Culture.ru: Free movies, event calendar & stories about Russian culture life

What is the ‘Culture.ru’ website? 

‘Culture.ru’ is a free educational project in the Russian language about Russian culture, art and history. The website features movies, literature, articles, lectures, event listings across Russia and extensive catalogs of museums and theaters.

Main sections:

1. Event calendar

Exhibitions, concerts, performances, movie screenings and tours across Russia.

2. Media Library

A vast collection of movies and films
Concert recordings
Theater performances
Lectures and literature
Live streams of cultural events

3. Articles about all aspects of cultural life, including biographies of writers 
and composers
Customs from different regions of the country
Quizzes on key events in Russian history

4. Catalogs of museums
Theaters
Concert venues
Architectural landmarks
Libraries

How is the portal useful for foreigners?

1. Free movies, performances and literature in Russian

An excellent way to immerse yourself in the language is by watching Russian cinema and reading the classics.

The website offers free and legal access to:

Famous Soviet movies, such as:
‘The Irony of Fate’ (1975)
‘The Diamond Arm’ (1968) 
‘Air Crew’ (1979)

Animation:
‘Hedgehog in the Fog’ (1975)
‘The Snow Queen’ (1957)
‘Alyosha Popovich and Tugarin the Serpent’ (2004)

Fairy tale movies:
‘Morozko’ (1964) 
‘The Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors’ (1963)
‘Mum’ (1967) 

Educational & documentary films:
‘Man with a Movie Camera’ (1929)
‘Russian Wedding of the 16th Century’ (1908) 

A separate catalog is dedicated to poetry by Russian classics. You can search by author or theme (e.g. love, nature, friendship, etc.). 

2. Planning a trip to Russia

The portal can also help you plan your cultural itinerary: find exhibitions, performances, tours and concerts in your desired city, as well as time and dates.

3. A reliable source for study

For Slavic studies students and researchers, it’s a very reliable source of information on Russian culture. You can even learn about the most diverse aspects of cultural life in the country, such as:
Life of the Soviet people
Holidaying in the Russian North
Ancient petroglyphs in Karelia

How to use the portal

If you don't speak Russian (yet!), use the built-in browser translator.
Furthermore,  we will be publishing translations of selected articles  into other languages – stay tuned for updates!