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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.