December 30, 2024 • 7594 words

Russian Language and Media

Learning Russian

Why?

It's very simple. You have nothing to lose by studying languages. If I don't spend time studying languages, I would be using the time for gaming or scrolling through social media. I can just use this time to scroll Tiktok/YouTube only in Russian.

If otherwise it's "useless entertainment", then I don't need to make progress on language learning either.

The language is simply a necessary tool for interacting, for achieving the maximum cultural immersion, or to satisfy my curiosity. When I watch a Russian video, whether it's about cooking, vlog, news, figure skating, natural scenery, without understanding one word I would feel the "reward".

I also subscribed to dozens of Russian Telegram channels, for example, "ход коньком фигурное катание", "Yandex for ML", "Мариинский театр", as well as many individual influencers/athletes. I would receive updates daily to integrate it into my life.

From literature, classical music, ballet, skating performances, philosophy, math, geographic scenery, to culture, lifestyle, etc, Russian language have so much to offer.

I didn't do these things:

  1. Attend classes in Chinese/English
  2. Use textbooks in Chinese/English
  3. Study grammar in Chinese/English
  4. Use language learning apps to learn
  5. Prepare for an exam

Jumping Right in

I started familiarizing myself with Russian by spring of 2023, but we can draw a line at approximately 2023.7. I was very chill and didn't even try hard. I had zero knowledge of any Russian words. I only recognized half of Cyrillic alphabets (that have the same sounds in Latin alphabets anyway).

I instantly jumped into figure skating interviews(by searching skater's names on YouTube), news and figure skating events from 1tv.ru(listening to the background commentary while watching skating competitions), podcasts by Надежда Стрелец (I went to Vk Video and an interview with Valya Karnaval was always trending so I clicked into it) and Ляйсан Утяшева(cooking show with Kamila Valieva), natural documentaries like Туту(I searched for random places on the map on YouTube) and Kosmo(a person on HelloTalk recommended this to me), music from Russian bands like Bi-2, Pelageya, Kino, Alexandrov Ensemble(most of these randomly recommended to me) and many Russian websites. I tried watching 1tv news, and I could not understand anything, but watching the background graphics is interesting.

In a few months I listened to around 30-50 Russian songs for over many times. like "Подмосковные вечера", "Дороженка", "Катюша", "Смуглянка", "Спокойная ночь", "Кукушка", "Уральская рябинушка", music from Russian Frozen, and singers like Shaman(though he was quite controversial), Pelegeya, Vanya Dimitrenko, Bi-2, Sasha Kvashenaya. I already knew the rhythm of many of those songs, and after listening again and again, I was able to recite the sounds the song roughly despite not understanding one word until much later.

Building the Bridge

Watching figure skating was a bridge for me. I remember when every new music turned up and I would look the music up (for example, Позови меня с собой, Танцы на стёклах, Зима в сердце from exhibition, Раневская as it's a popular music for YouTube shorts skating edit, there was a Tatar song Piyala but I couldn't distinguish it from Russian back then) and listen to it again and again to recite the sounds, the follow the singer and maybe listen to other songs. By searching for skating news and gossiping in Russian I found out about Dzen. Sometimes skaters or those singers participated on the shows or interviews, and after when I clicked into the channel there are a lot of other familiar or interesting people, actors, celebrities, athletes. I knew there was a tech company called Yandex, so I searched on YouTube and turned out they have many channels. I found out that for most famous people you can search for interviews on YouTube (name+интервтю) and there would be several of them. I found out about Tiktok stars like Karnaval and Gavrilina, and they participated in СТС/СТС kids/ТНТ/HypehouseRu so I also began watching some of that, and the celebrities under each episode also participate in other shows. I searched for random city names on the map and turned out there are regional channels as well as travel channels for almost every city. I have long heard Russia is good in ballet, so I started to Google the most prominent dancers and there are a lot of interviews on YouTube. Search for any fruits/trees/birds/food and you can also find many channels, shorts, and interesting videos. And there were endless other interesting stuff.

After one year I began picking up 10-20% of words from sentences, and I began to know "the video I am watching is Russian instead of German or other languages". I practiced typing (Набор текста на русском языке), starting at 6 WPM and increased to 50 WPM.

Shame and Being Afraid?

Fear inaction, not failure. Pity being ignored, not being silly.

After 2 years of immersion, my grammar in Russian was still very broken, but I could understand 90% and type very fluently on HelloTalk or Telegram. And I actually realized it when I talked to a Chinese person learning Russian on HelloTalk who constantly lectured me about all my grammar mistakes. Then I asked him about current Russian media, music, entertainment, or traveling channels and he knew practically nothing ("I don't want another listening practice"). Among the several dozens to hundreds of native speakers I talked to on HelloTalk or Telegram nobody complained about my grammar and most people actually said "Молодец" or "Здорово".

I went through the 5000 word frequency list and I could understand around 3000. Only at this time I began to concretely notice the prefix in front of many words but I already intuitively understand them.

It is a far better idea to not use the translation for everything but attempt forming sentences on my own.

I also attempted brief calls with native speakers. There are many times (outside of language learning apps or chats on Telegram) when I would attempt a sentence on call and when I finished the other person would say "Не понимаю" noticeably impatient, and it's actually quite awkward. But that does not discourage me from trying, because it tells me there is still a huge difference between me and native speakers that I can improve. I could call hotels by looking up the number on Yandex maps and ask about the information successfully though. I also figured I need to speak slower.

But on the other hand, my "родина" will always be China, and no matter how hard I study Russian I will always be an outsider. This is fine since it's not the only culture I am exploring.

Grammar and Vocabulary

For vocabulary: I watched videos about animals, fruit, trees, body parts, clothing on channels like Маленькая Академия ТВ, Ладушки - Ладушки, Малышковая школа, etc, basically children's cartoons or early learning videos.

For grammar or other stuff I would be learning it through watching the Russian language course through the channels like "Онлайн-Школа с 1 по 11 класс", "Znaika TV", which are essentially recorded courses of Russian public education. There are many other channels like "О русском по-русски", or "РКИ для всех". I wanted to learn grammar only in the target language.

Language Learning Philosophy

It is a fact that just in 1900 most people in the world are illiterate. They learned their language from family members and community. People back then couldn't read, didn't learn grammar, didn't have Internet, but they are perfectly good and fluent in their native language.

Illiterate people would completely fail in today's Reading, Writing, Grammar parts. Let's go back in time and tell native speakers they are very bad in their native language!

I am not studying for tests or utility, since I am native in Chinese and already very fluent in English and that Chinese and English already works.

It is surprising how much time you can mobilize with TikTok/YouTube. There's a common perception that scrolling social media is harmful or lazy to some extent. The thing is, nothing is wasteful for language learners(if the video is mostly talking). Exactly the brainrot materials(if it's in Chinese/English it would actually be brainrot) would strengthen the memory and engage you for long hours.

Yes, it can get too late. "It's never too late" is an absurd claim. You grow old, it becomes harder, you have a family life, you succeed in work, you are NOT going to want to learn languages.

What Define Languages?

Language is collectively defined by the people who speak it. No dialects or accents are "right" or "wrong. Language is not defined by a group of so called experts with strict rules limiting how to use it.

Language shouldn't and would never by dictated by dictionaries or study guides, just like natural scenaries wouldn't be defined by what is said in the travel books or by tour guides. When you on a trip, you go around and look yourself instead of listening and believing whatever your tour guide is telling you.

In my opinion, every articulate native speakers are experts. They operate well above the line of true fluency.

Curiosity and Simple Interests

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.

Curiosity and simple interests creates a deep commitment, not complicated analysis. Learning languages isn't like "Which Stock Market to invest in", more like "We are at the airport and we can board any plane departing in 2 hours for a trip, which one to take?".

Platforms

Main Tech Companies

  • Yandex is a search engine, it also offers Yandex Browser, Yandex Disk, Yandex Map, Yandex Taxi, Yandex Mail, Yandex Zen(sold to Mail.ru), Yandex Market, Yandex Alice(LLM), etc. Former CEO Arkady Volozh left in 2022 to create Nebius AI in Netherlands.
  • VK is the largest Russian social network. VK was known as Mail.ru Group, and it owns Mail.ru and Odnoklassniki. There are many other services including VK Music, VK Group, VK Messenger. Vk Video is a large Russian general video website.
  • Telegram is hugely popular mainly in Russia for communication and media. Many athletes and companies have the main channel on Telegram. Telegram started in Russia but moved to Dubai.

Note: Instagram(blocked as extremist), Tiktok(not able to create videos), YouTube(slowed/blocked) have faced some problems in Russia since 2022 but it seems easy to bypass and there are still decent amount of Russian users/content.

Shorts/Clips

Blogging

  • Dzen is a blog platform. There are major news channels and other contents from individual creators.
  • Livejournal is another Russian-owned social networking service for blogging.
  • Habr is a website for tech blogs, for example: Selectel, Timeweb Cloud.
  • VC is a micro-blogging website mainly about tech.

Forum/Discussion

  • Borda is a text-heavy forum platform with many subforums.
  • Pikabu is like Reddit. It has many communities, for example, figure skating forum.
  • RuBoard is an online forum primarily on technology.
  • Kinopoisk is Russian movie review website.
  • 4PDA is a large forum about technology and smartphone apps.
  • RuTracker is one of the largest torrent websites.

Other Platforms

  • Ozon and Wildberries are major online marketplaces.
  • Gigachat is a Russian LLM developed by Sberbank.
  • Livelib is a popular reading platform featuring reviews of popular books.
  • Zvuk , zaycev are Russian music and podcast websites.
  • Rutube is a smaller video tube with many news and broadcasting channels.
  • Yoomoney is a platform for virtual payment or money transfer.

Interview Channels

  • Надежда Стрелец is a famous interviewer, featuring very popular entrepreneurs, athletes, actors and singers. The interviews are usually very long.
  • Ляйсан Утяшева is a former rhythmic gymnast, married to TV show host Pavel Volya. Her show is usually done in a light-hearted manner through cooking, where they make a dish together.
  • Fametime TV is very interesting interview channel mainly about actors and entertainment industry.
  • Алла Шишкина is a 3-time Olympic gold in synchronized swimming, and her channel features interviews with other athletes and singers
  • Evgenia Medvedeva is a really popular former figure skater and hosts interviews with figure skaters and entertainment industry.
  • ПРОГОВОРИ is a interview channel about young actors and influencers.
  • Vmeste is a channel featuring younger influencers in monologue talking about their journey.
  • А поговорить is a channel hosted by Irina Shikhman mainly about society and various popular figures.
  • Regina Todorenko is a channel hosted by Ukrainian-Russian singer and host Regina Todorenko, featuring celebrity interviews.
  • Tell Gordeeva is a channel hosted by Katerina Gordeeva with controversial figures mainly about society.
  • вДудь is a very popular channel run by Yury Dud, very energetic, featuring documenataries around Russia and about many different countries, and interviews with very controversial figures in Russia. Dud left Russia in 2022.

Education Resources

University

Russian's college exam is "ЕГЭ"(Unified State Exam).

Channels from Some Professors

There are many channels from separate professors, for example

Dev/Cloud

  • Yandex for ML: A channel with medium-length presentations, including Yagpt(Yandex Alisa).
  • Yandex for Frontend: A channel about frontend development, including Gravity UI(frontend framework developed by Yandex).
  • DDoS-GUARD: DDOS protection similar to Cloudflare, and sometimes used for controversial right-wing websites.
  • Yandex Cloud, Vk Cloud, Selectel, Timeweb Cloud, etc. Selectel and Timeweb are from SPB. AWS/GCP/Azure do not have any regions in Russia, nor do Chinese cloud companies like Alibaba or Tencent Cloud. Pricing is around the same with rubles, and Russian cloud providers generally offer more CPU utilization options (so like even 5%, 10%).

Figure Skating

  • 1tv Skate for watching figure skating competition in Russia including Grand Prix series, 1tv cup, and Russian Nationals.
  • Eteri Tutberidze School: Top figure skating school in the world, coached mainly by Eteri Tutberidze where women's singles nearly dominated the podium in Olympics and major competitions from 2014 to 2022 (before the ban) and won every Russian Nationals.
  • Angels of Plushenko: Plushenko's figure skating school, also performing shows. Plushenko is former male skater and Olympic Gold, one of the most well known male figure skaters.
  • Navka Show: One of the main figure skating show where top figure skaters would participate. Navka is a former competitive ice dancer and Olympic Gold.
  • MainStreamFS is a figure skating channel featuring children or regional figure skating competition.
  • Random FS Videos upload very high-quality figure skating videos in fancam.
  • Фигурка is a relaxing channel commenting and sometimes hosting talks with figure skaters.
  • F/FS is a channel that post figure skating performances, sometimes in 4k.
  • Ледниковый период: Figure skating show on 1tv, featuring celebrities and famous athletes.

Rhythmic Gymnastics

  • Match TV for watching Rhythmic Gymnastics (need Russian proxy), including documentary and competitions.
  • Irina Viner Center: Top Rhythmic Gymnastics school in the world, Irina Viner's Novogorsk Training Center, producing Olympic Golds in almost every Olympics except for 2021. Irina Viner is married to oligarch and billionaire Usmanov.
  • Skygrace: Alina Kabaeva rhythmic gymnastics academy in Sochi. They also have a Vk channel. It's relatively recently opened and have huge potential.
  • VFRG: Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation
  • RGYMRUSSIA is a channel for Russian rhythmic gymnastics performances.
  • RG Center features almost every popular Russian rhythmic gymnast. Episodes are long and offers in-depth view about the journey and rhythmic gymnastics culture of Russia.
  • RG4u is a comprehensive forum and news platform about rhythmic gymnastics.
  • Lena Krupina provides news and comments about Rhythmic Gymnastics.

Ballet

"Щелкунчик" and "Лебединое озеро" are highly popular in Russia.

Singers

Classic/Traditional Russian Singers

  • Pelageya: Pelageya's songs are very emotionally deep, including some folk songs such as "Дороженко", "Ой, да не вечер". "Под ракитою".
  • Любэ: Popular, lasting band, known for military themed songs including "давай за", "Комбат", "Там за туманами", "За тебя, Родина-мать" and folk songs like "Ты неси меня река", "Конь", "А река течет".
  • Viktor Tsoi is a legendary rock singer of Korean ethnicity who died young, part of band Kino, leaving profound influence in the late Soviet generation, with iconic songs like "Спокойная ночь", "Кукушка", "Кончится лето", "Группа крови", "Звезда по имени Солнце"(describing SPB).
  • Red Army Choir is a choir famous for performing Russian folk songs, patriotic songs, and church music including "Катюша", "Калинка", "Подмосковные вечера".
  • Lolita Milyavskaya: known for her deep, emotional voice and dramatic performance of songs like "Марлен", "Раневская", "На Титанике".
  • Bi-2: a Belarusian-Israeli band including hits like "Молитва", "Компромисс", " Я никому не верю", "Полковнику никто не пишет" and "Варвара", with poetic and deep lyrics.
  • Alla Pugacheva: Iconic Soviet/Russian singer who gained International Recognition, known for song ""Позови меня с собой", "Миллион алых роз".
  • Maksim: very popular singer in 2000s with song "Знаешь ли ты".
  • Звери is a popular Russian rock band formed by vocalist Roman Bilyk known for energetic rock sound combined with catchy melodies and song "До скорой встречи".

Rapper/Hip Hop

Contemporary Russian Singers

  • Aigel is a Russian electronic hip-hop duo, known for song Tatarin.
  • Polina Gagarina: known for cover of "Kukushka" and very powerful voice
  • Moya Mishel: a modern group known for the song "Зима в сердце", "Ветер меняет направление", "Пташка", "Месяц".
  • Татьяна Куртукова: folk singer known for "Матушка".
  • Palina is a Belarusian singer, and covers "позови меня с собой".
  • Anna Asti is a Ukrainian-Russian singer, also in the dual "Artik & Asti," with several successful singles including "По барам","Феникс", and "Царица".
  • Sasha Spilberg is a Russian video blogger, singer, and actress. Spilberg became a teen idol in the 2010s, known for song "Всегда Буду С Тобой", "Лёд".
  • Rauf & Faik is a very popular band of brothers from Azerbajian. They have a soft and soothing voice, and repetitive lyrics, hits include "Детство", "Колыбельная", "Вечера", "Я люблю тебя", "Это ли счастье". The band is known to use repetitive lyrics, and hit very deeply emotionally.
  • Mia Boyka is a Russian singer, songwriter, and known for popular songs "Ла-ла-ла", "Химия", and "Танцы под дождем".
  • Lyusya Chebotina is a very popular singer for "Солнце Монако".
  • Monetochka is a Russian singer-songwriter and musician with distinctive indie pop music that features witty, often satirical lyrics, known for "Падать в грязь".

Born 2000+ Singers/Stars/Bloggers

  • Julia Gavrilina: Tiktoker, actress, in Hypehouse, known for song "Замело", "Жу Жу", "Только ты", "Хватит", "Забей и просто танцуй".
  • polnalyubvi (Марина Демещенко) is an indie singer known for "Кометы", "Твои глаза".
  • Valya Karnaval is one of the most popular Tiktoker in Russian, actress, and video blogger, also in HypeHouse, her songs include "Психушка", "Ромашки", "Опять домой", "Часту́шка", "Истерика".
  • Katya Adushkina is one of the most popular Russian video blogger, singer and dancer, also discussing relationship.
  • Ника Жукова is a young singer known for acting for СТС with Vanya Dmitrienko and song "Девочка-плакса"
  • Amirchik is a singer from Kyrgyzstan.
  • Yaroslava Degtyareva is a talented kid singer known for covering Kukushka and "Аист на крыше".

Born 2010+ Singers/Stars/Bloggers

The list is changing so you can go on shows like Top or other shows to see the latest most popular ones.

Note: This is not an exhaustive list. There are many many other very popular Russian singers

Entertainment

  • СТС is a popular entertainment TV show in Russia, and the YouTube channel mainly features popular TV series and reality shows. СТС love is a dating/relationship show.
  • ТНТ is a major entertainment TV show in Russia, and the YouTube channel primarily features comedy content from shows. There are also separate channels for some of the shows including Comedy Club, НОВЫЕ ТАНЦЫ Импровизация, STAND UP (male standup comedy show), Женский Стендап (female standup comedy show)
  • New Radio is a channel featuring live music and interviews with Russian pop singers.
  • МУЗ is a music channel also featuring interviews.
  • VK Видео features in talks with influencers, shows, and TV shows.
  • ТОП is an entertainment show with celebrities for general topics.
  • #МУЗЫКАВМЕСТЕ: A channel featuring popular songs where the sentences are in turn performed by people from across Russia and other former Soviet countries.

Kids Channels

Some of the most popular kids channels on YouTube: Like Nastya, Vania Mania Kids, Vlad and Niki, are from Russia. Kids Diana Show is from Ukraine. Their early videos are in Russian.

Vloggers and Models

  • Eva Uvarova is a dancer and blogger.
  • arlovedbyyou shares lifestyle vlogs about university life.
  • Kiun B is a very popular English language YouTuber about life in Yakutsk.
  • Double Bubble features various challenge videos, role-playing scenarios, and lifestyle videos.
  • aru nurmakhanova is a vlogger about American high school life from Kazakhstan.
  • Dasha Taran is a very popular model living in Korea now, and her channel changed from Russia to English.
  • karrambaby is a model working in China making lifestyle and vlog videos.
  • cuttteface is a model working in Korea, with vlogs and makeup videos.
  • SALAVAT KYPERE is a model with many vlogs featuring fashion shows and filming.
  • KSUSHA KREVETKA is a model working in China and Japan with vlogs and experiences.
  • Feiya is a Chinese-Russian actress.

Live Streamers

There are many Russian channels on Twitch/Vk Live/YouTube Live. Here are some examples.

  • Lissa sometimes streams cooking and driving videos.
  • ann_krafts has many covers of songs and streams casually.
  • Sasha Kvashenaya streams twice a week of song covers.
  • betboom_ru is a e-sport team and sometimes does long podcasts.

Commentators

  • Alina Мuradimova comments on lifestyle, culture.
  • Lina Dianova is a channel about psychology.
  • SHANKANAKA is a very popular commentator from China who speak fluent Russian and comments about culture.

Literature

Book Reviews/Histories

Poem Reading

Audiobook

Culture, Society, Science

Other Channels

  • IVLEV CHEF is a famous Russian cook.
  • Kirill Richter is a composer known for composing the figure skating program music "In Memoriam"
  • Valentina Lisitsa is one of the most popular classical pianist, born in Ukraine but now performs in Russia.

Russia Public Education

In Russia there are 2 separate courses: Russian and Literature. Search something like "4 Класс литературное чтение" and you would get a lot of channels. Here are some channels offering comprehensive education of 11 grades.

Main Film Studios

There are many more Soviet/contemporary movies on these channels on YouTube/Vk

Soviet Movies

Culture References

Ethnicity

Russian is home to over 100 ethnic groups including Tatars, Bashkirs, Yakuts, Buryats, Tuvans, Armenians, Chechens, Chuvash, Ingush, Ossetians, etc.

In places like Tatarstan, Orthodox and Islam coexist.

First Names

Popular names include for man: Ivan(Vanya), Artem, Alexei, Andrei, Aleksandr(Shura), Mikhail(Misha), Sergei, Ilya, Dimitry(Dima), Vladimir(Vova), Yuri, Petr, Evgeni, Daniil, Nikita, Igor, Lev, Maxim, Nikolai, Pavel(Pasha), Roman, Viktor, Konstantin...

For woman: Alina, Arina, Irina, Anastasia(Nastya), Tatiana(Tanya), Svetlana(Sveta), Yulia, Elena(Lena), Maria(Masha), Maya, Daria(Dasha), Sofya, Evgenia(Zhenya), Valeria, Kamila, Magarita(Rita), Olga, Ekaterina(Katya), Alla, Nadezhda(Nadia), Alexandra(Sasha), Polina, Ksenia, Lyudmila(Lyuda), Alyona, Mila, Alisa, etc. Russians add "chka" to the end of woman names to show affection and endearment.

Middle Name

Russian middle name is usually father's first name with slight change (for example, Sergeevich/Sergeyevna, Vladimirovich/Vladimirovna, Mikhailovich/Mikhailovna). Russians would use the first name and middle name to address people sometimes. (for example, Ivan Ivanovich)

Last Names

A lot of Russian last names end with ev(eva), ov(ova), sky(skaya). Popular last names include Ivanov/Ivanova, Kuznetsov/Kuznetsova(blacksmith), Smirnov/Smirnova(gentle), Petrov/Petrova, Popov/Popova, Andreev/Andreeva, Morozov/Morozova(frost), Vasilyev/Vasilyeva, Mikhailov/Mikhailova etc. Some last names are derived from animals such as Volkov/Volkova(wolf), Medvedev/Medvedeva(bear), etc. Some last names are derived from trees such as Dubov/Dubova(oak), Lipov/Lipova(linden), Beryozov/Beryozova(birch), etc. Some last names are derived from birds, such as Sokolov/Sokolova (falcon), Vorobyov/Vorobyova (sparrow), Sinitsyn/Sinitsyna (parus), Lebedev/Lebedeva(swan), etc. Some last names are derived from places, such as Moskvin/Moskvina, Novgorodov/Novgorodova, Rostovtsev/Rostovtseva, etc.

Russian last names often trace their roots to Slavic, Greek, and Hebrew origins, and there are other examples such as Romanov/Romanova from Latin, Akhmetov/Akhmetova from Turkic, etc. Some Ukrainian and Belarusian last names include "enko", "iuk", "vko" that don't follow the gender suffix patterns. Russia is home to many different ethnicities and it is difficult to generalize.

Interestingly, Russian names can be triples like "Vladimir Vladimirovich Vladimirov" or "Andrey Andreyevich Andreyev".

About Great Patriotic War

The great patriot war from 1941-1945(Великая Отечественная Война, ВОВ for short) is significant in Russian culture. Russia holds a military parade every year in Red Square on May 9th celebrating the victory over Nazi Germany, usually inviting numerous other leaders. There are statues "Motherland Calls" on the Mamayev Kurgan in Volgagrad(Stalingrad) and Kiev(very controversial now), and "Courage" monument of a soldier's head on a large rock in Brest. World War 2 inspired countless Russian literature and works, including songs about resistance, sacrifice, and protecting motherland.

About Aesthetic Sports and Ballet

Russia is particularly strong in aesthetic sports (figure skating, rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming) and ballet. These activites are very significant in Russian culture.

Classical Music

Russia has a rich classical music tradition. Popular composers include Tchaikovsky(Swan Lake theme song, Nutcracker Pas de Deux, Waltz of the Flowers), Rachmaninoff(Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini), Shostakovich(Waltz No. 2), etc.

"Christmas" and Ded Moroz

In Russia, Santa Claus does not exist. Instead, there is Ded Moroz. January 7th is when Russian Orthodox Christmas(Православное Рождество) is celebrated.

"Paper, Scissor, Rock"

The Russian Paper, Scissor, Rock is called "ЦУ Е ФА".

About Cyrillic

If you type the cyrillic "с" in a command like сlear, cli would return an error, you type clear in Latin, everything works. If you type аpple.com with a cyrillic а, it becomes http://xn--pple-43d.com/. There are also websites ending in .рф like https://аскхг.рф Cyrillic is mainly derived from Greek alphabet so a lot of the sounds are similar. When you search Russian shows, using cyrillic and latin yield very different results on search engines. Cyrillic originated from Bulgaria.

About Russian Dialects

Russian language have few dialects over a massive territory(even in Central Asia), unlike languages like Chinese or German which have very different dialects. Traditionally the dialects mainly include North (Vologda), Central/Standard(Moscow), and South (Russian-Ukrainian), but they are almost all replaced by Standard Russian.

About Slavic Countries

Russia is East-Slavic. East Slavic countries include Russia, Belarus(белый means white), Ukraine(not the Baltics). West Slavic countries include Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia(not Hungary, Romania, Moldova). South Slavic include Bulgaria and the 6 former Yugoslavia(Юг means south) countries (not Albania). East Slavic uses Cyrillic, West Slavic uses Latin, South Slavic is a mix(Bulgarian, Macedonian uses Cyrillic, Slovenian, Croatian uses Latin, Bosnian and Serbian uses both).

Poland is in Central Europe, and they refuse the label "Eastern Europe". Poland and the Baltics have a bad relationship with Russia right now, but South Slavic countries are generally "friendlier" or more pragmatic.

Russia have some cultural similarities with South Slavic countries. They have a shared Orthodox heritage. There are many similar words between the languages. Borscht is a popular soup in the region. Ded Moroz is also recognized. First names like "Mikhail", "Dimitry", "Vladimir" or "Svetlana", "Tatiana", "Maria" are also popular. The middle name follow the same patterns, and the last names ov/ova, ev/eva, sky/skaya, etc. They also name the regions as "Oblast" in Bulgaria and "Okrug" in Serbia. But each region also have their own unique characteristics. Bulgaria is famous for yogurt and rose, but faced terrible brain drain(declined by over 2 million people) in recent decades. Rakija is a popular drink in Serbia.

Russian Accent in English

Russian accent has several distinct features. There is no short 'i' and it is replaced by 'ee', 'w' becomes 'v', 'th' becomes 'd', 'r' is usually rolled. "Tiktok" becomes "Teektok", "Instagram" becomes "EEnstagram", "Did" becomes "Deed" with stress on "ee", "asked" becomes "as-keed", "water" becomes "vater", "tr" and "dr" becomes rolling, "man"'s "an" sound would be like "can"'s sound, and "an" sounds are usually stressed. Basically just try to rewrite the English into Cyrillic and pronouce it.

About Other Languages Spoken

Tatar is the second most spoken native language in Russia. German is the most spoken foreign language in Russia after English. Germany has significant Russia diasporsa and exiles. In 1990s significant Soviet jews moved to Israel and Russian being either the third or fourth most spoken language. China is centered around south-east coastal areas, and culturally very distant from Russia.

Main Vacation Resorts

Russians' favorite vacation spots include Thailand, Egypt, Hainan, Turkey, Dubai, or Sochi within Russia. Not only because of geopolitics, but more because I think they want sunny, hot places with a beach after spending much of the year in cold and dark weather.

About Noun as Adjectives in English

In English we use "History teacher"(Учитель истории), "Parking lot"(Парковочное место or парковка), "Chicken soup"(Куриный суп), "Office worker"(Офисный работник), "Computer screen" (Компьютерный экран). In Russian, the first noun needs to be modified, or the word order changed.

About Articles and "Be"

Russian doesn't have "am", "is", "are", and it is a common mistake for English speakers to randomly add "и", "из", "в", "это", "быт" in sentences to compensate for perceived missing elements. Here are some Russian examples: "Я студент." "Она красивая." "Я купил книгу." "There is/are" is a common phrase in English but different in Russian. "There is a pen on the table" becomes "На столе ручка." "Table" comes first in Russian while "pen" comes first in English. "Going to do" in English also have nuances. "I am going to the store" becomes "Я иду в магазин". Conversly, Russians might omit these "filler words" when speaking English.

Russia Geography

Russia is the largest country in the world, and there is a huge divide between Moscow/Peterburg and rural Russia. Russia's population and economy are concentrated in the west of the Ural Mountains. Let's attempt to name some cities.

Russia's geography never stopped fascinating me. From the polar nights of Murmansk, to Europe's largest inland lakes near SPB (Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega), to the unique culture blend of muslim and orthodox in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, the unique history of Vologda, to the black sea and ski resorts of Sochi, beautiful mountainous landscape of Dagestan, Mount Elbrus, Baikal and Irkutsk, Sakhalin Island, the huge area of Yakutia with immense marshland and forest, the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Altai Mountains, the historic heroic echoes of Volgograd, the golden circle cities, Russia has almost everything to offer for a culture excursion. And that is only in Russia, not in the Central Asian/South Kavkaz regions.

Federal Subjects

Russia's federal subjects include oblasts, republics, krais, federal cities, autonomous oblast, and autonomous okrugs. Most of the European parts are oblasts and republics near Tatarstan, while Siberia, North Caucasian are more varied. There are 2 federal cities: Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Note that Moskovsky Oblast and Leningrad Oblast are the surrounding areas around the 2 cities, and they are different. There are 4 okrugs, 3 located in northwestern Siberia and northwestern Russia, and Chukotka near the Bering Strait. There is only one autonomous oblast, Jewish Autonomous Oblast, located in eastern Russia near China.

Travel/Documentary Channels

News and Selected Regional Channels

Note: Some of these channels stopped posting on YouTube and moved to Telegram/VK

Search "[city name] новости" on YouTube/Vk and there are many of those channels.

Highway

Russian highways begin with М, А, or Р(cyrillic). "М" connects cities with Moscow, for example, M-1 "Belarus"(to Minsk), M-4 "Don"(Moscow – Voronezh – Rostov-on-Don - Krasnodar – Novorossiysk), М-9 (МКАД), М-11 "Neva"(to SPB). "А" connects major administrative centers, for example, A-370 (Khabarovsk – Vladivostok), A-113(ЦКАД), A-320(Omsk – Cherlak – border with Kazakhstan), . "Р" is mostly for regional roads, for example, Р-254 (Chelyabinsk – Novosibirsk).

River

There are many very long rivers in Russia, from east to west: Volga, Yenisei, Lena, they are some of the longest rivers in the world. Volga flows south while most Siberian rivers flows north. Yenisei and Lena lies east of Ural mountains.

South-west

The southern part, "Northern Кавкас", is adjacent to Georgia. The region is framed by the Black Sea to the west and the Caspian Sea to the east. Russia's highest mountain, Mount Elbrus is located near Georgia. Sochi is a major tourism place, overlooking the Black Sea, quite warm with mediterranean climates, while it also has snowy mountains as resorts. Novorossiysk is a huge port city. Other big cities include Rostov-na-Don (on Don river). Krasnodar, Vladikavkaz, Stavropol, Volgagrad, Voronezh. Krasnodar Krai is the agricultural heartland. Vladikavkaz is at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains, a cultural hub with deep Ossetian traditions.

Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingush, Kabardino-Balkaria are republics in the east that are very different, and they are quite poor. Dagestan is characterized by rugged terrains, producing many strong ufc fighters, while some villages are isolated on high mountains. Ingush is one of the most conservative regions in Russia. Astrakhan Oblast is located on the Volga River delta where it flows into the Caspian Sea.

Western Cities

On the western part, very near Europe, is perhaps the center of Russia's economy, characterized by the two main cities: Moscow and Saint Petersburg(SPB). Moscow has around 13 million people while Moscow Oblast has about 8 million people.

Around Moscow is the golden circle, there are cities like Yaroslavl, Ivanovo, Vladimir, Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, Tver(the golden circle). Other notable western cities include Smolensk, Veliky Novgorod.

There are 4 airports in Moscow, and there was The Palace Bridge in Saint Petersburg known for its iconic drawbridge design that opens in the middle to allow ships to pass.

Volga and Ural

Along Volga from south to north there is Volgograd, Samara, Ulyanovsk, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, flowing into the Caspian sea.

Kazan is the capital of Tatarstan, a place with ethnic tatars and Muslim, and often called the third capital of Russia. Kazan has both Orthodox Cathedral and Mosques.

Samara is an aerospace and industrial hub, home to space rocket manufacturing.Ulyanovsk is the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin (born Vladimir Ulyanov).

Located in West of Ural mountains from south to north are Ufa, Izhevsk, Perm. Ufa is the capital of Bashkortostan. Perm is located on the Kama River. East side of Ural mountains from south to north: Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg. Yekaterinburg is the largest city in the urals, a major financial and cultural center.

West Siberia

Just north of Kazakhstan from left to right are: Tyumen, Omsk, and Novosibirsk, Tomsk. Omsk is located on the Irtysh River. Tyumen is one of the richest city in Russia known for oil wealth. The main city on Ob river banks is Novosibirsk and the largest city in Siberia. Ob River floats into the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

Siberia is very, very cold in the winter, reaching below -30 to -50 degree celsius, compared to milder climates around -10 degree celsius in the European part.

The Yenisei River begins at Kyzyl in Tuva. Tuva is a place known for Shamanism and throat singing, and one of the poorest regions in Russia, and known for throat singing. Krasnoyarsk is a major city on Yenisei.

In the far north slightly east of Yenisei there is a important industry city Norilsk, a heavily polluted area, where some people have very short life expectancy.

Dikson is a mostly isolated place located near the end of the Yenisei River where it empties into the Kara Sea, overlooking the Arctic Ocean.

North

Northern cities include Vologda, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Yakutsk, Norilsk, Magadan, etc. Note that these northern cities are actually very far from each other.

Vologda is heavily influenced Ivan Grozny with a unique accent with "o". It is several hundred kilometers east of Saint Petersburg. Grozny tried making Vologda Russia's capital but a brick fell during his visit.

Yakutia is in the far east, located along the Lena, is mostly populated by indigenous Yakuts. Yakutsk is perhaps the coldest cities on Earth, reaching -50 degrees Celsius in winter, while it can grow watermelons in summer. They have the coldest markets on earth, selling fish like Chir, Omul, Muksun, Nelma, labeled with rubles. Siberian region is rich in natural resources (diamonds, gold, and gas in Yakutia; nickel, copper, palladium, and many other minerals in Norilsk). If it were a country, Yakutia would be the 8th largest in the world, larger than Argentina.

Magadan(Kolyma) is strongly associated with Soviet gulags, or "birthplace of our fears", located north of the Sea of Okhotsk.

Far East Cities

Vladivostok and Khabarovsk are near China, known for China-Russia trade (also Suifenhe in China). Vladivostok is a key terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway, over 5000 miles long.

Other Locations

The westernmost part, called "Kaliningrad Oblast" is surrounded by Lithuania and Poland. Königsberg is the former Prussia capital and home to the famous philosopher Kant. However, traveling by train is complicated today from Kaliningrad to mainland Russia.

Lake Baikal, the world's deepest and oldest freshwater lake, is located east of Irkutsk in southern Siberia, just north of Mongolia. On the east side of Baikal is Buryatia, a place with lots of ethnic Buryats and Mongolian traditions.

Seward Peninsula is adjacent to Russia with Bering Strait, and US used to send supplies to Russia through Alaska during World War 2. There was a statue in Fairbanks called Lend-Lease Monument celebrating the friendship. Far east is the Kamchatka Peinsula and Sakhalin island.

Moscow Geography

Moscow has the longest metro system out of China. The metro system was built in 1935. The metro system has 3 circle lines. The metro system is very dense in TTk and extends into Moskovsky Oblast. We open Yandex Maps and take a look.

In Moscow there are several rings. There are two inner rings, Boulevard Ring and Garden Ring are very small. Arbat is an important region historically around the Boulevard Ring. Third Ring Road(ТТК) is roughly the same size as Shanghai's inner ring. МКАД is the ring around Moscow. ЦКАД is the ring around Moscow Oblast. There are around 13 million people in Moscow and 8 million in Moskovsky Oblast. In Moscow there is a place called "Китай Город" near the city center, but very unintuitively it isn't like a Chinatown or related to China. Moscow River divides the city, and it's quite twisted. Kremlin lies in the city center and Bolshoi theatre lies slightly north of it, with the government and museums to the west and Tverskaya, Pushinskaya, Chekhovskaya to the north. Both the green(second line) and purple line(7th line) runs through the city center northeast to southwest, while the red line(first line) runs through from southeast to northwest. The third line runs in a U shaped, extending east into forest parks just inside of МКАД. The 6th and 9th line runs north to south. Third Ring Road cuts Moscow river multiple times, and Sokolniki Park is just outside of Third Ring Road on the northeast side. On the northwest side, ЦСКА and Megasports are around 2km outside of Third Ring Road. Along the western bend of the Moscow River just out of Garden ring is the historic Hotel Ukraina, and if you walk south down the river there is МГУ, located on Sparrow Hills. Both Hotel Ukraina and МГУ are part of the iconic Seven Sisters buildings. On the river bend just out of ТТК is Irina Viner Palace. Further along the river on the east side, you can see Leninsky Avenue and Gorky Park.

Ukraine

Note: Following the events in 2022 a lot of Ukrainian channels switched to Ukrainian language. I am not going to talk/comment about politics.

Ukrainian Interview Channels

  • Masha Efrosynina: Leading Ukrainian interviewer and media personality
    (ru->ua)
  • ЖВЛ: Interview channel of 1+1 (ua)
  • Василь Тимошенко: Ukrainian content creator and blogger (ru->ua)
  • lux.fm: Ukrainian entertainment media channel featuring celebrity interviews, entertainment shows, music performances (ru->ua)

Ukrainian Singers

Ukrainian Influencers/Vloggers

  • Barvina is a Ukrainian-American actress and vlogger. She also has other channels Barvina Vlog. (ru)
  • Lady Diana is a video blogger and released a lot of short films. (ru)
  • Amelka Karamelka is a blogger with roleplay videos and dramatic scenarios. (ru)
  • Elina Fedorova is a Ukrainian-American model and makes lifestyle videos. (ru->ua)
  • Stefy is a Ukrainian beauty and lifestyle YouTuber who primarily creates makeup-related while also sharing vlogs.(ru->ua)
  • My little Nastya is a family channel about life, travels, new adventures. (ru->ua)
  • ЕваМарина Life is a vlogger in Odessa about daily life. (ru)

Other Ukrainian Channels

Ukrainian Travel Channels

Ukrainian News/Regional Channels

Southern Ukraine overlooks the Black sea, with Odessa(Odesa), Sevastpol being major cities, known for beaches, mountains and picturesque views. Odessa(Odesa) is called the "pearl of the Black Sea". There are many cities along Dnepr River, Kyiv(Kiev), Dnipro, Zaprizhzhia to Kherson. Other large cities include Lviv in the west and Kharkiv in the northeast.

Note: Ukraine city names in English became a point of contention (for example, "kyivnotkiev") since Ukrainians want the cities to be written as the Ukrainian transliteration, not the historical Russian transliteration in English.

Here are some channels

Note: This blog is written in late 2024/early 2025. Things might change in the future. As of 2024 I haven't been to Russia once.

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