Free Online Resources to Start Learning Russian
I’ve spent a couple years studying, learning, and acquiring Russian mainly using free resources I’ve found online. Below is my list of the most helpful resources I’ve found with some personal reflections on how to use them. Along with these resources I also regularly watched Russian series and movies with English subtitles and learned about Russian history and culture in English. I think that exploration of Russian culture is an important complement to the kinds of resources below. The list will start with stuff to help complete beginners make sense with the language and move slowly into more complex language…
Complete beginners: Never looked at a Russian word in your life? I definitely recommend looking over the Cyrillic alphabet to start (resources for that below) and then jumping into some examples of how the language gets used.
What is it?
Daria’s Real Russian Club YouTube channel includes an Easy Russian playlist which is a great introduction to some basic phrases in the language and a Speaking Lessons playlist with super simple questions to guide you into speaking. All of these videos include optional English and Russian subtitles. Her Russian from Zero to Fluency series presents a more traditional approach to language learning with grammar explanations.
My reflections:
I found that watching videos multiple times (first with English subtitles, then Russian subtitles, and eventually no subtitles) helped me make sense of them when I was first starting with the language. I watched the Zero to Fluency series as well which I found especially helpful for making sense of the Cyrillic alphabet.
What is it?
The Comprehensible Russian YouTube channel includes a Zero Beginner playlist meant to help people start learning Russian. The creator, Inna, uses lots of images, gestures and helpful translations to help the viewer make sense of the slow Russian she is speaking.
My reflections:
I didn’t start using Comprehensible Russian until a little later in my time with the language, but I really love her approach. I find that she is very skilled at communicating with someone who has limited background in the Russian language.
What is it?
Между нами is a free online textbook from the University of Kansas Language Training Center. It is built around reading and listening to stories to begin learning the language.
My reflections:
This is the resource on the list that I’ve used the least, since I found it well into my Russian language journey. But it contains lots of support in making sense of the language as a beginner, so I think it is definitely worth sharing.
What is it?
Okay, y’all probably know the green bird app. It’s mainly reading and listening drills with random sentences.
My reflections:
I made it to a 400-day streak and completed the entire Russian Duolingo language tree, but I definitely don’t recommend that approach. While I’ve got lots of criticisms of Duolingo, it did help me get comfortable with the Cyrillic alphabet and lots of basic vocabulary. If you use it, I can’t stress enough how important I think it is to pair it with some of the other resources I’ve listed above.
Beginner-ish: Okay, so you’ve got the Cyrillic alphabet down and you’re trucking along with the Russian language. Here’s where you can go next.
Real Russian Club and Slow Russian Podcast
What is it?
If you started off with Daria’s complete beginner resources then keep going, she has so much more! Her Slow Russian video playlist on YouTube starts off pretty easily and then mixes in more challenging content. She also has dozens of episodes of her Slow Russian Podcast on her website complete with transcriptions and translations.
My reflections:
I watched her entire Slow Russian video playlist and listened to nearly every one of her Slow Russian Podcast episodes. I used the transcripts of the podcast as readings separately as well. The videos and episodes vary in how challenging they are but cover lots of different, interesting topics related to living in Russia, Russian culture, and history.
What is it?
The content on Inna’s Comprehensible Russian YouTube channel continues getting more complex at a nice easy pace in a straight-forward way organized from beginner to upper beginner.
My reflections:
Seriously, just keep watching these videos, they are amazing. I am currently watching her History of Russian Culture series and it is a great complement to learning about Russian history in other places too.
What is it?
If you’re able to read some basic Russian, then check out the site Pa-Russki and their long list of stories sorted by language level (A1, A2, B1). The stories start as short bite-sized chunks for beginners, but there are lots more stories using progressively more complex language.
My reflections:
I worked my way through these lists of stories in order, reading one after another, but focusing on making sense of the story as opposed to memorizing all the new vocabulary. I found that the transition from their A1 to A2 levels was quite smooth.
Intermediate-ish: Everything above is a piece of cake? Ready for more of a challenge?
What is it?
Olga Jarrell’s Intermediate Russian Listening Practice playlist on her YouTube channel Amazing Russian is a series of videos she created often describing places she’s been, using lots of images and helpful translations to assist you in making sense.
My reflections:
Olga lists her videos as intermediate but she does such an amazing job communicating understandably that if you’re feeling like an “upper beginner” you should definitely check them out. Subtitles are an option which makes them quite manageable.
What is it?
Stanislav Chernishov’s Learn Russian is another YouTube channel pushing into intermediate content, but with Russian subtitles. His channel covers a variety of topics ranging from current news to Russian holidays and history.
My reflections:
I enjoy his history videos, as I’ve been exploring Russian history. I’ve been slowly moving away from using Russian subtitles as I continue learning Russian history (and picking up the language in the process).
What is it?
Max has a huge range of videos available. He has lots of conversational videos going more in depth on topics related to life in Russia.
My reflections:
Max’s videos have been the most challenging of the ones I’ve included on this list, because he creates longer form videos (sometimes 20+ minutes) in conversational format. But spending more time allows him to cover topics with more depth. They’re worth the challenge.
