 For example, even in 1982 and 1986, which were bad years for Republicans nationally, Ritter was reelected with 57 percent and 56 percent of the vote, respectively.Ritter speaks fluent Russian and had studied Russian Language and Literature, culture and history as a hobby while at MIT.He was introduced to Russian language study by the pioneering teacher, Alexander (Isaacovich) Lipson who was teaching at Harvard and MIT at the time.