Guides: Russian: Encyclopedias & more

What Are Reference Sources?

Reference sources include encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, directories, and other succinct background or factual materials to aid in research. Use reference sources to:

Find a succinct overview of a topic.
Help you identify a topic to explore in depth.
Access quick, reliable facts.
Find bibliographies that will lead you to detailed studies.

Dictionaries

Russian Dictionary Tree
a learner's grammitical dictionary, created at Cornell University.

23rd edition of Muller’s English-Russian dictionary.
Check off Англо-русский словарь Мюллера and use search.
Multitran
Huge online dictionary, or rather compilation of dictionaries, encompassing general, as well as technical and scientific terminology.
Several Russian only Dictionaries
To search Ozhegov’s Russian dictionary, Zalizniak’s grammatical dictionary or Fasmer’s 4-volume etymological dictionary (separately or simultaneously) in several different encodings. Interface is complicated, but bonus is automatic linkage of word’s looked up in Zalizniak’s dictionary to a very large and detailed Soviet-era English-Russian, Russian-English dictionary. Better interface for searching the updated version of Ozhegov (Ozhegov and Shvedova) over here.
Vladimir Dal’s mid-nineteenth century Russian dictionary
Ushakov’s excellent four-volume dictionary from the 1930’s
MIDCAT List - Russian Dictionaries
Active catalog search

Oxford Dictionaries Online This link opens in a new window
The innovative Oxford Language Dictionaries Online site offers essential language resources never before available online: fully searchable, completely comprehensive bilingual dictionaries, and unique study materials that provide extra help with learning and using an expanding range of languages.

Idioms.chat.ru
An illustrated dictionary of Russian idioms with English translations
babla.ru
a language portal which offers not only free online dictionaries but also vocabulary lessons, a phrasebook,games, quizzes and much more

Encyclopedias

Krugosvet
Good online Russian encyclopedia with simple interface
MIDCAT List - Encyclopedias, Russian
Active catalog search

Maps & Geographic Information

Imperiia: Mapping the Russian Empire (Harvard University)
Russia and the Former Soviet Republics Maps
Perry-Castañeda Library
Map Collection (UT Austin)

Biographies

Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Find up-to-date analysis, biographical information, overviews, full-text literary criticism, and reviews on more than 130,000 writers in all disciplines, from all time periods, and from around the world.

Statistics / Data

Russia & CIS
Covers Russian and English-language publications, reports & data sets from the Russian State Statistics Committee and the Commonwealth of Independent States Statistical Committee.
CIA - The World Factbook
Produced by the CIA, country information including basic statistics.
Statistics by Topic A-Z Guide
For statistics on a wide range of topics in all fields arranged A-Z (crime, demographics, children, labor, etc.) this Middlebury Libraries Statistics Guide has links to both national and international resources.