University of Wisconsin–Madison

Language Learning

The program has compiled a broad range of online resources for learning, improving, and teaching Russian. These resources are provided for the information and convenience of site visitors; their inclusion does not constitute endorsement by the Russian Flagship Program.

Opportunities to practice speaking Russian in person are also available through conversation tables organized by students and community groups.

Online Resources

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Language-Learning Resources

  • Global Language Online Support System (GLOSS) — Produced by the Defense Language Institute (DLI), this tool provides multimedia lessons in Russian and other languages focused on reading and listening. Lessons can be searched by proficiency level, modality, topic, and more. GLOSS is an excellent resource for exploring authentic materials with built-in instructional support.
  • Грамота.ру — An exceptionally rich collection of Russian-language resources. Look up words in the basic search panel to find definitions, stress placement, and verb conjugations. The Словари section includes a variety of specialized dictionaries; Библиотека links to literature, books, and journals; Справка offers guidance on difficult phrases or constructions; Класс links to fun educational resources, videos, an online tutor, dictations, and guides to spelling and punctuation; Лента provides Russian language news; and Игра offers language games.
  • Alpha Dictionary’s Grammar — A resource that can help with grammar questions ranging from basic concepts to advanced topics such as participles. The site provides clear explanations of a variety of Russian grammar topics through an interactive format.
  • RAILS (Russian Advanced Interactive Listening Series) — An award-winning program designed to help students improve advanced-level Russian listening proficiency.
  • Russian Reader — A website developed by Tatiana Smorodinska of Middlebury College, featuring texts from the Russian literary canon. Each text is available in three versions: beginner (adapted and abridged), intermediate (abridged), and advanced (original).
  • Starostin’s Morphological Dictionary — A reference that allows users to search a word and view all of its forms across cases, complete with definitions and stress markings.
  • Easy Russian — A YouTube channel for Russian language learners featuring video lessons and street interviews with Russian speakers. Videos include subtitles in both Russian and English.
  • LLC Commons — A repository of open-access resources for online teaching in Slavic Studies curated by the University of Arizona.
  • Национальный корпус русского языка (National Corpus of the Russian Language) — A searchable database of native Russian texts designed to provide examples and usage statistics drawn from authentic language.
  • SRAS (School of Russia and Asian Studies) — An organization that coordinates research and exchange programs for students and maintains an extensive collection of resources for learners of Russian language and culture. SRAS also oversees Vestnik, a journal that publishes student research related to Russia and Eurasia.
  • Steps to Advanced Reading (STAR) — A free, mobile-friendly web application that helps students to learn to read authentic nonfiction texts in Russian.
  • Russian Forum on Word Reference — A resource for language learners and professionals that includes discussions and reference materials on grammar, spelling, punctuation, morphology, and more.

Language Teaching Resources

  • Resource Center for Teachers of Russian — aims to provide practical support and high-quality resources for teachers of Russian as a foreign language, as well as a forum for sharing lesson plans, teaching ideas, and solutions to classroom challenges. The website’s goal is to facilitate communication and collaboration among teachers of Russian around the world.
  • ACTR Online Resources for Teachers of Russian provides links to a variety of instructional and professional development resources for teachers of Russian.

Kazakh Language Resources

  • Kaz Tili provides a comprehensive overview of Kazakh grammar with practice exercises, as well as stories, songs, television programs, jokes and anekdoty, and links to other resources on Kazakh language and culture.
  • Soyle offers online Kazakh language lessons from the novice through advanced levels, along with a variety of other language-learning resources.
  • Sozdik.kz is an online Kazakh-to-Russian and Russian-to-Kazakh dictionary and translator that allows users to work in either Cyrillic or Latin Kazakh.
  • LangMedia is an initiative of the Five College Center for World Languages and features a collection of language-learning resources for Kazakh, Russian, and other languages of the post-Soviet region.

Russian-English Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

  • Multitran – A popular online Russian–English/English–Russian dictionary with extensive specialized, technical, and slang databases. The site is user-generated and continually updated, so users should approach entries with appropriate caution. Its greatest strength is the breadth and specificity of its content. While a traditional dictionary may allow users to look up a word such as “fence,” Multitran often provides translations for highly specific terms and phrases, such as “chain-link fence.”
  • Global Russian Language – A repository that provides free access to recorded speech samples produced by a variety of Russian-language speakers.
  • Feb-Web Dictionary – A Russian-Russian dictionary available through the FEB-Web site (discussed in greater detail in the literature section).
  • Russian Forum on Word Reference – A resource for language learners and language professionals that includes an extensive collection of specialized Russian dictionaries.
  • Russian Wikipedia – The Russian-language edition of Wikipedia.

  • The Russian State Library, formerly the Lenin Library (and still known affectionately as “Leninka”), is the central academic library in Moscow.
  • The Russian National Library, also known as “Publichka,” is the principal academic library in St. Petersburg.
  • The World Society for the Study, Preservation and Popularization of the Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan maintains archives of materials related to Uzbekistan and Central Asia in Russian, Uzbek, and English.
  • The Russian Perspectives on Islam is a digital archive focusing on Islamic regions, groups, individuals, and ideologies in the former Soviet Union and neighboring countries. The archive includes documents in Russian and a variety of Central Asian languages.
  • The Blavatnik Archive is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to preserving and disseminating materials that contribute to the study of 20th-century world history, with a particular focus on Jewish culture, World Wars I and II, and Soviet history.

The following resources are available to UW students through the Databases section of UW Libraries.

 

  • BBC Russian — The Russian service of the BBC.  An excellent and source of print, audio and video news from Russia and around the world.
  • Lenta.ru — A Moscow-based Russian-language news website.
  • Правила жизни — Formerly the Russian-language edition of Esquire.
  • Газета.ру — A popular Russian news website covering politics, business, and current affairs.
  • Грани.ру — An oppositional Russian-language news website.
  • Известия.ру — A long-running, high-circulation daily newspaper in Russia. The paper has close ties to the Russian government and tends to be strongly pro-Kremlin.
  • Новая газета — A Russian newspaper known for its investigative reporting on Russian political and social affairs.  The paper, which can be critical of Russian government policy, traditionally appeared in print three times per week. Four Novaya Gazeta journalists, including Anna Politkovskaia, were murdered between 2001 and 2009.
  • The Barents Observer — A Norwegian publication that covers the Barents Region, encompassing northern areas of Russia, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, in English and Russian.
  • Discours.io — An independent online magazine that describes itself as a center for contemporary samizdat and publishes articles on culture, science, society, and more.
  • TV Rain — An independent Russian television channel available on YouTube.
  • РИА Новости — A popular Russian state news agency.
  • Russian Independent Media Archive – A project dedicated to preserving the last two decades of independent Russian journalism and protecting the historical record of outlets that have been closed or forced into exile under the regime of President Vladimir Putin.
  • The Moscow Times — The only daily English-language newspaper covering Russia and the broader region. It is also the most popular expat paper in Moscow.
  • Сноб.ру — A Russian-language news, commentary, and blog website.
  • Иносми.ру — A Russian website that republishes selected articles from foreign media outlets about Russia and the CIS in Russian translation, with a notable political spin.
  • Meduza — A new organization known for investigative reporting, analysis, and coverage of Russia and the post-Soviet region.
  • Orda.kz — An online media platform covering political and social developments in Kazakhstan and abroad.
  • Редакция — An independent news organization that produces documentary films and other long-form video content.
  • Власть.kz — A Kazakhstani news website that primarily covers developments in Kazakhstan in Russian, Kazakh, and English.
  • Steppe — A Kazakhstani publication covering the arts, business, science, and other topics in Russian and Kazakh.

  • Ticketon.kz is a popular online platform for purchasing tickets to events in Almaty and other cities across Kazakhstan.
  • Давай Сходим Алматы is an excellent resource for learning about events and activities in Almaty. Users can find information on movies, concerts, exhibitions, theater performances, sporting events, outdoor excursions, and more.
  • Almaty Today is an Instagram account that shares daily news from Almaty, as well as recommendations for events, restaurants, bars, cafes, shopping, and other local attractions.
  • Афиша is one of the best resources for finding out what’s happening in cities throughout Russia.  Users can search for movies, theater performances, concerts, clubs, sporting events, restaurants and more.  The site also includes user reviews, maps, photographs and more.

Television and Video

  • Первый канал is Russia’s primary television channel. Be sure to check out “Хочу знать”, a program consisting of short episodes that answer questions on a wide variety of topics.
  • Tamara Eidelman is a historian and former history teacher in Russia who runs a YouTube channel devoted to historical events and figures.
  • Культура is a Russian state television channel focused on culture and the arts.
  • UniverTV offers academic and educational programming for audiences of all ages.
  • Культу.рy features regular live internet broadcasts of Russian cultural events, including theater productions, concerts, art festivals, and exhibitions.
  • Голоса provides video materials associated with the Golosa textbook.
  • YouTube and the Russian platform RuTube are among the best sources for video Russian-language video content. A few recommended channels include:

Film

  • Мосфильм is the YouTube channel of 0ne of Russia’s leading film studios. It features hundreds of classic and contemporary films and television series, many with Russian and English subtitles.
  • Рускино is an online portal featuring information on Russian cinema, actors, and film festivals, along with movie reviews.
  • Аниматор.ру is a website devoted to Russian animation.
  • Московский дом фотографии  highlights the work of the Moscow House of Photography and its founder, Olga Sviblova, whose efforts have helped shape the development of photography as a art form in Russia.

Radio

  • MyTuner Radio — Russia provides access to a wide ranges of Russian radio stations in one place. Listen to live broadcasts (Прямой эфир) or explore archived songs and programs.
  • Звуки.ру  covers popular music in Russia, including videos, recordings, concerts, and related content.

Podcasts

  • Dope Soz is a Kazakhstani podcast in which the hosts discuss a wide range of topics using a mix of Russian and Kazakh.
  • CREECA Lecture Series Podcast features lectures and discussions on Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and related topics. CREECA lectures are now published on Youtube as well. 

  • Элементы covers basic concepts in science and technology. The online Encyclopedia spans everything from Darwin and molecular biology to Occam’s Razor and historical linguistics. The site also features popular science articles, a Book Club with reviews and author bios, science videos for all ages, and researchers’ answers to kids’ questions like “Почему человек икает?”
  • Биомолекула is an actively updated Russian-language science publication covering biology, medicine, and biotechnology. It’s good for building topic-specific vocabulary and reading practice in Russian.
  • Наука и жизнь the website for the journal Nauka i zhinz’
  • The Russian site of the National Heritage Protection Fund
  • The Russian branch of UNESCO 

  • Telegram Russia’s most widely used messaging and content platform, with public channels covering news, culture, and virtually every topic imaginable. It is a good resource for encountering authentic, contemporary Russian.
  • Вконтакте The popular Russian version of Facebook.
  • Одноклассники Perhaps Russia’s most popular social networking site
  • Живой Журнал Live Journal, the heart of the Russian blogosphere. Check out Один Мой День, where people post photos from one day of their lives with short descriptions.

  • AATSEEL is the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages.  Most of their job listings are academic positions, but you can often find opportunities for jobs and internships in teaching English, editing, program management or translating work in the US, Russia and the CIS.  The site also contains a comprehensive listing of Slavic Studies departments and courses.
  • ASEEES is the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies supports teaching, research, and publication relating to the peoples and territories within this area.
  •  AWSS The Association for Women in Slavic Studies sponsors research and teaching for scholars of women’s studies and questions of gender analysis in Central/Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.  The organization has a strong mentoring program and an excellent jobs and funding email list.
  • SEELANGS is an academic discussion list aimed primarily at teachers and students of Russian and other Slavic and East European languages and literature.  List members post questions, comments, news items and announcements about jobs, publications and conferences all related to this field of study.
  • ACTFL The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages is a national organization dedicated to the improvement and expansion of the teaching and learning of all languages at all levels of instruction.
  • American Councils for International Education supports study abroad, research, language training and exchange programs in Russia and the CIS.

  • Ozon (pronounced ah-ZONE) is the largest and most popular online Internet bookseller.  Russia’s equivalent of Amazon.com
  • Alib is the best place to look for used books.  Ordering happens initially through the online system, but arrangements are made with individual booksellers.
  • Petropol Boston-based Petropol bookstore is online!  Great selection of books and dvds, with lower shipping costs than buying from Russia.
  • Magaz, the online bookstore of Meduza.