Розыгрыш длился минуту.

Russian has no articles. So Розыгрыш длился минуту can correspond to the prank lasted a minute, the drawing lasted a minute, or similar, depending on context.

Russian usually lets context show whether something is definite or indefinite.

In the past tense, Russian verbs agree with the subject in gender and number.

The subject here is розыгрыш, which is a masculine singular noun, so the verb is длился.

Compare:

• розыгрыш длился — masculine
• шутка длилась — feminine
• представление длилось — neuter
• игры длились — plural

The dictionary form is длиться.

Here, длиться means to last. The -ся is part of the verb form; it does not translate literally as oneself here. In many Russian verbs, -ся appears in verbs that are not directly reflexive in English.

So:

• длиться — to last
• длился — lasted, was lasting

Russian often uses the accusative case to express duration, with no preposition.

So минуту here means for a minute.

This is a very common pattern:

• ждал час — waited for an hour
• спал ночь / всю ночь — slept for a night / all night
• работал неделю — worked for a week

So Розыгрыш длился минуту literally follows the Russian pattern [something] lasted [a minute].

Because after the idea of duration for a minute, Russian uses the accusative singular of минута.

The forms are:

• nominative: минута
• accusative singular: минуту

That is why the sentence has минуту.

With other numbers, the form changes:

• одну минуту — one minute
• две минуты — two minutes
• три минуты — three minutes
• пять минут — five minutes

It can be either, depending on context.

By itself, минуту usually just states the duration in a simple, neutral way: for a minute.

If you want to make the number more explicit or emphatic, you can say:

• одну минуту — one minute
• целую минуту — a whole minute
• примерно минуту — about a minute

So the original sentence is natural and neutral, without special emphasis.

This is very normal in Russian.

The verb длиться is imperfective, but Russian often uses imperfective past forms when the focus is on the process or duration of something, even if the event is over.

Here, the important idea is how long it lasted, not the fact that it reached completion.

A similar English comparison would be:

• The movie ran for two hours
• The meeting lasted ten minutes

In Russian, duration very often goes with imperfective verbs.

Yes, both are possible, but they are slightly different in feel.

• Розыгрыш длился минуту — simple, neutral, very natural for stating duration
• Розыгрыш продолжался минуту — also natural, a bit more focused on the ongoing process
• Розыгрыш продлился минуту — possible too, with a more bounded, completed-event feel

For a learner, длился is an excellent basic choice for this kind of sentence.

Yes. Russian word order is flexible, and changing it changes emphasis more than basic meaning.

Neutral order:

• Розыгрыш длился минуту.

If you want to emphasize the duration, you could say:

• Минуту длился розыгрыш.

That sounds more marked or stylistic, but it is still correct.

So the original sentence is the most neutral and straightforward version.