Russian Essentials

An Introductory Course in Survival Russian – $15 / £12 per month (+ VAT if applicable)

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Build a Memory Palace to Learn Essential Russian

Unlock your spatial memory to master Russian using the creative techniques of medieval monks and scholars

This course in essential Russian functions covers all the basics to get started speaking and writing Russian. As an introductory course, it assumes no prior knowledge of Russian. You will be guided through all the lessons to first understand the material before then storing the new language in your memory through a memory palace.

First, you will learn to read and write the Cyrillic alphabet. You'll learn each letter and its pronunciation, as well as how to write it. Special animations show how the letters are written out by hand as opposed to printed in text.

From there, you'll be guided through our map of Russian Essentials. Topics covered range from numbers and time, through to describing things. You will not only learn a number of useful phrases and expression, but you will also learn how Russian works as a language. Russian has a markedly different structure to English. It relies on a complex case system and also all nouns are marked for one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter. All of this will be explained in detail within the context of the survival language presented in this course.

This course assumes you have already completed our full course in Memory. Once you have gone through the lessons in Russian, you will be guided step-by-step through how to store all of the material in a memory palace so that you can retain, access, and use the content long-term. 3D animations will be used to demonstrate how a memory palace might look for this course, but you will be free to use your own spaces and imagination.

PDF handouts of all content as well as audio recording of all examples in Russian are available to download as part of the program.

Scroll down to the Curriculum to view free samples before signing up.


Your Instructor


Mariia Terentieva
Mariia Terentieva

Mariia Terentieva is a native speaker of Russian and Ukrainian. Trained as a television journalist, Marria received her Masters Degree in Film and Screen Studies at the University of Cambridge. Mariia is currently pursuing her PhD in Slavonic Studies at the University of Cambridge.


Dr Aaron RalbyDr Aaron Ralby is the founder and director of Linguisticator Ltd. He holds a BA in English and Modern Languages and Linguistics from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; an MPhil in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic from the University of Cambridge; and a PhD in Medieval Studies from Cornell University. Aaron is the principle overseer of course creation at Linguisticator and also presents all final materials produced by his team of linguists and native speakers.

Read more about Aaron here.

Course Curriculum



Frequently Asked Questions


When does the course start and finish?
The course starts now and ends whenever you are finished. All our courses are self-paced. You can sign up whenever you are ready to start and cancel whenever you have finished. The pace is entirely up to you! If you want extra help as you go through a course, you can also set up private tuition with us.
How long do I have access to the course?
You have access for as long as you would like. The course is available on a subscription basis. Subscribe for as long as you need and cancel whenever you want. There is no minimum subscription.
What if I have questions or need help?
If you have any questions or issues with your course, just get in touch with us through email, Skype, or live chat and we'll be glad to help. If you want more guidance with the online program, you can set up private tuition with us as well.

Get started now!