Russian

File:Russophone-1-.png
**Russian** (ру́сский язы́к, *russkiy yazyk*, pronounced [ˈruskʲɪj jɪˈzɨk]) is a Slavic language spoken primarily in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Russian does not use the Latin alphabet, as you can see above, but it uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which is the first step you should take if planning to learn Russian. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Estonia, and to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics of the USSR. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of three living members of the East Slavic languages. Written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century onwards.

It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages. It is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the 8th most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers and the 4th by total number of speakers. The language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called *soft* and *hard* sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels, which is somewhat similar to that of English. Stress, which is unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically though an optional acute accent (знак ударения, *znak udareniya*) may be used to mark stress (such as to distinguish between homographic words, for example замо́к (meaning *lock*) and за́мок (meaning *castle*), or to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names).

### **Rosetta Stone**

* 5 levels available.
* Recommended as a beginning tool
* **Strongly not recommended to be used as the only tool.**
* Covers pronunciation, reading, listening, vocabulary, writing.
* Very poor for grammar.
* Easy to use. Shouldn't take more than an hour to set up and begin using.
* More expensive than it's worth. Thank you based internet!

### **​Pimsleur**

* 3 levels with 90 total lessons.
* Recommended as a learning tool.
* **Strongly not recommended to be used as the only tool.**
* Covers mainly speaking and being able to hold a conversation.
* Easy to use, just open the audio file and repeat.
* http://www.pimsleur.com Try a free lesson!

### **Duolingo**

Duolingo has a Russian course for English speakers.

* Teaches the alphabet
* Multiple levels and topics
* Great for building vocabulary
* Available on iOS and Android

* **Strongly not recommended to be used as the only tool.**

### **Pushkin Institute**

This institute is considered one of the best Russian schools in Russia, named after a famous Russian writer (А. С. Пушкин). It offers the most complete Russian course you'll find online, with a free online platform. Unfortunately, support isn't the best (and they don't let you see the correct answers or advance unless everything is right).

* From A1 to C2 proficiency (they offer certificates for free after you finish each course)
* Recommended as an all-around tool
* Covers everything, pronunciation (letter by letter, even aggregates of letters that are read differently, such as ов - of), grammar, reading, listening, writing and vocab (they have a software to give you a score on your pronunciation)
* Easy to use, albeit it could've been better translated (you'll probably need to use a translator/dictionary once in a while)
* https://pushkininstitute.ru

### **Books and PDF files**

* Princeton Russian course - MASSIVE Russian course, includes tapes (mirror: http://cytrussian.tuxfamily.org/)
* Alexander Lipson in cooperation with Steven Molinsky - A Russian Course
* Russia Today - Learn Russian
* Learningrussian.net - Free Russian language lessons and resources
* Russianlessons.net - moar resources
* Masterrussian.com - Lessons and Articles
* Practicerussian.com - Learn the Cyrillic alphabet and other introductory lessons and games
* Flibusta.net - Biggest free online library in Russian Internet
* Russianforeveryone.com - Russian language self-study for beginners

* Russian English Frequency Dictionary

This Russian frequency dictionary covers about 95% of all spoken Russian, and 80% of all written Russian you encounter on a daily basis. In the book you will find

* 2500 most used Russian words listed by frequency and alphabet, with stress-marks.
* frequency rankings as part of speech (most used nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc..)
	+ 2500 Russian to English example sentences showing word usage
	+ phonetic spelling of Russian words with the International Phonetic Alphabet
	+ Romanization of Russian words for beginner students
	+ Recommended in conjunction with an audio method (Michel Thomas or Pimsleur)
	+ #1 tool for building useful vocabulary fast.
	+ Little grammar explanation, just simple references. Helps if you already have a grasp of basic grammar.

### **News**

* https://www.svoboda.org/ - Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) - News site funded by the U.S. congress reporting on ex-USSR countries and more, full list on regions reported on exists here.
* http://lenta.ru - popular Russian news site.
* http://russian.rt.com/ - Russia Today (regarded as a pro-Kremlin news outlet, funded majorly by the gov)
* http://meduza.io - Media outlet from Latvia, reporting about Russia in both English and Russian in a newsletter format. (regarded as a "liberal" news outlet)
* https://www.kommersant.ru/ - Russian newspaper with an emphasis on politics and economics.

### **Movies and TV**

#### Subtitles

* Subscene
* Findsubtitles
* http://subs.com.ru/list.php?c=rus - Russian subtitles
* http://notabenoid.com
* Youtube - Mosfilm
* Sublearning - learn languages from movie subtitles. Flash cards of movie lines in 62 languages
* (add more if you know them)

#### Movies

* Stalker (1979)
* Solaris (1972)
* Stalingrad (2013)
* 9 Rota (2005)
* Viy (2014)
* Battle for Sevastopol (2015)
* Ballad of a Soldier (1959)
* Lilya-4-ever (2002)
* Come and See (1985)
* Leviathan (2014)
* The Cranes are Flying (1957)
* Brother (1997)
* Brother 2 (2000)
* White Tiger (2012)
* Ivan's Childhood (1962)
* Officers (1971)
* War and Peace (1966-1967)
* Hardcore Henry (2016)

#### TV shows

* http://tnt-online.ru/ - Website for Russian TV channel, may watch full episodes online, no subtitles.

#### Cartoons

* Конёк-Горбунок - (The Humpbacked Horse)
* Винни-Пух - (Winnie-the-Pooh)
* Тайна третьей планеты - (The mystery of the Third Planet)
* Трое из Простоквашино - (Three from Buttermilk Village)
* Снежная королева - (The Snow Queen)
* Котенок по имени Гав - (The Kitten Named Woof)
* 38 попугаев - (38 Parrots)
* Возвращение блудного попугая - (The Return of the Prodigal Parrot)
* Ну, погоди! - (Well, Just You Wait!)
* Следствие ведут колобки - (Private Investigators Kolobki)
* Остров сокровищ - (Treasure Island)

#### Anime

* Двенадцать месяцев
* Приключения пингвинёнка Лоло
* http://fansubs.ru/ - russian subtitles
* https://yummyanime.club/ - one of the largest websites with subbed and dubbed anime in Russian

### **Music**

* Кино - (Keyno), Russian for 'cinema' or 'film', Кино's lead singer Виктор Цой (Viktor Tsoi) is considered the Kurt Cobain of Russia.
* Ария (1985-2001) - (Ariya), Soviet Iron Maiden!
* Ария (2001 - present), Kipelov, Mavrin - pale shadows of old Ariya, but still pretty good. Kipelov's track, "Я Свободен", is incredibly popular in Russia.
* Гражданская Оборона (Civil Defence) - Егор Летов's soviet punk-rock band, commonly abbreviated as Грoб (coffin).
* Наутилус Помпилиус - (Nautilus Pompilius) after Viktor Tsoi's death, the guitarist of Kino joined this band. Another Soviet rock legend.
* Сектор Газа (Gaza Strip) - Band, whose music style could be defined as Russian punk, integrated with elements of different musical genres such as rock, rap, and Russian folk
* Триагрутрика - (Triagrutrika, 'THC') is a Russian rap group from Chelyabinsk. Made popular by their hit "Big City Life".
* Мельница - (Melnitsa) a Russian folk rock group. Female vocalist.
* t.A.T.u - Russian female dance-pop duo
* Аква́риум - (Akvarium), Russian for 'aquarium'. Extremely well known, Аква́риум's lead singer, Boris Grebenshchikov, is refered to as the "Grandfather of Russian Rock." The album 'Радио Африка' worth a listening to.
* Король и Шут - (Korol' i Shut) - Russian horror-punk band, lyrics - horror stories and folk tales about pirates, trolls, ghosts and vampires, as well as Slavic mythology.
* ДДТ (DDT)- Alternative/Industrial Rock Band
* Auktyon - Experimental Rock band. Interesting songs and use of instrumentation
* Practically any patriotic Russian songs. Such as Катюша, Калинка and others, while those are soviet, for true Russian songs look for Feodor Chaliapin's repertoire, as well as for Дубинушка; Эй, ухнем!; Не велят Маше; Солнце всходит и заходит; Трепак and so on.
* Russian opera: Glinka, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Schostakovich.
* Fresh and Ello are Russian music channels on youtube, good for new Russian pop music.
* Утро - a Russian independant rock band. They have also recorded songs in English under the name "Motorama".
* 5'nizza (pronounciation : piatnizza) - Ukrainian reggae band singing in russian.
* Кукрыниксы (Kukriniksi) - Russian Alternative Rock band. Well known, was found by Alexei Gorshenev, brother of Korol' i Shut founder - Mihaila Gorsheneva, also known as Gorshok.
* Оргазм Нострадамуса (Orgasm Nostradamusa) - Hardcore Punk band from Siberia, notorious for it's destructive behaviour and for "Anarcho-amoralic self-destruction" philosophy.
* Валентин Стрыкало (Valentin Strykalo) - a rather modern Ukrainian band that was playing some kind of pop-punk until the dissolution in 2019. Check out their song "Я ночью плачу" ("I cry at night"/lyrics) if you had problems with women lately. Well known by Russian-speaking nerdy youth.
* MODERN RUSSIAN POSTPUNK WAVE - most of it strongly resembles 80s postpunk music like Joy Division, The Cure etc and, of course, primary source of inspiration is Кино (first band in the list). All bands share similar style and dark lyrics:
	+ Буерак (Buerak) - founded in Novosibirsk, makes regular tours around Russia to this day. Is memed about a lot. Most well known song is "Страсть к курению" (Passion for smoking). Also "Спортивные очки" (Sport glasses).
	+ Черниковская хата (Chernikovskaya Hata) - popular among non-formal youth. "Белая ночь" (White night), "Не верь слезам" (Don't believe the tears). Some people also name them Cherni**g**ovskaya hata, thinking that they are named after the city of Chernigov.
	+ Электрофорез (Elektroforez) - with more synthy, but still dark style and specific vocals, was founded in Saint Petersburg. Did tours around Europe and US before shit broke out at February 24th. Sample song - "Мёртв внутри" (Dead inside).
	+ Молчат дома (Molchat doma) - a pioneer. It's actually from Minsk, Belarus. The song "Судно" (Sudno) has ~50 million views on YouTube, so that speaks for itself.
* Моргенштерн (Morgenshern) - rapper. Resembles American mumblers like Lil Pump. Almost nobody takes him seriously though and he is rather made fun of via postironic memes. His advertisement song of War Thunder is nice doe. Also, check out this mashup of it and "Спортивные очки" by Buerak. Catches the spirit of modern Russian counterculture perfectly.

### **Brotips**

* http://rutracker.org - popular russian tracker, you can find most movies/books here.
* Young Russians like absurd humor a-la shitposting.

### **Other**

* Uz-Translations (a very useful website that you should definitely check out)
* Habrahabr.ru  - technical and buisness blogs, popular IT resourse.
* Открытое Образование (Open Education) - Russian cousin of edX with free MOOCs from major Russian universities, such as МГУ (Moscow State University) and ВШЭ (Higher School of Economics). Excellent way to learn new skills and learn the vocabulary used in your professional area of study.
* https://lurkmore.to/ - wiki-like project about modern Russian culture phenomena (mostly memes). If you don't understand some abbreviations or meme phrases, you'll most probably find them here.
* https://www.russiantools.com - a free to use collection of more than 20 tools for learning and teaching Russian:  you can create printable worksheets of different kinds, such as fill in the gap, scramble sentences, scramble words as well as word searches, create bingo sheets with Russian numbers, type in Cyrillic with a normal keyboard, convert text from Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet, convert Russian words from single to plural and much more.
* https://www.borscht.games/ - A free game for drilling Russian grammar. Currently it only seems to support nouns.