35 Russian Language Learning Resources sorted by category
This post was originally written by ClarkStephen for Duolingo Russian forum.
An annotated list of Russian learning resources.
A few notes:
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This list is not intended to be complete. I have only included resources that I have found to be of high quality. Before posting this, I searched previous lists of Russian learning resources posted on this forum. I vetted resources from those previous posts and added others I have found. Broken links, links that timed out, and links that I found less that useful were not included here.
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I have tended to focus on resources that we either totally free or had significant amounts of free content. Also sites that required me to download additional software were excluded. Sites that were no longer supported were also excluded.
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Resources are grouped by category. Within each category, however, the order I have listed the resources is random.
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If you think I missed a good resource, or if you think one of the resources I included should not have been, please let me know in the comments.
CATEGORY I: Free online Russian courses
1) Duolingo. http:://www.duolingo.com/. An excellent introduction to Russian.
2) Memrise. http://www.memrise.com/. Memrise has more than 100 Russian courses of varying degrees of quality. The ones that I recommend are: Russian 1, Russian 2, Russian 3, Russian 4, Russian 5, Russian 6, Russian 7, and last but not least, Duolingo Russian (full audio) by cherub721.
3) Russian World I, episodes 1-70. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB306DSmXL1aXdzgIt2mJkm4YfNqsOv-r. Old school type of instruction from the Dallas Independent School District, but who can resist Vera Polyakova-Norwood.
CATEGORY II: Resources for making your own digital flashcards with SRS (spaced repetition system).
4) Anki. https://apps.ankiweb.net. If you have ever been frustrated by Duolingo or Memrise not accepting your answer, Anki let’s you decide whether or not your answer is correct. Con: It is laborious to build your own decks and there is a steep learning curve.
5) Forvo. https://forvo.com/. All the words in the world pronounced. Very useful for building Anki decks with sound.
6) Fluent Forever. Book by Gabriel Wyner. (2014. Harmony Books). Excellent advice on how to use Anki decks efficiently and well as other language learning advice.
CATEGORY III: Comprehensible Input
7) How to acquire any language NOT learn it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=illApgaLgGA&t=2103s. A must-watch video for any language student. Prof. Jeff Brown explains what comprehensible input is and why is should be the basis of your language study.
8) Real Russian Club. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyJznKYS9kkP7RWWq3YAbFw. Excellent source of comprehensible Russian.
9) Comprehensible Russian. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDNbk-uX4D6nsthi8L03fng/videos. Excellent source of comprehensible Russian.
10) Russian with Max. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCklUqFEcJqFnWKEBozw5p4g. Excellent source of comprehensible Russian.
11) Russian with Tatiana. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKJXWB5rbhWN0pUssNsnieA/featured. Excellent source of comprehensible Russian.
12) Boost your Russian. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUDYKMnIsrksbmaLdxTFQnw. Excellent source of comprehensible Russian.
13) RU-LAND CLUB. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQg2AzkYEueS5giD84wxLdg. Excellent source of comprehensible Russian.
14) Russian from Russia. https://www.youtube.com/c/RussianfromRussia/featured. Excellent source of comprehensible Russian. She has a website too: http://annagroup.ru/.
15) Natasha speaks Russian. https://www.youtube.com/c/NatashaspeaksRussian/featured. Comprehensible Russian spoken at normal speed.
16) Mary Z Russian. https://www.youtube.com/c/EasyRussian/featured. Comprehensible Russian.
17) Fun Russian. https://www.youtube.com/user/funrussian. Russian and English with a focus on idioms.
18) Russian with Anastasia Semina. https://www.youtube.com/user/AnastasiSemina. Intermediate.
CATEGORY IV: Dictionaries, Grammar sites, and related sites.
19) ABBYY Lingvo Dictionary. https://www.lingvolive.com/en-us. I take a weekly private Russian class. This was the online dictionary recommended by my teacher.
20) Russian Grammar. https://www.youtube.com/user/russiangrammar. Video based grammar lessons.
21) Master Russian. http://masterrussian.com/. Site with a huge amount of grammar and vocabulary. No audio.
22) Amazing Russian. https://www.youtube.com/c/AmazingRussian/featured. Video based grammar lessons.
23) Russian Language Lessons. http://www.russianlessons.net/. Similar to Master Russian.
24) Russian Grammar at Alphadictionary.com. https://www.alphadictionary.com/rusgrammar/.
25) Russian Course from RT (Russia Today). https://learnrussian.rt.com/lessons/. No audio. Edit: Fnirk1 reports that this site has become dated in ways that have led to poor performance.
CATEGORY V: TV, Films, Radio and Newspapers
26) Russian Film Hub. https://russianfilmhub.com/. Movies, many with English subtitles.
27) FSUE Mosfilm. https://www.youtube.com/c/MosfilmRuOfficial/featured. Movies, many with English subtitles.
27) RT’s documentary channel. https://rtd.rt.com/tags/english-subtitles-documentaries/. English subtitles.
28) Mars Media. https://www.youtube.com/c/marsmediae/featured. Movies and TV, many with English subtitles.
29) Odesa Film Studio. https://www.youtube.com/c/OdessAnimationStudio/featured. Movies with Russian subtitles or no subtitles.
30) TV from Russian. https://wwitv.com/tv_channels/7538.htm. TV and Radio.
31) Russian Radio Stations. https://radio.pp.ru/#hit-fm-107-4. This is the Russian page from a site (https://radiowebsites.org/) of radio stations from around the world.
32) Radio Garden. http://radio.garden/search. Just click on the globe and listen to radio from around the world.
33) BBC News in Russian. https://www.bbc.com/russian.
34) The Moscow Times. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/. Click on the Russian flag to switch to the Russian version.
35) Russian Newspapers. https://www.w3newspapers.com/russia/. Links to a number of Russian newspapers and news sites.
Hope this helps. Edit: Also, thanks so much to all the Duolingo users who have made helpful contributions to this since the original post.
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Edits: These sites were found after the original post or contributed by other Duolingo Users
36) Current Time. https://www.currenttime.tv/. News videos in print articles. Mainly Russian subtitles with a limited number of videos with English subtitles. Thanks to David122991 for making me aware of this one.
37) Elena Jung - WonderAccent. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-8WZbXxl2186au5BiNqgw. Comprehensible content / grammar.
38) Russian Progress. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF0ZeqSkybD1aFtFxjA8z9w. One of the few comprehensible content sites hosted by a man.
39) Russian with Dasha. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd99oM7GvrWrVoaz1i_6fwA. Comprehensible content. Unfortunately, she mixes in a lot of English explanation.
40) Easy Russian. https://www.youtube.com/c/EasyRussianVideos/videos. Excellent source of comprehensible Russian. Every video has both English and Russian subtitles.
41) Learn Russian with Denis Fedorov. https://www.youtube.com/c/DenisFedorov/featured. Grammar & pronunciation videos. Mixed English and Russian.
42) i Speak Russian. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB_eFqcBg-Iy_WZLnN42FWw/featured. Grammar, pronunciation, comprehensible input.
43) Be Fluent in Russian. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtMqRKjQcFJoq4TOIdHDiew. Grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary in mixed English and Russian.
44) FSI Courses. https://www.101languages.net/fsi-courses/. From the site, "These courses were developed by the Foreign Services Institute (FSI) – a part of the U.S. State Department. They were designed primarily for diplomats and other government officials working abroad. As such, the goal of the courses is to teach basic listening comprehension and speaking ability." The site also contains links to many of the sites I have included here as well as other resources that I have chosen not to include. Thanks to ultimatequestion for this link.
45) Netflix. I used to rely on blogs to let me know what titles were available in Russian. But those blogs quickly became out of date. Now I have found a method from within Netflix that lets me quickly find every title with Russian audio. Some caveats: I am in the USA and I am using Netflix on a computer running Windows. Here's how it works under those conditions: 1) From the Netflix home screen hover the mouse over your profile avatar in the upper right corner; 2) Slide the mouse down to "Account" and click on it; 3) On the account page scroll down to the "fine print" at the bottom of the page and click on "Audio and Subtitles" 4) Finally, select "Audio" and "Russian" from the pull down menus.
46) Learn Russian Through Stories. https://learnrussianthroughstories.com/. More than a dozen stories by famous Russian authors at three difficulty levels. Beautifully narrated.
47) Elen Nicole Sheff. https://www.youtube.com/c/ElenSheff/featured. Russian language course. It tends to focus on words, phrases and short sentences. Audio is 100% Russian by a native speaker.
48) Школа Кролика БОБО https://www.youtube.com/c/ШколаКроликаБОБО/featured. All Russian site for children. Some talking, lots of songs, no subtitles.
49) Kids TV Russia. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfeljpDR__qqp-lLBJdiQkw
by jmstar19
by David122991
Possibly due to their relatively small target group, 'Red Kalinka', which only offers Russian courses, does a poor job of marketing. The free sample material offered under jmstar's link above is intended to encourage users to sign up to subscription services.
Their showcase video course, comprising 4 stages of 10 lessons each and 150 half-hour videos, is essentially an old-school classroom course shoehorned into an online format.
Though not particularly engaging, it is well organised and structured and probably the best course of its kind currently available.
For Є30 a month it covers a lot of ground. If you are used to free resources you might baulk at the cost, but, having taken it, I regard it as good value for money. (Completing a similar course in a bricks-and-mortar school would cost a lot more).
I would recommend it to anyone starting from scratch, provided they are motivated and prepared to follow the program :
You can find more in-depth reviews and sample videos online.
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with this provider.
I also love the Film Hub but have been thinking of signing up to 'Soviet and Russian Movies':
https://sovietmoviesonline.com
This is a subscription-only service and charges between $30 for a month to $100 for 'unlimited access' which means you can download the films to view when you choose.
Some of the films they list are also available for free on the 'Russian Film Hub' but they also have others from places like Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Poland.
If you have used this site I would welcome your opinion.
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