Russian has a distinction sentence type, the Genitive-Initial sentence, in which an NP stands at the beginning of the sentence in the Genitive case, with the meaning of quantity. The remainder of the sentence is devoted to specifying the quantity involved; no quantifier is present in the NP at the beginning of the sentence. This article describes the construction and offers an analysis of case assignment mechanism involved. It is shown that the NP cannot be analyzed as having moved from a lower position in the sentence where an overt quantifier is situated. Additionally, arguments are provided against analyses previously offered in the literature which posit a null quantifier in the initial NP. The NP must be base-generated in its initial position.