As Russians prepare to life in times of epidemic, a variety of organizations have made their offerings available online for free. Here are a few examples, as reported by Inc. Russia:
- Online education platform Netology, a property of Russian billionaire Alexey Mordashov, is offering free access to its video courses on marketing, business and design. “We wish you all to turn quarantine into a useful and productive time, not grey boredom,” the company said.
- Foxford, an online school affiliated to Netology Group, has made its programs available for free from 5th to 11th classes (which corresponds to children between 11 and 17 years of age in the Russian education system).
- Arzamas, another educational resources dedicated to art, history and literature, is offering free subscriptions to its online courses and audiomaterials.
- The online design school and community Bang Bang Education has made its 46 design courses accessible at no charge until April 17.
- Okko, a major online video service, offers free two-week subscription plans to “all those forced to stay home” due to covid-19. Another video service, Premier, has also made its content “free for all.”
- Alpina, a major Russian publishing house, offers 70 e-books for free until the end of April. “We know that time passes unnoticed with a good book,” the company said.
- Audiobook provider Storytel offers a free 30-day subscription to all new users.
- GeekBrains, an online education portal affiliated to Mail.ru Group, offers a one-month free access to its online courses in programming, marketing, design and management.
- Starting from March 19 and until June 14, Mail.ru Group will make its business messenger Myteam available for free. Additional services of the Teambox cloud service offer will also be offered at no charge. “These services will help employees communicate and exchange documents remotely while the virus is spreading,” the LSE-listed group stated.
- The popular business management solution provider Bitrix24 has lifted the usual restrictions on the number of users of its free version. “We hope to help companies reduce losses and their employees feel safe,” 1C Bitrix CEO Sergey Ryzhkov commented.
Meanwhile, arts and music lovers from all countries may also enjoy a variety of free online contents and shows related to Russian culture. The following, among many others, are worth discovering:
- Yandex has just launched an online gallery dedicated to “neural network art.” Nearly 2,500 digital works are displayed, covering such topics as city, nature, people and states of mind.
- Four online exhibits are presented by the Tretyakov Gallery, a major Moscow museum dedicated to Russian art, in partnership with Google.
- Apple offers a five-hour tour across the famous Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg.
- In New York, Metropolitan Opera has launched ‘Nightly Met Opera Streams,’ a free series of encore Live in HD presentations streamed on the company website during the coronavirus closure. Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin is scheduled for Sunday, March 22.
