Thread: How can I find the subtitles of Russian TV series ?

Originally Posted by Serge_spb

I would be surprised if anyone is creating them.
Russian movie\tv industry is like a fast-food...

Список переводов - русские субтитры
=>> Школьный вальс / Shkolnyy vals (1979) - (for example)
=>
201
00:30:55,300 --> 00:30:59,660
Если у нас будет ребенок,
то пусть он будет.

202
00:30:59,700 --> 00:31:04,660
- Пусть будет, когда-нибудь.
- Нет, сейчас.

203
00:31:06,900 --> 00:31:11,820
В феврале. Ко Дню Советской армии.

The "time-codes" here (such as 00:31:06,900 --> 00:31:11,820) suggest to me that these "subtitles" are intended to be added manually to bootleg/"ripped" video files, such as you might download from YouTube. In other words, they were created as a kludge/workaround for the problem that Russian-made DVDs hardly ever have subtitles in Russian, and Russian TV hardly ever have closed-captioning for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

I can recommend a few classic Soviet films that are available on DVD with English and Russian subtitles, and the DVDs are very easy to find on Amazon and other sites:

Вий (1967) -- Also found under the English title "Spirit of Evil" -- though I'd argue that a more accurate translation might be "The All-Seeing Demon" or "Eyelash-zilla"! Famous as the first "horror" film in the USSR, but today it seems more campy than frightening. (The horrible demon of the title, Viy, is actually rather silly looking -- but a few of the "minor demons" are truly hideous, and the evil young witch Pannochka resembles a scary/beautiful combination of Samara from The Ring and Morticia from The Addams Family.)

Иван Васильевич меняет профессию (1973) -- Literally, "Ivan Vasilevich changes his career," though it's sometimes sold in English as "Ivan Vasilevich: Back to the Future." Delightful comedy/fantasy/sci-fi that mixes time-travel with the "identical cousins" premise of "The Parent Trap" (one actor playing two look-alike people). Based on a play by Mikhail Bulgakov of Master and Margarita fame, and added at least two classic songs to the repertoire of Soviet/Russian pop-music.

Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром! (1976, made for TV) -- "The Irony of Fate, or, Have a Nice Bath!" -- sometimes called "The Soviet A Christmas Story", not because the stories are similar but because movies gradually became modern classics by being shown constantly on TV during the Christmas/New Year season. Romantic comedy in which a Moscow guy gets roaring drunk, accidentally takes a flight to Leningrad, and discovers that, in an amazing coincidence, the key to his Moscow flat fits the door of a Leningrad apartment owned by a beautiful young woman who's not quite happy with her fiancé. Totally filled with famous quotes.

Again, all three of these are available as DVDs with very good video/audio remastering, and feature both English and Russian subtitling. And they're all fun!

Good point.
Another "classical" piece from russian cinematography:
Amazon.com: Business romance / Sluzhebny Roman: Eldar Ryazanov, Alisa Freindlikh, Andrey Miagkov, Svetlana Nemolyaeva, Oleg Basilashvily, Liya Akhedzhakova: Movies & TV
Служебный Роман (Business romance), famous ("epic") comedy. With rus. subs.


But how many others can be found on Amazon (or in DVD stores) apart from these ?

Even if you want to get a legal copy of some 1960-s\1970-s movie, sometimes it`s just
impossible to find.

Then go to rutracker [dot] org (like all russians do), register and get a rip of what you want.
You might also need a torrent manager (like utorrent or Vuze) in order to download.

P.S. What I`ve posted in a previous post is a quote from a ".srt" file which should be put at the same catalogue where your video file is. The file can be .avi or .mp4 or anything else. What matters is that the videoplayer you use supports subtitle capturing. I recommend to use Media Player Classic or BSPlayer, since they are very simple.