Learn Russian
Русский · 260+ million speakers
About Russian
Russian (русский язык) is an East Slavic language written in Cyrillic, the script adapted from Greek by missionaries in the 9th century. Its six cases and rich verbal aspect give it remarkable expressive precision — and a literary tradition that needs no introduction.
Where it's spoken
Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russian-speaking communities in the Baltics and Eastern Europe
Interesting facts
- 1Russian has six grammatical cases and two verbal aspects (perfective and imperfective)
- 2The Cyrillic alphabet was adapted from Greek by Saints Cyril and Methodius
- 3Russian space exploration, sciences and mathematics produced a vast technical vocabulary
Why learn Russian?
Three reasons to make Russian your next language.
Read Dostoevsky in the original
Russian literature loses something in translation — Tolstoy, Bulgakov and Akhmatova reward the patient.
Engineering and sciences
Russian is one of the world's great languages of mathematics, physics and aerospace.
Gateway to Slavic
With Russian under your belt, Ukrainian, Polish and Czech become much more approachable.
Your learning path
The Languages Center Russian course follows the CEFR scale, from A1 (beginner) to C1 (advanced).
Beginner
8 sections · 32 lessons
Elementary
8 sections · 32 lessons
Intermediate
7 sections · 28 lessons
Upper-Intermediate
7 sections · 28 lessons
Advanced
5 sections · 20 lessons
Read short articles
Short reads in Russian at every level — with full English translations side by side. Great for building reading confidence at your pace.
Podcasts
PremiumNative-speaker audio at every level. Listen anywhere.
Podcasts coming soon.
Videos
PremiumAnimated lessons, real-life scenes and documentary clips.
Videos coming soon.
Related languages
If Russian interests you, you might also enjoy these.
