Russian texts online

  Reading is one of the best ways to enrich your vocabulary and improve grammar skills. If you don't have access to physical books in Russian, there are still many options online.

Project Gutenberg offers free e-books in many languages including Russian.

Журнал «Самиздат» is a place where Russian beginner authors can publish their works online. Some even get a contract with a publisher, if their stories become popular. You can search the site by genre (Жанры), view latest entries (Последние поступления) or simply check the best works (Избранное, Топ-40 and Топ-30).

Стихи.Ру publishes modern poetry in Russian.

Multilingual Books offers you an extensive list of links to Russian literature online.

Another option is to read Russian sites and blogs. Ever caught yourself in the middle of the night reading some random article on Wikipedia? ;) Why not try reading Russian Википедия instead? Choose a topic you like (such as your hobbies or job, for example) and go read tons of articles about it! Plus, Russian articles on Russia-related topics are often much more detailed than English ones. Why not read in Russian about borscht, blini, Anna Kournikova or about that meteorite that was in the news in February?

Speaking of news, you can follow Russian news sites too:

Известия

РИА-Новости

Вести

BBC Русская служба
Дождь

And finally, there are all sorts of blogs in Russian – about cars, gardening, computers, babies, kittens, etc. There you'll be able to not only read in Russian but also communicate with Russians by leaving comments. Excellent way to polish your writing skills! To find blogs in Russian simply Google for “блог о...” (insert what you want to read about).

Shameless plug: 33 letters isn't my only blog. ;) My Письма из Зелёной Финляндии is about Finland (that's where I live). My Логово Лесного Писателя is a place where I share all sorts of stuff I like, such as photographs of Moscow, food articles, language learning posts, etc. Both blogs are in Russian and English now.

My English improved immensely when I started reading blogs and websites in English some years ago. Thanks to the Internet you don't have to pay a lot of money to get access to the content in the language you're learning. Use it and have fun!