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Key Resources
English-Russian or Russian-English dictionary + access to forums to ask your language questions
Supplement to your textbook. Includes exercises with answers
Over 400 free lessons: learn grammar, improve vocabulary, practice reading and listening skills (most lessons include audio by native speakers)
This guide points you to some of the Library's main resources that will support the Russian language classes on campus and so focuses on resources to help learn Russian, as well as resources that are IN Russian.
- For a list of Russian Language classes at Carleton see the undergraduate calendar.
- For students residing in Ottawa, the Ottawa Public Library has a number of resources that can help with learning Russian.
NOTE: Print books can be requested through the Library's Curbside Pickup service
Language Dictionaries
- Cambridge English-Russian dictionary
- Lexilogos- Russian- search a word and then choose which dictionary you'd like the information from
- Oxford Russian dictionary, 4th ed - print only, we also have older editions that can be borrowed
- Oxford English Russian dictionary - print and online via HathiTrust
- PONS - you can hear pronunciation of words and also favourite words to create your own study lists
- Russian-English/English-Russian dictionary and phrasebook - print and online via HathiTrust
- WordReference.com: has English-Russian/Russian-English dictionary as well as a language forum so you can ask questions and get answers
Grammars & Workbooks
- A comprehensive Russian grammar <print only>
- A reference grammar of Russian - also have a print copy that can be borrowed
- A Russian grammar workbook, 2nd ed
- Basic Russian: A grammar and workbook
- Intermediate Russian: A grammar and workbook, 2nd ed
- Modern Russian grammar: A practical guide <print only>
- Oxford Russian grammar and verbs <print only>
- Russian: A practical grammar with exercises <print only, 2 copies>
General, linguistics, language
- After Newspeak: Language, culture, and politics in Russia from Gorbachev to Putin
- Digital Russia: The culture, language, and politics of new media communication <print only>
- Road to Russia : Russian language textbook for beginners. <print only, 2 copies>
- Russian: A linguistic introduction
- Russian diaspora culture, identity, and language change
- Syntax of Russian - we also have a print copy that can be borrowed
- The Russian language today
- Topics in the structure of Russian: an introduction to Russian linguistics
Reading Books in Russian:
- Internet Archive: Out of copyright works available for free, so many classics. Search for a specific work, author, or do a keyword search. Results can then be limited to language=Russian. Searches can be done in Cyrillic or romanized alphabet.
- BookRix-Free Russian ebooks - can browse by categories
- Amazon.com Kindle : Top 100 free Russian ebooks -You don't have to have a Kindle device to read these books, just install the Kindle app.
- Klassika.ru - organized by author's names: poets on left side, prose writers on right. Multiple works + biography for each author.
- Our own collection of literature is mostly in print, and is mostly from literary authors
- You can look up a specific title of a book, or you can see all the works we have by a given author by going to the Advanced Search screen, changing the "any field" to "author/creator" and looking up the author by last name, first name:
- All titles in Omni have been romanized, so Voi̐na i mir and not Война и мир
- When you are looking at the full record for a particular book, you will see a Vrtual Browse function at the bottom of the screen: this is quite useful for literature since all of the books BY a certain author, and ABOUT an author are found in the same area and you can use the arrows on screen to browse through titles. You will notice that English translations of Russian texts will usually be found in the same area as the original Russian.
Cyrillic keyboards
- Type Russian letters - use the keyboard provided, or you can use your own keyboard and type the letters that have the same sound. So, for example, typing an "R" on your keyboard will produce
- Lexilogos-Russian
- Translit.net - type on your regular keyboard and it will transliterate into Russian automatically
Learning/Practicing Cyrillic
- How to learn the Cyrillic alphabet in 4 divine steps - Lots of tips and links for mastering the alphabet
- Master Russian - The Russian Alphabet
- Learn Russian Step by Step - The Where to Start section has 6 lessons on the alphabet and pronunciation
Apps for free
Apps for a fee
- Russian Alphabet ($0.99 as of 2020)
Scholarly journal articles
- Omni: our easy-to-use search tool, right on the Library home page. You can limit results by language OR
- You can search some of our other recommended databases. Results can also be limited by language to Russian:
- Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA) : for more linguistics related articles (e.g. grammar, syntax, morphology etc) as well as other language related aspects
- ERIC: for articles related to teaching and learning of Russian
- Scholars Portal Journals: a full-text collection of thousands of scholarly journals, covers all subject areas
- Web of Science Core Collection : Don't let the name fool you: covers social sciences topics too. You'll be able to see if other articles have cited the ones you find in your search
News & Magazine Sources
We subscribe to a number of databases that have the full text of magazines, newspapers, and and other news sources from around the world
- Factiva full text news from around the world. Some important notes for finding material in Russian
- To find the most resources you need to search using Russian Cyrillic. If you search using English words results are more limited because only extra information such as subject terms are in English. The full text of the news items are in Russian.
- Note that the default date limit is "in the last 3 months", so change as needed
- You can choose one or more specific sources to search, example: Izvestiya
- You can choose to search news sources from one or more cities, countries, or regions. Example: sources just from Moscow, or sources from Russia
- Very important: Remove the default language= English and add language = Russian
- Nexis Uni - It is best to do a keyword search in Russian (Cyrillic alphabet) rather than English. Full-text of the articles are in Cyrillic and only added information such as Subject terms are in English. You can filter results to specific regions or specific sources. All dates are included by default
- Press Reader - access over 5000 newspapers and magazines from over 100 countries. 90 day backfile only. Language or country can be selected from menu on the left, and then subcategories by topic. For example, there are almost 300 titles in Russian.
- Novaya Gazeta - known for investigative reporting
- Noviye Izvestia - online news in Russian
Our Collection:
- Do a Keyword search in Omni for a specific title, director, or by topic.
- Once you get your results, limit the "Resource Type" to "videos" . (NOTE: you will probably have to click on the "Show More" to see the video options)
- Limit the language to Russian
- If you only want to see videos available via online streaming, limit the "Availability" to "Available online"
- You can request physical DVDs through our Curbside Pick-up service.
- We also have 2 streaming video database you can search
- Films on Demand
- Kanopy - films not already part of our collection can be requested
Other Video Sources
- YouTube: you can find a huge amount of free Russian language videos. Here are some channels that might be of interest:
- Elena Jung- videos for various levels, includes her "slow listening exercises,” where she slowly narrates everyday activities. Videos are captioned in Russian so that you can read along.
- Real Russian Club - includes slow Russian videos on variety of topics
- Rush into Russian - beginner to early intermediate, clearly organized topics
- Your favourite video streaming service, for example:
- Netflix: just search "Russian" and you'll get a selection of TV shows and movies. Many of these default to an English dubbed version, so just change the audio to Russian and then choose your preferred subtitles: English or Russian.
- Prime Video: search Russian and select from Russian language movies and TV shows. Use the Audio & Subtitles menu to control your viewing.
- Moskvatv - stream Moscow TV channels online
- Streema - Russia - livestream Russian TV stations. Stations are tagged with the type of channel
Listening to Russian music and following along with lyrics, can be a great way to improve your language skills, especially with pronunciation. Listening to audio podcasts is another way to get your ear familiar with rhythm, tone, flow of a language
General sources & Podcasts:
- Russian made Easy - beginner podcasts , focus on simple conversations. Can download transcript
- Russian Podcasts - for all levels, but because the site itself is in Russian (can get Chrome to translate it for you) and the intros in the podcasts are in Russian maybe not total beginners. An easy cue for following with the transcripts: the actual conversations included in the transcripts begin after a short musical interlude. Transcripts available (beginner level ones include vocabulary with English translations).
- Business Russian Podcasts - from UCLA, intermediate to advanced with a focus on business vocabulary
- Learn Russian - a whole suite of lessons, with quizzes to track completion
- Ottawa Public Library: Mango Audio and text, each language course consists of 100 lessons. You must use your Ottawa Public library username and password to access Mango (anyone who lives in the city of Ottawa can get a free username and password, contact your local branch )
- The OPL has many other language learning resources: browse by going to their advanced search screen, limit Language to Russian and Collections to "adult language learning"
Music & Lyrics:
- Russian music with lyrics and translation
- Russian Songs - every week a new video is posted with lyrics in Russian and English
- Russmus.net - hasn't been updated in a number of years, but for the songs they DO have you get lyrics in English, Russian, links to music videos, links to the artist's official page...
- Youtube: keyword search title of a song, an artist , or just "Russian music" with the word "lyric" to find lyric videos. For example Let it Go from Frozen. Don't forget that in YouTube you can change the playback speed under settings if you want to slow things down a bit.
Curate your own playlist, or discover Russian language music using your preferred way of listening to music, here are some examples:
- Spotify : Russian Music 2020 playlist - don't forget you can listen to Spotify for free but you will have commercials.
- Tune in: Russian Music - lists a number of Russian radio stations you can stream live
