Language through Literature
A LingQ alternative for reading Russian literature
What LingQ is better at
LingQ is the most complete reading platform there is: dozens of languages, a huge imported library, its own audio, and a well-worn known/unknown word system. If you want breadth, or you are learning three languages at once, it is the better tool and this is not close.
What this is for instead
This is the opposite bet: one language, the whole shelf, and every word of them prepared by hand rather than machine-imported. Stress marks on every form — which matters enormously in Russian and which imported texts almost never carry. A translation written for each sentence, not a machine gloss. And no monthly platform to belong to: seven complete Chekhov stories are free, and their texts read with no account at all.
The numbers, since they are checkable
Original texts by Chekhov, Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky: 114,550 running words in 8,637 sentences, 10,386 distinct dictionary words, and 22,409 inflected forms with prepared meanings and stress marks. The reading assistance is subject to correction. Just under half of the vocabulary — 4,731 words — appears exactly once, which is why the word lists here are ordered by how many whole sentences a word unlocks rather than by frequency.
Seven free editorial reading pages
Seven complete Chekhov stories are open on their reference pages with no account and no email address. The interactive courses have a separate learning sample:
- Смерть чиновника — The Death of a Clerk, 677 words
- Толстый и тонкий — Fat and Thin, 511 words
- Хамелеон — Chameleon, 901 words
- Лошадиная фамилия — A Horsey Name, 904 words
- Злоумышленник — The Malefactor, 1063 words
- Студент — The Student, 1124 words
- Ванька — Vanka, 1153 words
Try the learning sample · the full interactive library is €5 a month or €39 a year, cancellable in one click, and your reading record stays yours whatever happens to the subscription.