Battles and revolutions, triumphs and defeats, charismatic leaders and a people accustomed to never-ending change. Russia's history is complex and endlessly fascinating.

Luckily you don't need to dig into stuffy libraries to dive into Russia's past — there's a wealth of historical material to explore on the web.

From the first blurry photographs to military records, from cultural artefacts to film clips, here are seven resources to get you started. Some of them even let you take their material and use it on your blog.

1. The Russian National Library

It may sound like an obvious choice, but this is actually a rare thing on the Runet: An official website with a high-quality English version.

Leaving aside the website's dated design, browsing the 'Treasures' section alone should keep you occupied for a few hours. You'll find gems like this lubok of "Mice Burying the Cat" or the mouthwatering coronation menu of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna.

Unfortunately, the search interface leads you to pages both in Russian and English. But then historians tend to be persistent, so you'll soon be finding your way and merrily hopping from entries in one language to those in another.

2. British Pathé

Over 80,000 videos are freely available on the company's YouTube channel, and coverage of Russia and the Soviet Union accounts for a large segment of that number.

Since British Pathé used to be in the newsreel business, producing films on topical events to be shown in movie theaters,  World War II features heavily — but so do scenes from everyday life and quirky off-beat stories.

So whether you're putting together clips from 1920s Siberia or films about Russian beauty pageants, YouTube's embed code lets you showcase your collection on your own blog or homepage.

3. The Cold War International History Project

The CWIHP is one of three parts of the Wilson Center's Digital Archive, which aims to give anybody access to formerly classified government documents. Much work has gone into tagging and indexing the entries, opening up lots of different approaches to this treasure trove of newly-declassified material.

You can search for all documents authored by Stalin. You can browse special collections on topics like Cold War intelligence gathering or the 1969 conflict on the Sino-Soviet border. You can even go off on a tangent and explore Brazil's nuclear history. It's all right there at your fingertips. Wonder what Stalin would have made of that.

4. The Public Domain Review

A side project of the Open Knowledge Foundation, the Public Domain Review is your introduction to material whose copyright has expired. In the case of Russia, you might dig up some less pleasant things. Some work is beautiful and lavish, like this illustrated book of Russian fairy tales,…

… but others are downright eerie, like this twenty-minute film showing Soviet medical research into reviving organisms after they have died.

In both cases, as for everything found on the Public Domain Review Website, the expired copyright means the material is yours to use, tweak and build upon.

5. The BBC Archive

"We are breaking program to announce the signing of an agreement between Britain and the Soviet Union for joint action in the war against Germany." Thus begins a recording from the BBC Home Service. Just under two minutes long, it details a landmark deal signed by two countries in their battle against Adolf Hitler's Wehrmacht.

Another BBC Archive recording has Soviet Ambassador Ivan Mikhailovich Maisky thanking British workers for holding a 'Tanks for Russia' week. Original broadcasts make up most of the archive, but you can also find written documents that add context. Look out for an official 1941 directive to stop all on-air jokes about Russia!

6. Russia's Military Historical Archive

You will need to enter your search terms in Russian, but the insights awaiting you are well worth it: All Russian documents on World War I, a total of over 300,000 items.

Good thing, then, that there are online resources to help you even if your Russian is less than fluent. The Internet browser Chrome can be set to automatically translate any web page into English, and if you need to know how to say "prisoner of war" in Russian, services like Lingvo or  Google Translate are your go-to solution.

7. Getty Images

For a few months now, Getty has facilitated access to their archive. From the days of the Romanovs to much more recent history, these photos are free for you to share on Facebook or Twitter and to use on your blog, provided you use Getty's embed code.

That does mean previews won't show on social media sites like Twitter unless you actually click on the link. But images like that of the notorious Rasputin are worth the extra mouse move for sure.

All in all, Getty's historical images, some even dating back to pre-photography days, offer a fascinating glimpse into Russian and Soviet history. Or did you know about this "mobile darkroom" used by photographers covering the Crimean War?