7 Famous Russian Bloggers Today’s Learners Will Love
There are some outstanding online resources for learning Russian.
Russian learning blogs will help clarify grammar rules, but when you need to practice your Russian reading skills or acquire new vocabulary, real Russian bloggers provide awesome content to help you along the way.
Russian blogs offer a wide array of material on diverse topics.
But regardless of the subject matter, Russian bloggers can definitely help improve your Russian skills, so check out these seven popular Russian bloggers!
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Why Read Russian Blogs?
First, Russian blogs are entertaining. With blogs, you can read about your interests, and that will motivate you to keep coming back. If you keep coming back, you’ll learn more and more, so it’s a win-win for both your entertainment and Russian skills.
Additionally, Russian blogs offer topical, thematic vocabulary. If you’re looking to learn new vocabulary sets, just select your favorite blog related to the topic. For instance, if you want to learn more food terms, try a cooking blog! Read what you can, and when you find an unfamiliar word, look it up online. You can even put together your own vocabulary lists of words you’ve encountered to study more.
Finally, Russian blogs offer a lot of material and are usually updated often, so there’s always a new learning tool at the tips of your fingers. Having this constant access to new material ensures that you never get tired of reading the same old stuff every day.
Some Russian bloggers also have YouTube channels where they upload vlogs and other videos. These can be a great way to practice your listening skills.
If you have trouble watching these because the speech is too fast or the words are new, finding videos with captions can be helpful. Besides YouTube (which doesn’t always have accurate subtitles), one program that specializes in providing authentic Russian videos like vlogs with interactive captions is FluentU. You can also save any new words that you find while watching to your personalized flashcards.
Alright, let’s check out these bloggers!
7 Inspiring Russian Bloggers Who Will Up Your Russian Game
1. Rustem Adagamov of Журнал Другого
Perhaps it’s related to the prevalence of state-run media in Russia, but opposition blogs have enjoyed some popularity in the country.
Rustem Adagamov is a prominent Russian blogger. While he’s a member of the opposition, his blog, Журнал Другого (Magazine of the Other), mostly covers general news stories these days.
Unlike other blogs on this list, Журнал Другого is actually not routinely updated anymore, but this will make it less overwhelming for anyone who just wants to peruse archives. It’s also a good source for general vocabulary and reading practice. For instance, you might try reading this post about specialty clothing for people with disabilities.
2. Alexei Navalny
Another political blogger, Alexei Navalny is a prominent anti-corruption campaigner and Putin critic. Since his blog started in 2008, he has become very well-known.
While Navalny has been arrested from time to time, his blog is still updated quite frequently, so you won’t have to wait long for new reading material.
For Russian students, this is a helpful resource to learn more about the political debate occurring in Russia while picking up valuable vocabulary related to Russian politics.
For instance, you might try reading this post on items confiscated from Navalny. This article is particularly helpful for students of the Russian language since it contains images of hand-written forms. Since Russian handwriting is quite different from printed Russian, this is a great way to practice the underused skill of reading handwritten Russian.
3. Ilya Birman
Ilya Birman is a designer, but his blog covers more than just design. Posts also cover his travels and general musings in addition to detailed information on technology.
While his posts on technology and design are useful tools to pick up specific vocabulary related to these areas, his posts on his travels and general discussion are a great way to practice general vocabulary and improve your reading skills.
Plus, Ilya Birman also offers an English-language blog. While the English-language blog isn’t updated nearly as often as the Russian-language blog, they do share some of the same posts. Beginning and intermediate students can compare texts to make the posts easier to follow.
Simply open the article in Russian and its English equivalent side by side. Try to read in Russian, but if you stumble, just look to the English article. For instance, you might compare this Russian-language post on Kiev to its English equivalent. This post has a lot of photos, so it’s a good way for beginning and intermediate Russian students to transition towards reading more text-heavy blog posts.
4. Vita Kovaleva of La Vita Mia
If you like fashion, you’ll want to check out La Vita Mia. The blog is run by Vita Kovaleva, who describes her look as “neo-retro.” Whatever you call it, it’s cool.
Her posts focus predominantly on clothing. This includes her own outfits as well as roundups of items like maxi dresses.
This is an approachable blog for Russian learners because it’s very photo-intensive, which will help you use context clues to figure out the meanings of unfamiliar words. Additionally, many of the headings are in English, and can help guide you along. It’s updated often, so you have a virtually endless supply of learning tools.
There’s also a lot of great Russian vocabulary for Russian students. You can pick up clothing-related vocabulary and practice color words. Additionally, since there are abundant photos, you can connect these words to a related image rather than needing to translate in your head. Being able to connect a word to its meaning without the need to translate is an important step towards fluency. For instance, you might try reading this post where she describes her outfit of a tweed skirt and check coat.
5. The Bloggers at Beauty Insider
Beauty Insider is a blog dedicated primarily to beauty reviews. These include makeup, hair care, skin care and perfume.
However, there’s even more material than that! Beauty Insider’s “fitness” section will also give you advice on living a healthier lifestyle.
Because of its array of topics, Beauty Insider will provide you with lots of helpful terms related to beauty products and fitness. Plus, you might learn a few tips and tricks along the way! For instance, you might try reading this review of fancy brand Clé de Peau Beauté’s spring/summer collection. You’ll learn some makeup terms and also some very specific color words.
6. Andrei Rudkov of Andy Chef
Andy Chef’s blog is run by Andrei Rudkov. The blog focuses on just two things: food and travel. Thankfully, those are the only two things anyone really needs, anyway.
Here, you can read blog posts about his global travels, restaurant reviews and more. This is a helpful way to pick up food-related vocabulary, which will help prepare you to dine in a Russian restaurant.
You can also learn words related to travel and global destinations. For instance, you might try this post on his trip to Tokyo to learn a lot of vocabulary related to Japan.
7. The Bloggers at Salat Shop
If you like your Russian learning with a side of healthy living, Salat Shop might be just the blog for you.
Post topics include specialty diets, yoga, healthy recipes and health benefits of different foods.
This will help teach you some food- and cooking-related terms in addition to vocabulary related to your health. Plus, if you’re really ready to test your Russian skills, you can try actually cooking from one of the recipes. This will exercise your reading skills and help you think in Russian. For instance, you might give this recipe for pumpkin pancakes a try. Who doesn’t want a healthy pancake?
The next time you’re blog hopping, check out the work of these popular Russian bloggers, and watch your skills increase with each new post!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
