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.

Russian fairy tale Teremok

Теремок (or Терем-теремок) is a well-known Russian skazka (fairy tale), and it's rather easy to read for people learning Russian. Terem is a type of a house.

You can read one of the story's versions here (features some beautiful illustrations). I'll help you with cute animal nicknames from there:

мышка-норушка

мышка, мышь - mouse, нора - hole, burrow

лягушка-квакушка

лягушка - frog, квакать - to croak, ква-ква - ribbit, croak

зайчик-побегайчик

зайчик, заяц - hare, бегать - to run

лисичка-сестричка

лисичка, лиса - fox, сестричка, сестра - sister

волчок-серый бочок

волчок, волк - wolf, серый бок - grey side

медведь косолапый

медведь - bear, косолапый - bandy-legged

Such names are used for these animals not only in Teremok, so if you plan on reading more Russian skazkas, they can be useful to know. You can also read my post about making Russian words cuter (like мышка и зайчик).

And you can always listen to two audio versions of the story or watch a cartoon in Russian.