The article presents the results of the research of Russian language communicative spheres of foreign students in non-philologist Russian universities. The authors base their work on the assumption that communicative spheres are determined by students' needs, and propose the classification of modern person's needs related to their communicative spheres. The article gives a review of the research of Russian language communicative spheres received during the questionnaire survey of 200 foreign non-philologist students in five St. Petersburg and Moscow universities, and concludes that there is an incomplete correspondence between students' communicative needs and their images in their teacher's appreciation.