renatailitsky Last updated: August 9, 2022

Learn to Type in Russian Like a Native: 6 Handy Practice Sites

Fluency is in the details.

But one that many people forget to focus on is typing in Russian.

This underrated skill is surprisingly important for Russian fluency. You need it to text and chat with your Russian friends or if you ever hope to study or work in Russia.

We will show you our six favorite Russian typing practice sites, with everything from Russian typing races to typing your way through the news in Russian.

Prepping Your Keyboard
Tracking Your Typing Progress: 10FastFingers
Personalized Typing Lessons: Keybr
Gamified Typing Practice: Klavogonki
Typing Practice for the Computer Challenged: Stamina
Typing Certificates for Your Resume: Vse10
Typing the World’s News: Sense-Lang

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Prepping Your Keyboard

You will need the ability to type Cyrillic characters on your computer for most of the typing practice sites listed in this article. Most operating systems allow you to choose a language (here are instructions for Mac and Windows).

In order to know which keys correspond to Russian letters, you can purchase a Russian keyword or simply tape cutouts of Russian letters to each key (the bootleg version!).

Tracking Your Typing Progress: 10FastFingers

Before you set out to improve your Russian typing, it is important to know how much you need to improve. 10FastFingers is a helpful online tool to evaluate how fast you can type in Russian currently and then set measurable goals to help you bring up your speed and accuracy.

The site offers typing tests in multiple languages, so set the language to Russian using the green dropdown menu on the upper left side of the text box.

This site presents a series of random words, which you have one minute to type out. After you are done, the test will generate your typing score per minute.

When you are ready, you can choose an advanced typing test of over 1,000 words or even enter into typing competitions with other players in order to improve your speed and accuracy! Find these and other fun features on the left side of the screen.

Personalized Typing Lessons: Keybr

This website provides easy online lessons to help you learn to type in Russian. This site aims to stop people from using the “hunt-and-peck” typing style of searching for each individual letter, and instead use touch typing by engaging muscle memory (i.e. instinctively remembering the location of letters, akin to memorizing keys when learning to play the piano).

Click on Settings, then Keyboard Layout and change the language and layout to Russian. The Settings area also allows you to customize your learning experience by utilizing guided lessons, importing text from a different website or uploading your own custom text.

Keybr claims that it offers a competitive advantage over similar sites because it uses a special algorithm to adjust the tutorials to your individual competency levels. The site collects detailed statistics about how fast and accurately you type each letter and will provide increased opportunities to practice the letters that come hardest to you.

Gamified Typing Practice: Klavogonki

This and some of the sites below are completely in Russian, which is perfect for an immersive experience that intermediate and advanced learners may be looking for.

Roughly translated as “the race to computer keys,” Klavogonki aims to increase your speed as you type in Russian.

The reason we recommend this as a tool to practice your Russian typing is that aside from learning, you will have fun! The exercises on this site are all designed as games, making sure you never get bored and motivating you as you compete against other users.

Each game is designed as a race where you compete to be the fastest to move your car to the finish line. The winner is the person who types all of the text correctly the fastest. When you make a mistake, your car will stall until you correct it. At the end of each game, the site shows the typing speed of each player.

Players accumulate points as they progress and are able to upgrade the basic car that everyone gets at the beginning for other models.

One of the coolest features about Klavogonki is that some of the material includes parts of Russian books, so you can get acquainted with Russian literature while playing and learning to type in Russian.

Typing Practice for the Computer Challenged: Stamina

Another fully Russian site, Stamina targets “grandparents as well as their parents!” In other words, people who might not be all that tech-savvy but still need to learn how to type. They encourage users to learn to type so they can write their memoir, before it is too late!

Even if you do not have any grandchildren yet, do not dismiss this site as a helpful aid for increasing your typing efficiency in Russian. The keyboard simulator and lessons help you memorize the location of the keys to use your fingers to type blindly (another perk for the elderly!)

In reviews, users have praised its easy-to-use interface and the ability to type from the preselected texts on the site or upload your own text. While some of the other sites offer those features, Stamina takes it a step further by allowing users to dictate the content they want to practice typing. This can be a big advantage in order to prepare for a Russian test or simply practice typing specific vocabulary.

Plus, the site provides graphs with statistics about your progress, helping you keep track as you take lessons and practice what you have learned.

Typing Certificates for Your Resume: Vse10

Vse10 means “All10,” as in, all 10 fingers required in order to type.

If you are looking for a job and one of the requirements is a certain typing speed, Vse10 can provide you with the necessary certification. Each certificate has a rating:

Silver for over 200 characters per minute with 15 errors or less
Gold for over 250 characters per minute with five errors or less
Platinum for 350 characters per minute with two errors or less

The site does not constrict you to a single test—you can take it as many times as you need to if you are not happy with your score.

Plus, Vse10 will help you with that goal, offering lessons and tips on becoming a better Russian typer. Another perk from this site is that all lessons can be completed with a virtual keyboard in the browser.

Typing the World’s News: Sense-Lang

Sense-Lang gives you a double-whammy: typing practice plus catching up on current events in Russian.

On this site, you do not type random word arrangements or snippets from books, but actual headlines from the Google News feed. Choose this option from the left sidebar. Not only does this boost your cultural knowledge and Russian reading comprehension, but it also helps hold your attention throughout the typing drills.

How does this site work otherwise? It lets you start with the basics, practicing a few letters at a time. You type the text, and when you get it wrong, the screen will play a sound and will show you the correct location of the letter on the keyboard.

The six hand-picked resources in this article will help you learn your current typing speed, utilize online lessons to improve, practice, play games and race against others to get your competitive juices flowing!

And if these aren’t enough for you, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to practice typing in Russian online. For instance, FluentU has adaptive quizzes that include chances to type out vocabulary words that you’ve saved.

These quizzes even integrate videos, showing you clips where the word is used. You can see many more authentic videos for learning and context on FluentU, from movie clips and music videos to news segments and inspirational talks. Use the interactive subtitles on these to save more words to study and repeat the learning cycle.

Typing tutorials help you improve your speed, so you can learn to type any document, email, essay or novel in no time!

Renata Ilitsky is a professional content writer with over 10 years of experience. She specializes in creating unique and engaging content for any industry. To read some of Renata’s other work, please view her writing portfolio.