИБЛИОГРАФИЧЕСКОЕ ОПИСАНИЕ. Общие требования и правила составления (http://www.bibliography.ru/method/gosts/7-1/7-1.htm)