Russian

How many ways are there to learn Russian? That question may be unanswerable, but what’s certain is that there are enough to appeal to learners of all types.

Visual learners may appreciate educational YouTube channels, those that appreciate a highly organized approach may prefer online courses, and on-the-go learners could opt for language-learning apps.

This post will explore an oft-overlooked learning strategy — podcasts. Podcasts offer many benefits as language-learning tools: they’re often free or inexpensive, they can provide extensive listening practice on just about every topic imaginable, and they’re extremely portable.

We’ve combed the internet in search of the best podcasts for learners of Russian and have organized them by level. No matter where you are on your Russian-language journey, there’s likely a podcast that’s perfect for you — find yours in the list below!

Russian Podcasts for Beginners

fluentli.

This is a relatively short audio course with 17 podcast-style lessons for absolute beginners. If you’re just starting out with the language and would like some guided practice in audio form, this resource is worth checking out.

A fair amount of English is used, but each episode builds on the previous ones and comes with lesson notes that translate key phrases. Total beginners looking for a gentle, free introduction to Russian may find what they’re looking for here.

RUSSIANPOD101

RussianPod101 is among the most comprehensive resources for beginners learning Russian. While a subscription isn’t free, it is less expensive than many other paid resources. The Russian Survival Phrases series is available for free on major podcast streaming platforms.

Subscribers to the RussianPod101 course are granted access to thousands of podcast-style lessons. The majority of these are at the beginner level, but

you’ll find some intermediate and advanced lessons as well. Typically, the hosts will listen to a dialogue and then take some time explaining important words, grammar, and cultural information.

In addition to the lessons, you’ll also find line-by-line transcripts, grammar notes, flashcards, and other useful tools.

The lessons don’t necessarily progress in a clear, logical order — instead, the platform lends itself to jumping between lessons. If you’re looking for some more structure with your study, you could use the resource alongside a textbook to guide your practice. Here’s our in-depth review.

Slow Russian Podcast.

The Slow Russian Podcast provides fantastic listening practice by producing slow, natural dialogues on a variety of topics related to Russian history and culture. Host Daria Molchanova leads the episodes and maintains a slow enough pace for beginner and intermediate students to follow along.

Each episode comes with a transcript in Russian and in English, so you’ll be able to interact with the material even if it’s slightly above your level of listening comprehension. The podcast is free to listen to, and a $20 purchase allows you to download the MP3 files as well as accompanying PDFs.

A Spoonful of Russian.

This podcast hasn’t been updated for a few years, but the free collection of about 30 episodes could prove seriously effective for learners looking for short audio lessons. You’ll start learning Russian greetings before proceeding to learn how to pronounce different vowel sounds. There are also bonus episodes covering Russian poetry, music, and other cultural content.

Host Natalia is a native speaker of Russian and has a confident, laid-back teaching style that could appeal to many.

Russian Made Easy

Russian Made Easy is a series of 30 audio lessons that introduce the basics of the Russian language. Host Mark uses modern techniques such as pattern recognition and contextual learning to get you up to speed quickly and easily.

You can follow along with the lessons with complete PDF transcripts, and you’ll also be prompted to repeat phrases aloud to get practice pronouncing the language. This is a great podcast series for new learners, and those who are still getting familiar with the Russian alphabet can make use of this mini Russian reading course.

One Minute Russian

One Minute Russian is a series produced by the Coffee Break Academy team. There are only 10 lessons, but they cover need-to-know topics such as counting to ten, basic greetings, and useful words and phrases.

These lessons aren’t designed to get you fluent in Russian, but they will teach you the basics without requiring a large time commitment. The course costs $10 USD.

Speaking Russian

The Speaking Russian podcast is a long-running series with episodes that are best suited for beginner or intermediate level students. You’ll learn about different dialects and pronunciations, along with foundational vocabulary like numbers, days of the week, and more.

This podcast is available on most major streaming platforms. There’s also a spin-off podcast in which host Elvira Ivanova reads Anna Karenina in Russian, and then summarizes it and explains any unfamiliar expressions in English..

The Word’s Worth

This podcast is brought to you by Michele Berdy, author of the book The Russian Word’s Worth. The podcast is largely in English, but Berdy touches on plenty of aspects of the Russian language as well as current events and culture.

For those interested in learning about the Russian language and how to speak it, this podcast has a high production value and could become a favorite.
 

Russian Podcasts for Intermediate Learners

Russian with Max

This podcast caters to learners at the lower-intermediate level and above. The creator, Max, aims to give learners a way to listen to interesting content that they can understand through comprehensible input. He does this through clear enunciation, speaking slowly, and giving lots of examples and synonyms.

There are also transcripts available to those interested in supporting Max with a subscription. The episodes cover a lot of interesting topics — minimalism, traveling in Russia without money, and the dark side of Russian literature, to name a few. In addition to the podcast, the website boasts other materials, such as stories in Russian, videos, and more. Read our mini-review.

Russian Podcast

The host of this site is Tatiana Klimova, a teacher of Russian and French. She started Russian Podcast in 2009, and it has since bloomed into much more than audio files. Joining the Russian Dacha club on her website grants access to hundreds of podcast episodes with transcripts, videos, a private Facebook discussion group, and regular online meetings.

The audio lessons are available for free listening, and paying members are able to access transcripts and additional features. New podcast episodes and videos are released every five days.

Paкeтa: Simple Russia

This podcast could be a good way for intermediate learners to test themselves with material that’s entirely in Russian. In the short episodes, the host narrates a monologue on specific topics like fashion, pets, cars, and climate. The vocabulary isn’t complex, and there are full transcripts of each episode you can use to check your listening skills.

News in Slow Russian

News in Slow Russian is a great option if you want to immerse yourself in the Russian language at a pace that’s not quite native speed. The 500+ episodes come in three different levels and are categorized by topic; you can focus on stories about people, animals, nature, science, technology, and more.

There are only three episodes available for free — one at each level — and a paid subscription grants access to the entire catalog, including transcripts and translations.

Very Much Russian.

This podcast stands apart because it sets out to teach Russian as it’s actually spoken – with slang, jokes, idiomatic expressions, and other things you may not learn in a traditional classroom setting. You’ll also learn about food and drink, politics, and phrases that you won’t find in standard textbooks.

Intended for learners at an intermediate level and above, you can enjoy free transcripts and translations for each episode on their website. You can also donate via PayPal to download the audio files and accompanying materials..

Russian Verbs from Russia

This all-Russian podcast has a clear focus — verbs. Each episode focuses on one or more verbs and provides information on how to use them appropriately. This is for intermediate learners that are ready for content 100% in Russian.

Episodes come with lists of key words, and transcripts are available to Patreon contributors. The Russian from Russia website also includes reading and grammar practice materials along with videos and discussion topics.

A Beginner Course of Spoken Russian

A Beginner Course of Spoken Russian is a podcast series made by LingQ, a language-learning platform with a variety of course material. Although there are only 14 episodes — and despite the course name — the series serves as a quality source of intermediate practice since it’s spoken entirely in Russian.

In each episode, you’ll hear a dialogue spoken by two different speakers as well as a mini-story that includes several listening comprehension questions. The hosts recommend you speak the answer aloud in order to practice your pronunciation.

Business Russian Podcast

The Business Russian Podcast is produced by UCLA and is intended for students who plan to work in a Russian-language business or industry. These podcasts are primarily in Russian and will be too advanced for learners at lower levels, but they do come with PDF transcripts to help you follow along.

The audio episodes cover cultural elements of business in Russia as well as company structures, corporate finance, and taxes. It probably won’t make much sense to use this podcast if you plan to visit Russia as a tourist, but if you’re planning to conduct business meetings or consult a Russian tax professional, this is an invaluable resource.

A Taste of Russian

With hundreds of Russian-language episodes, A Taste of Russian is an ideal podcast for intermediate learners. These episodes focus on displaying Russian as it’s actually spoken, meaning plenty of slang and casual discussion.

A paying subscription is required for access to all of the audio content, but an entire free episode is released each month, and there are more than 50 free episodes to choose from.

Зелёная лампа

The Green Lamp is a literary podcast created for children. Led by literature teacher Vladimir Natanovich Shatsev and his team of sound engineers and voice actors, the podcast features high-quality narrations of literature in Russian.

After a short introduction from Vladimir, each episode follows with actor-led narration and finishes with some follow-up questions. Though the podcast was created with children in mind, it could prove a suitable practice method for upper-intermediate learners.
 

Russian Podcasts for Advanced Learners.

SBS Русский

SBS is an Australian public service broadcaster that operates a number of multilingual radio programs. The Russian iteration of this service includes frequently posted audio news stories with a focus on events related to Australia and Russia.

New episodes are uploaded daily, and there’s a massive catalog of previously released episodes to choose from.

In Russian Terms

In Russian Terms is a podcast meant for advanced learners that deals primarily with socio-political and cultural issues related to current events. You’ll learn about Americans in Russia, Russians in America, and topics related to the other post-Soviet states.

Host Elena Bilbo explores Russian attitudes toward work, money, popular movie characters, and other interesting subjects. You’ll get to hear authentic Russian as intended for upper-intermediate and advanced learners. There are 54 episodes, the last of which was uploaded at the end of 2017.

Arzamas

Radio Arzamas is a Russian-language podcast that employs experts to explore history and culture, and it’s available directly on the website or on major streaming platforms.

Each episode features a Russian expert reading a 15-25 minute lecture on themes like theater during the Renaissance and sexuality in ancient Greece and Rome. This wide-ranging podcast will prepare you to debate in Russian on matters of culture and philosophy.

ПостНауки

This is a popular science podcast that explores a variety of topics.Are you interested in neurotransmitters or nuclear energy? How about color blindness or dreams? For the ever-curious learner of Russian, this podcast delivers.

Some of the episodes include videos that you can watch on the site, and episodes are also available for download from iTunes.

TACC

History buffs, this one’s for you. Episodes of the TACC podcast explore a wide range of topics, many of which are related to world history. Advanced learners will get opportunities to practice the pronunciation of names of places in Russian, learn about geopolitics from a Russian perspective, and get exposure to specialized vocabulary related to the arts, science, and culture, among other topics.

100 Most Popular Russian Podcasts

This list of Russian-language podcasts is curated by podcast site podtail. It uses its own data in combination with that from Apple to maintain an up-to-date list of the most popular Russian podcasts. If you’re at an advanced level and looking for more native-level material, this list has you covered.
 

In Closing

This list of podcasts isn’t exhaustive — there are plenty more out there, but to include every one of them wouldn’t be much help. Instead, we’ve focused on those we believe are of high quality and could provide some effective study time. Happy listening.

If you’re interested in learning Russian and are one of the over 2 billion users that access YouTube every month, you’re already familiar with an incredibly potent language-learning tool.

YouTube is full of language teachers and Russian speakers creating content for free consumption. Videos can be a particularly effective way to get Russian practice because they are engaging, provide visual connections to the language, and can facilitate both listening and reading practice.

Many YouTube videos also take advantage of multilingual subtitles, which can help learners interact with Russian content that may be slightly above their level.

Whether you’re an absolute beginner who’s ready to jump into Russian or a more advanced learner looking for quality practice, we’ve got you covered — we’ve scoured the internet to find quality YouTube channels for Russian learners at every level. Use the list below to get started with your new favorite channel.

Multiple Levels

Real Russian Club

The Real Russian Club YouTube channel is the creation of Daria, a certified Russian language teacher from Moscow.

The videos on her channel cover a wide variety of topics; there are specific lessons on things like How to Respond to Apologies in Russian and 5 Russian Phrases to Say Something Is Easy, as well as playlists for shadowing, weekly reading, easy Russian, and even Russian dialogues with her four-year-old son, Roman.

All of the videos on this channel come with English subtitles, and Daria occasionally speaks in English, especially in her beginner course. The Real Russian Club Youtube channel has been around for several years, so there’s plenty of content to keep you busy.

Be Fluent in Russian

The host of this YouTube channel is Fedor, whose friendly and entertaining demeanor will likely appeal to many. There are videos that will appeal to learners at just about any level here.

Fedor does use quite a bit of English to explain the more complicated aspects of Russian that beginners may struggle with, but you’ll also be able to find videos that are completely in Russian. Videos highlighting different cultural aspects of life in Russia round out the channel nicely.

There’s also a BeFluent Russian course that may appeal to learners looking for a more structured way to study. Here’s our mini review.

Easy Russian

Part of the Easy Languages project, Easy Russian primarily features videos of interviews with people on the street. These interactions happen entirely in Russian and are a great way to get exposure to Russian as people actually speak it.

In addition to these street interviews, you’ll find videos that explicitly tackle language concepts like modal verbs, filler words, and prepositions.

While there are bilingual subtitles for all videos, this channel is probably most useful for learners at the intermediate level and beyond that are interested in hearing lots of natural Russian dialogue.

Boost Your Russian

Boost Your Russian is more than just a YouTube channel. Its website also boasts courses, graded readers, and free Russian texts with translations and narrations.

The YouTube channel is full of useful videos for learners at a variety of levels. Unless you’re an absolute beginner, you should be able to find some videos that are suitable. One unique type of video featured on this channel breaks down speeches or clips from movies with scaffolding to facilitate understanding.

The sheer variety of video types on this channel make it worth checking out for just about any learner.

Hack Your Russian

There aren’t quite as many videos to choose from here as there are with some of the other channels on this list, but beginner and intermediate-level learners should be able to find some quality study material.

Beginners will find valuable practice with letters, pronunciation or false friends, and intermediate learners will find podcast episodes as well as discussions on Russian holidays. While the material here spans multiple levels, beginners and lower-intermediate learners will get the most out of this channel.

RU-Land Club

Russian teacher Ninka Minchenko has been posting new videos to this channel for more than five years, so there are plenty to choose from. There’s a mix of English and Russian used in the videos, but the majority seem to be entirely in Russian. Many of these Russian-only videos contain Russian subtitles, but you’ll sometimes need to rely on YouTube’s auto-translate feature to see the English version.

Beginners could make use of the English-language explanations of grammar concepts, and more advanced learners could benefit from watching Ninka and her friend talk about topics like common Russian superstitions in Russian.

Russian with Nastya

Nastya’s YouTube channel is frequently updated with new content in a variety of subjects. Most of the material seems to be best-suited for learners at an upper-beginner to lower-intermediate level, though there are videos created specifically for every level from A1 to C1.

Nastya has a calm teaching style that could be a great fit for some, and she has interesting videos such as multiple-choice quizzes, lessons on conversational phrases, and videos focused on specific grammatical cases.

Beginner

Rush Into Russian

This educational Russian YouTube channel is the brainchild of Kris Amerikos, an American who lived in Russia for many years and became fluent in the language. Along with native speaker Olya, the two host videos that both focus on explicit aspects of the Russian language as well as cultural differences between Russia and the USA.

Special playlists on this channel include those titled Russian Slang, Russian Grammar, and Everyday Russian Every Day, the last of which is the largest playlist on the channel with more than 150 videos.

Antonia Romaker — Learn English and Russian Online

This channel is unique in that it teaches both English and Russian. It’s very easy to ignore the English lessons and focus on Russian, so it makes a quality resource for learners of either language.

The Russian With Passion playlist on Antonia’s channel starts with the basics and now includes nearly 200 lessons, as it’s been in production since 2013.

This isn’t the right channel if you’re looking for a bunch of Russian immersion, as most of the videos contain a fair amount of English, but there’s a lot of content here that could otherwise be worth looking through.

Weekly Russian

The videos on the Weekly Russian YouTube channel may not be the most visually engaging — they mostly display bits of text with accompanying audio narration — but beginners interested in no-nonsense lessons may find what they’re looking for.

Don’t be fooled by the ambitious title: the most recent videos are several years old. Still, if you’re looking for straightforward practice on specific, beginner-oriented subjects, you may be able to get a solid start here.

Learn Russian Language

This is probably the channel with the most personality on our list, mostly thanks to eccentric host Natasha. She sings, acts, and generally seems to have fun with everything she does.
There are plenty of videos on this channel, going back quite a few years, and new videos are still uploaded semi-regularly.

Learners just past the absolute beginner phase could benefit from the beginner course on this channel, and lower-intermediate learners could get some good input from the Russian-language cartoons. There are also interesting playlists like Russian Folk Songs and Orthodox Prayers.

Natasha is quite insistent on speaking only Russian in her videos, but most of them include Russian and/or English subtitles.

How to Speak with Irina

Irina has videos teaching a variety of languages on her channel, but the bulk of the content teaches Russian, her native language. Irina is a high-energy teacher who gives frequent encouragement to her viewers. She also uses a fair amount of English to explain concepts.

There are other channels with more content, but absolute beginners will be able to build a foundation in Russian with the clearly structured Learn Russian with Irina course on this channel.

Intermediate

R for Russian

The host of this YouTube channel has been putting out instructional Russian videos for several years, the majority of which focus on different elements of Russian grammar. Her channel is a quality place to find explanations in a mix of Russian and English, most of which come with subtitles and translations.

In addition to grammar practice, there are videos here that teach learners through music and focus on useful everyday phrases. This channel is likely most useful for learners at the beginner and intermediate levels.

Russian Grammar

If you’re interested in getting some hyper-focused grammar practice, this channel delivers. There are plenty of videos here, each focusing on a specific verb tense, word, group of words, or other aspect of Russian grammar.

Videos are narrated in English and make use of text and graphics to help support visual learners. You won’t find much in the way of entertaining content here, but for focused grammar instruction, this is the place.

Russian From Russia

With clearly narrated listening exercises, folk tales, and lessons on grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, Russian From Russia provides tons of quality material for intermediate learners. Videos are in Russian with Russian subtitles, but you won’t get much in the way of English translations.

This channel could make a good option for intermediate learners looking for a mix of language lessons and exposure to Russian at an appropriate level.

Russian With Max

It’s hard not to like Max. He’s good-natured, enthusiastic about helping people learn Russian, and has a sense of humor. His videos are varied, and they take place entirely in Russian, with a few exceptions.

If you’re interested in listening practice that’s appropriate for your level, learning a bit about life in Russia, or want some focused videos on specific Russian language points, this channel is worth checking out. Keep in mind that the majority of the content will be too advanced for beginners, though all videos do have subtitles. Read our mini review.

Mary Z Russian

Mary Z creates videos aimed at intermediate learners of Russian, and her YouTube channel boasts an extensive library. You’ll find videos for practice with specific types of vocabulary, live streams, music in Russian, and even listen to her tell scary stories ASMR-style.

Mary is energetic and creates videos that are entertaining and engaging. For intermediate learners who don’t mind a bit of English in videos, this channel has a lot of potential.

Elena Jung

Elena’s YouTube channel is squarely focused on helping learners of Russian make progress with the language. In addition to lessons where she explicitly goes through Russian language points, she’s also released a number of videos dealing with the motivational aspects of learning a language, many of which were done as live streams.

Elena is an engaging teacher that speaks with enthusiasm and whose instructions are clear. Beginners will benefit from the motivational videos that tend to use a lot of English but may struggle with the many that are entirely in Russian without English subtitles. Intermediate learners should be able to interact with most, if not all, of the videos here.

Advanced

Ари говорит по-Русски

This channel is entirely in Russian and was created by Arie, a Dutchman who’s become fluent in the language. His videos reflect on his journey learning Russian and could be useful for learners interested in relating to someone else’s experience.

Other videos deal with cultural differences between Russia and the Netherlands as well as current events and some travel videos. The content here is 100% in Russian, and there are no subtitles or translations.

Mosfilm

Mosfilm is Russia’s largest film company, and their YouTube channel is full of entire movies that are free to view. Most of the movies are quite old — some are in black and white — but it’s a treasure trove for anyone interested in getting lots of exposure to Russian through classic films. Many of the films also have English subtitles.

наука

This Russian-only program is a goldmine for science-minded Russian speakers. You’ll need quite an advanced level of Russian to follow along with this content, as you’ll only get auto-generated subtitles, but the production value is high and the subjects are interesting.

Videos are roughly 30-minutes long and cover a broad range of science-related topics like quantum chemistry, railroads, the human brain, and space.

AdamThomasMoran

This channel contains content from +100500, a weekly entertainment program put on by host Maxim Golopolosov. The material is produced for native Russian speakers, so you’ll need an advanced level of Russian to keep up, but the material is engaging and meant to entertain. This could be a fun way to get lots of input.

The program has been active since 2010 and contains quite a lot of content, most of which is reactions to other videos. It’s worth noting that the sense of humor on this channel won’t appeal to everyone, especially those that prefer videos of a more serious nature.

RUTUBE

All right, this isn’t exactly a YouTube channel, but RUTUBE is widely considered to be the “YouTube of Russia.” If you’re an advanced learner, why not search for whatever interests you on a site that caters specifically to Russian speakers?

The videos are in Russian, the interface is in Russian — it’s a great way to immerse yourself in the language and culture.

In Closing

While there are an impressive number of YouTube channels for learning Russian, it isn’t the only way to learn. If you’re interested in alternative study methods, check out our posts on the best Russian podcasts, online courses, and apps.

Russian language learners, rejoice — there are scores of great learning resources available to you. In fact, you’re more likely to be paralyzed by the number of good options out there than to struggle to find something that suits your needs.

It’s important to remember in your search that the most popular language resources aren’t always the best; a superb marketing strategy doesn’t necessarily equal outstanding quality.

In this post, we’ll focus on apps that aim to help learners with Russian. We’ve tried a ton of them and have sorted them by what they do best, but it’s by no means an exhaustive list. It should, however, narrow the field enough to help you find some great tools.

Russian Courses as Apps

Best Lesson Structure: Babbel

Best for Practicing Oral Communication: Pimsleur

Best Interactive Course: Lingodeer

Apps for Learning Vocabulary

Best for Fun, Engaging Practice: Memrise

Best for Customizable Practice: Anki

Best for Learning Words in Context: Lingvist

Best Free Way to Learn Words in Context: Clozemaster

Best Offline Dictionary Apps: ABBYY Lingvo and Linguee

Apps for Reading and Listening Practice

Best Lessons in the Style of a Podcast: RussianPod101

Best for Interesting Reading Content: LingQ and Readlang

Best Free Reading Content: Manga Method

Best for Side-by-Side Reading Practice: Beelinguapp

Apps for Speaking and Writing Practice

Best for Feedback on Pronunciation: Speechling

Best for Feedback on Writing: italki

Best Q&A App: HiNative

Best for Learning Russian Cyrillic: Cyrillic (Russian Language)

Apps for Tutors and Language Exchange

Best Language Exchange Apps: Tandem and HelloTalk

Best for Finding a Tutor: italki

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