ONLINE DICTIONARIES

MULTITRAN System for Translations is an online multilingual dictionary and a rich resource for those hard-to-find translations of abbreviations and technical terms. Multitran.ru offers a number of useful features, including spelling and grammar check. Search online in Russian or English or download the program for free.

Gramota is an online portal dedicated primarily to Russian language and literature. This is a gateway to various dictionaries, online biographies and full texts of Russian authors, linguistic games, classroom materials, etc. Gramota.ru dictionaries stand out because they give phonetic description (marked accent and pronunciation) and definition.

Linguee Russian-English and English Russian online dictionary provides translations of words in the context by allowing the user to search the equivalent of either a word or a phrase in one billion professional translations made by professional translators. Thus Linguee is an online dictionary where the translations are not made by machines or computerized programs. In addition to Russian, Linguee provides translation aid for German, Italian, French and many other languages.

Bab.la is an online dictionary for 28 languages, including English- Russian and Russian English dictionaries. This user-participatory online dictionary helps to find “everything about languages and translation: conjugation, phrases and much more.”

Russian Grammatical Dictionary provides each entry with grammatical information appropriate to the given part of speech (case declension, gender, number, conjugation, aspect, syntactic government, related derivational forms, “phraseologisms” and examples of usage). Each written form within the paradigm is accompanied by an auditory form, pronounced by an array of native Russian speaker.

SPECIALIZED DICTIONARIES

Digitized Book of Russian Idioms Illustrated compiled by Dubrovin with drawings by Tilman demonstrates that The Russian language is highly idiomatic. The idioms, part and parcel of the language, add immensely to its richness. Their variety is accounted for by the historical development of the Russian language. More often than not Russian idioms are a stumbling block for non-Russian speakers, as they fail to understand Russian, both written and spoken, without the mastery of a sufficient number of idioms, especially those which occur most frequently.
This book is intended primarily for English speaking students of Russian who have a knowledge of the essentials of Russian grammar and are familiar with a basic Russian vocabulary.
The two types of idioms are mainly given in the book: phraseological fusions, word combinations whose meaning cannot be derived from the meaning of their elements (e.g., собаку съел, заморить червячка), and phraseological unilies, word combinations whose meaning is partially dependent on the meaning of their individual words (e.g., два сапога пара, капля в море).

Cooljugator is free online verb conjugator which works in over 40 languages, including Russian Adjectives, Russian Nouns, and Russian Verbs. “Cooljugator provides conjugated forms, examples, English translations, transcriptions, stressed forms or pronunciation hints, related verbs and a quick search that allows entering any form in both the target language and English. We are aiming to be the Internet’s go-to resource for grammar across many languages!”

Lurkmore and Slovonovo document Internet memes, modern slang, usage of profanity, and more.
Lurkomorye / Луркоморье is an online encyclopedia of modern culture, folklore and subcultures, and everything else. According to English Wikipedia, “Lurkmore or Luurkomorye is an informal Russian-language MediaWiki-powered online encyclopedia focusing on Internet subcultures, folklore, and memes.”
Slovonovo / Словоново site was created precisely in order to find the newest words that appear in various areas and clarify their meaning. This is an online dictionary of modern slang. For example, school slang, media (SMI) slang, language of Russian diaspora, etc.

Slovar.lib is a collection of literary terms in Russian. Slovar Literaturovedcheskikh Terminov /  Dictionary of Literary Terms is an online literary encyclopedia that comprises: Dictionary from A to Z; Lexicon of Literary Terms; Library; Forum. The content is purely in Russian.

Imya.com (Name.com) / ИМЯ.КОМ presents an online encyclopedia of personal names. The site states that it is one of the most comprehensive sites of personal names in the world. Currently, it introduces more than 66 000 personal names provided with the place of origin, meaning, nicknames, etc.
Onomast.com is the English version of Imya.com created in 2007. There are currently 53,000 + given names with meaning, definitions and origins of different nationalities for both boys and girls. The names are categorized by letters and grouped according to feminine and masculine given names. All names in our database have the meaning, origin and unique code.

Tolkovyi slovar zhivago velikorusskago iazyka / Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language by Vladimir Dal is accessible via Internet. The online explanatory monolingual dictionary allows to browse the Russian words and gain access to their definitions, examples of usage, etc.

Slovopedia is a gateway to Russian explanatory and encyclopedic dictionaries, including online dictionaries by Vladimir Dal, Sergei Ozhegov and Natalia Shvedova, and others. Many words are also provided with definitions according to their usage in the fields of philosophy, accounting, etc. Slovopedia and has an impressive list of Russian-Russian online dictionaries.

SOKR.ru is a Russian-only database of Russian acronyms. Slovar Sokrashchenii Russkogo Iazyka / Dictionary of Acronyms of Russian Language is an online dictionary which contains more than 157065 Russian abbreviations and acronyms. The site states that it is “the most complete dictionary of abbreviations, acronyms, and compound words of the Russian language.”

The National Corpus is a resource that allows users to search for words, morphology, and more. Natsionalnyi Korpus Russkogo Iazyka (Russian National Corpus) / Национальный Корпус Русского Языка contains a corpus of the modern Russian language incorporating over 300 million words. The corpus of Russian is a reference system based on a collection of Russian texts in electronic form. The Corpus is intended for all who are interested in the Russian language and various associated fields: professional linguists, language teachers, school and university students, foreigners learning the language.

ONLINE RUSSIAN LESSONS

PushkinOnline developed by the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, is a portal to study of Russian as a foreign language. The mission of the portal is to promote the Russian language and education in the world. PushkinOnline combines an online course of Russian as a foreign language, an online school for teachers of Russian as a foreign language, open online courses for those studying Russian as a foreign language, and an integrated social network to enable communication between interested parties. It also offers several open online courses on various topics taught in Russian.

3ears is a new website for Russian learners with original videos, texts, and online testing. 3Ears is a database of Russian-language songs, TV show excerpts, and other video clips. A transcript appears below each video, and each word in the transcript is highlighted when it is spoken or sang in the video. The Russian language learners can also go to the exact point in the video where a word appears by clicking it. To see the definition, declension or conjugation, and other example usages of a word, drag it to the side of the screen. 3ears is particularly useful for catching all the words in a sitcom (there are many included on the site), film, or any other video with lots of quickly spoken conversational dialogue. It is designed for levels of Newbies, Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced accompanied with online testing.

Language Immersion gives the Chrome browser the power to turn any page into a vocab-building lesson by translating certain words and phrases on the page. Probably best for beginners and intermediate students – keep in mind that it is Internet machine translation which is not always 100% accurate. Chrome Language Immersion cannot teach grammar or language in its context. Currently, 12 language immersion tools for Google Chrome are available, including Russian, Japanese, etc.

Russian for Everyone offers a full, online, self-guided grammar course for beginners. Russian for Everyone: Learn Russian Online is developed by Julia Rochtchina in collaboration with TLT Network, Inc. This online Russian language self-study guide for beginners introduces the learners to Russian letters and sound system, Russian grammar, and vocabulary.

Beginning Russian Through Film is a free online course using more than 400 clips from Russian classic films and accompanying study materials. Beginning Russian through Film started as an experiment at Cornell’s Department of Modern Languages in 1997-1998.Warning: this requires Quicktime, which is considered an outdated extension by many browsers.

Alpha Dictionary offers an online, interactive reference for Russian grammar developed by Robert Beard. In his online resource, Dr. Beard provides clear explanations of complicated rules and exercises to practice.

Gramota.ru is a Russian language site aimed at improving Russian language skills. The materials are intended for native speakers, but advanced students will benefit from the games, dictionaries, and information listed here great!

Russificate compiled by Yulia Amlinskaya, a professional Russian Language teacher and founder of International Russian Language School “Russificate”, contains a variety of interactive grammar, vocabulary and communication exercises, podcasts, reading materials, and many more. Russificate is a free Russian Language Blog for learners of all levels and teachers of Russian Language.

LuchSveta.org presents learning material, appropriate mostly for advanced learners, for Russian-language news clips that combine relatively intelligible speech with compelling content that illustrates some issue of larger cultural or social interest. LuchSveta (A ray of light) / Луч света  is operated by Sarah Ruth Lorenz. The site is for advanced learners to practice their Russian language. They can learn authentic Russian and get a glimpse into contemporary Russian life with compelling news-related video clips.

Odin moi den (One day in my life) / Один мой день is a LiveJournal page devoted to documenting average days lived by ordinary folks. All are in Russian with lots of good pictures – and lots of good vocabulary!

Molodets! is a free web resource of interactive materials authored by Russian professors. It’s designed to give the user new exercises with every visit. Create an account to enter. Molodets (Well done! Attaboy!) / Молодец at Hobart and William Smith Colleges is a web-based application for training Russian grammar intended as a primary learning suite for beginning and intermediate language students, and as a refresher course for those at the more advanced levels.

Lang-8 is Wiki-based  software to allow users to make entries in a foreign language, which native speakers of that language then correct.

InterPals helps find pen pals, friends for practicing foreign language writing skills.

Russian Language Learning on the Web from the University of Sussex and London School of Economics uses Golden and Silver Age classics with an interactive glossing system and audio.

Quia offers several lessons and activities, developed and uploaded mostly by teachers and professors.

The Russian Language Program at Cornell University offers many online materials – click on the “online course materials” on the left sidebar.

LiveLingua offers a “FSI – Russian FAST course”, an introductory course to Russian via text and audio materials.

Digital Dialects offers several games for beginner language learners to practice numbers, vocabulary, colors, etc.

Russian Word of the Day is a blog aimed at first- and second-year students of Russian. The blog is developed by Donald Livingston, Russian Lecturer at Arizona State University.

Russian from Scratch («С Азов») is a free online course for beginners, edited and produced by Alexander Polyakov.

Russian Video Blog features memorable video lessons to help beginners build up a basic vocabulary and basic understanding of Russian.

RAILS (Russian Advanced Interactive Listening Series) is a series of 30 Russian-language listening exercises developed in part by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Themes range from film to history to education in Russia.

Ruslan offers a free series of listening lessons accompanying the Ruslan Russian course. They can generally be used independently. They are a bit old fashioned audio drills but with onscreen text and pictures. Learners can use a pause button to give their responses before they hear the correct answer.

Forvo: All the Words in the World. Pronounced offers thousands of words pronounced by native Russian speakers.

TV AND MOVIES

Russian TV from Russia (23 Channels) provides a handful of online television stations’ broadcast mostly dedicated to current news and issues in education, culture, etc. Not all TV programs are available and accessible.

MosFilm / Мосфильм has a YouTube channel that is a gateway to essential Soviet classic films. These feature films have been enhanced by providing closed captions in Russian. A number of films are streamed with English subtitles.

Rossiiskaia Gazeta. Dubl Dva (Russian Newspaper. Double Two) / РоссийскаяГазета. Дубль Два is an online film festival held annually. Many of the nominated films are with subtitles in English.

MUSIC  AND RADIO

Rockin Russian is hosted by the University of Texas and gives subtitled videos and lyrics with translations for Russian pop songs. Flash Plugin is required for viewing the videos.

Russian via Songs is an interactive Internet project developed by Voronezh State University. It is a downloadable educational program that gives synopsis, translations, and more for Russian songs.

Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) / Эхо Москвы is one of Russia’s most famous and respected talk-radio stations. Echo of Moscow broadcasts 24/7 in Moscow and many other Russian cities, as well as few Former Soviet Union republics. Internet broadcasts are available in mp3 format for easy download and are often accompanied with full transcripts.

Radio Kultura / Радио Культура is essentially Russia’s NPR which broadcasts music, news, and other radio programs. The content is also available online.

Staroe Radio (Old Radio) / Старое Радио is a National Russian Radio Audio Fund with archives more than four thousand plays, literary readings, radio shows, children’s tales. The old Soviet/Russian radio programs also include songs, interviews, etc. The oldies can have clarity issue and yet the site is very interesting.

SovMusic / Советская Музыка presents downloadable music files of patriotic and popular Soviet songs grouped according to their themes. The site also provides access to digitalized images of Soviet posters and audio recordings of some speeches (either full or excerpts) by Soviet leaders and other famous people, for example Yuri Gagarin, Fidel Castro, Sergei Khrushchev and others.

Russian Literature

Read Russia Online presents works of prose and poetry within networks of images, videos, audio files, historical documents, and scholarly commentary to offer an English-speaking audience a dynamic interactive space for exploring Russia’s rich literary culture.

Solzhenitsyn.ru offers a complete Solzhenitsyn library with the author’s final versions of his texts and his notes and comments on them.

Electronic Library of Russian Literature and Folklore is a very good resource for those subjects.

The Annotated Afanas’ev Library presents several Russian folk fairy tales with glosses for vocabulary, culture, and more.

Diafilm was a cultural icon of the Soviet Union – a series of children’s books produced as slide shows. This site presents some of those slide shows in html.

Comics from Russia offers comics based on Russian proverbs, fairy tales, and even Armenian history, as well as some popular comics from Russian periodicals. They even have a service specifically for students of Russian giving comics in English.

Cyrillic, Computers, and Typing

Transliterated keyboards. For those who would like to type in Cyrillic without learning the Cyrillic keyboard layout drivers and programs are available. Try Russian Transliterated Keyboards or Russian for Gringos. Translit.cc offers a very handy online transliteration tool that allows you to type in Russian with English phonetics (for example, press “i” for “и,” etc.), and it is also can be used for checking of the spelling.

Typing in Cyrillic. For those who would like to learn to type properly in Cyrillic, try Sense-lang.org or Keybr.com(for Keybr, you will have to click “settings,” “keyboard layout,” then click “English” to change it to “Russian”). Mydiv.net gives a compendium of lots more options for learning how to type in Cyrillic, but does it completely in Russian.

Cyrillicizing Your Computer. Making Cyrillic work on your computer can be difficult. AATSEEL offers options for cyrillicizing your computer, such aslists of fonts and drivers for Windows and Macintosh. Russification of Macintosh offers more troubleshooting solutions for Macs.

Decoding Gibberish. If you have a webpage or email written in little boxes or slashes where Cyrillic should be, Universal Cyrillic Decoder, Automatic Cyrillic Decoder or decoder Lebedeva.

Fonts. AATSEEL offers several medieval slavic fonts. The Non-Roman Script Initiative strives to provide fonts for minority language groups and includes resources for Cyrillic.

Subtitles. Want to make subtitles for Russian films? Submerge is great (and very cheap) for Mac users. You can also check out this list of freeware for making subtitles – for users of all types of computers.

Real, Interactive Experiences Near You! 

RusConcert.com lists Russian cultural events taking place in the US and even offers online ticket purchase. Only downside is that the site is a strange mix of English and Russian…

Russian Meetup is a free service connecting speakers and students of Russian in local communities. The groups have grown to more than a few hundred in some cities.

Scrabbin is a new social community specializing in matching learners and speakers of languages. Meet online or in real life! You might also try MyLanguageExchange.com or Language-exchanges.org, which offer free services in pairing members for language exchanges in a moderated electronic environment. There are special services for teachers to use the site for students.

Verbling and iTalki lets you connect with native Russian speakers for language practice online.

Russian-American Cultural Center is a new organization in New York that regularly hosts events and offers an attractive, informative website (mostly devoted to art). San Francisco also has a cultural center.