Category: Russian

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Film Recommendation: Russian Ark

Russian Ark (2002) follows the 300-year history of St. Petersburg. Directed by Alexander Sokurov, this 96-minute film was completed in one shot, entirely taking place in the Winter Palace of the Hermitage Museum.

The narrator, a ghost of the city, follows an unnamed “European” through the museum, witnessing actors with beautiful costumes portraying historical figures such as Peter the Great, Tsar Nicolas II and his family, or Leningrad citizens during Soviet times. A lot of the Russian is quiet and muffled, so it may be hard for beginners to get everything. Either way, it’s still an interesting cinematographic piece!

This film is perfect if you want to learn something about past and presents notions of St. Petersburg and see a new use of cinematography. If you want to learn more about the making of the film, you can watch In One Breath (2003), a documentary that follows the making of Russian Ark.

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Soviet Cartoons

Soviet cartoons are some of the best out there. Along with their artistic value, they’re great for keeping up your Russian! Here are a few suggestions to start with.

  1. Винни Пух is the Russian version of Winnie the Pooh. This first came out as a film in 1969, followed by two other sequels. The main characters are Winnie the Pooh and Piglet instead of Robin, and the illustrations are a little more rugged and with lots of character. The Russian is fairly simple, but Winnie’s voice can be a little hard to understand. You can find it on YouTube here.

2. Тайна третьей планеты (Secret of the Third Planet) is a science fiction animated film that came out in 1981. It is based on the children’s book Alice’s Travels, and follows the store of Alisa, who follows her father in what ends up being a detective story. The Russian is very clear and easy to hear, and the illustrations are great! This one is also available on YouTube here.

3. Бременские Музыканты (Bremen Town Musicians) is a 1969 animated film based on a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. It follows the story of a donkey, a dog, a cat, a rooster, and their master Troubadour, and is known for its lively soundtrack and rock n’ roll songs. The Russian is fairly easy to follow as well! It is on YouTube as well, right here.

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Media Recommendation: “Кухня” (“Kitchen”)

Кухня is a Russian sitcom that came out in 2012, and consists of 6 seasons and 120 episodes. It follows the story of the main character, Maxim Lavrov, and his quest to become a chef in one of Moscow’s best restaurants “Claude Monet.” Maxim, along with the rest of the restaurant’s workers, are constantly finding themselves in humorous situations.

The conversation is fairly slow and simple, so the show is good for intermediate and advanced speakers to practice their listening. It’s also good for beginners, as a lot of kitchen and food vocabulary comes up.

The show can be found for free on YouTube. You can also purchase a subtitled version on Amazon, but I’d encourage you to save the money and practice your Russian.

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Some Russian Music Recommendations

Music is a great way to learn a language, as the speaking is usually clear and easy to keep up with. Here are just a few options to start with!

Vladimir Vysotsky is one of the most famous Russian musicians from the 1960s and 70s. His songs are about life in the Soviet-Union, and have a distinct gritty style to them. His music can be found on YouTube, and you can start with “Спасите Наши Души” (“Save Our Souls.”)

Alla Pugacheva is a beloved pop icon. Among many songs that can be found on YouTube, she is also featured in the famous movie Ирония судбы (The Irony of Fate). She has a more recent music video that you can find here, which stars her and Russian comedian and singer Maksim Galkin.

One of my personal favorites is a contemporary band called “Серебряная свадьба,” “Silver Wedding.” Their style is a little more folksy, and the photo above is from their song about Alexander Pushkin’s death, which you can find here.

“Грибы,” “Mushrooms,” is one of the most popular new groups. They’re actually Ukrainian, but they rap in Russian. Their songs are somewhat parody, somewhat serious, but very entertaining. The language is a little bit harder to understand, but the songs are still catchy even if you don’t get everything! You can start with their most popular song “Тает лед” (“Ice melts”).

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Movie Recommendation: Стиляги

Стиляги [2008] (Stilyagi, translated as Hipsters) is a movie musical set in Moscow in the mid 1950s. Its story follows a boy named Mels as he transitions from fitting in with the grey and black dress of Soviet youth, to that of the colorful stilyagi.

The stilyagi were Russians who thought Americans wore bright, outlandish clothing, and wanted to replicate this form of expression that was oppressed during Soviet times. Along with the plot, the movie also shows the negative view Soviet society had of this subculture, and how the stilyagi would have to dress up and listen to jazz in secret.

You can find the full movie on YouTube here. The Russian isn’t too fast or complicated, but there are subtitles if you find yourself not being able to keep up.

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Russian Idioms

 

Many Russian idioms are very fun, but do not at all translate directly into English, and can therefore be hard to learn how to use. With Очень по-русски (Very much Russian), you can hear them used and explained with everyday examples by a native speaker.

The website features frequent episodes about all kinds of idioms. It is intended for people learning Russian, so the speaking is slow and comprehensible, and is always provided with a transcript so you can follow along.

Like this one, where they explain “днем с огнем,” or literally in English, “during the day with fire.” Obviously this doesn’t make much sense to an English speaker, so the blog goes through simple examples to give it some context, along with explaining where it comes from.

You can also find Russian jokes and an article about how to navigate Russian humor, along with dictionaries and sources to learn the alphabet!

 

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Russian Film Database: Mosfilm

 Мосфильм (Mosfilm, https://www.mosfilm.ru/main.php)

Mosfilm is one of the largest and oldest film studios in Europe. The studio was established in 1923, and by the end of the Soviet Union had produced over 3,000 films. They’ve put many of them up on this website, including works by Sergei Eisenstein and Andrei Tarkovsky, or even adaptations of books you might read in literature classes, like Anna Karenina or War and Peace. Aside from the large variety of types of films, they also have pictures of old posters, sets, costumes, and cars that you can sort through. This website is great if you want to watch films of varying topic or Russian-language difficulty, and also good for learning about Soviet culture and Russian film culture.

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An Introduction to Russian News Sources

Since it is sometimes hard to find unbiased news sources, the Russian media can be hard to navigate. Here are just a few suggestions when trying to learn about the various facets of Russian media and culture.

Russia Today

https://www.rt.com/

This is a state-funded news outlet that is understood as the point-of-view from the Kremlin. It’s always interesting to learn what kind of thoughts the Kremlin wants to support, and since they cater to an international audience, they have a great Russian learning page that has lots of grammar, vocabulary, and speaking exercises.

Медиязона (MediaZona)

https://zona.media/

Pretty much the exact opposite of Russia Today, Медиязона was founded by two members from the group Pussy Riot, Nadya Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina. They cover political stories, such as those about law enforcement and judicial news. This is a good way to find out about the few opposition media outlets, and what they are focusing on today.


The Moscow Times

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/

This is an English-Language, Moscow-based online newspaper. They are independent, and cover stories about pretty much anything. If you just want a more familiar outlet that still discusses current events in Russia from a local perspective, this is a good one to start with.

Of course there are many more Russian news sources to choose from. These are just a few very different ones that might get you started!

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Need help with verbs? Try Cooljugator!

Cooljugator (https://cooljugator.com/ru) is a verb conjugation app for many languages, including Russian! This is great for a refresher on how to conjugate verbs you already know, or if you run into a new type of verb that you’re not sure about. Because it’s just for verbs, you don’t have to sort through a dictionary entry to find this part of the word. It’s quick and easy!

It shows a grid, for which you can change the settings, and it does this for the future, present, and past tense forms of verbs.

It also gives example sentences for context, along with English translations.

The website even provides trickier parts of Russian verbs such as participles and the aspect pair!