List Of English Words Of Russian Origin

Many languages, including English, contain words possibly borrowed from Russian. Not all of them are of truly Russian or Slavic origin. Some of them co-exist in other Slavic languages and it is difficult to decide whether they entered English from Russian or, say, from Polish, most notable of these being vodka. Some others are borrowed or constructed from classical ancient languages, such as Latin or Greek, still others are borrowed from indigenous peoples of the Russian Empire. Most of them are used to denote things and notions specific to Russia, Russian culture, politics, history, especially well-known outside Russia: vodka, intelligentsia, taiga, tundra, pogrom. Possibly some others are in the "mainstream" usage, independent of Russian context.

Common

babushka
balaclava
balalaika
cosmonaut
cossack
Gulag
intelligentsia
Kazakh
knout
(borrowing from Swedish)
kopek
(kopeck, copeck)
kremlin
mammoth
matryoshka
pogrom
ruble (rouble)
sable
samovar
sputnik
steppe
taiga
Troika (triumvirate)
Troika (dance)
troika (sled)
tundra
ushanka
vodka

Cuisine

blintz
blin, pancake
borsch
kasha
Buckwheat groats, Russian for "porridge" or "gruel"
kumis
(kumys)
kvass
(kvas)
pelmeni
pirogi
also Polish pierogi, (plural) dumplings or pies.
pirozhki (piroshki) small pirogi
shchi
shashlik
sirniki, syrniki
smetana
vareniki

Political, Administrative

agitprop
apparatchik
bolshevik
boyar
Cheka
commissar
DOSAAF
Duma
dvoryanstvo, dvoryanin
FSB
glasnost
guberniya
Kadet
KGB
kniaz
kolkhoz
kulak
krai
Leninism
MGB
Menshevik
mir
MVD
Narkompros
Nyet ("No")
as in Mr. NET (Mr. Gromyko was known as Mr. NET)
NEP
NKVD
nomenklatura
obshchina
oblast
okhranka
okrug
oprichina
oprichnik
perestroika
pyatiletka
Politburo
propiska
raion (from French)
silovik
SMERSH
soviet
sovkhoz
Sovmin
Sovnarkhoz
Sovnarkom
Spetsnaz
stakhanovite
Stalinism
Stavka
tsar, tsardom, tsaritsa, tsarevna, tsarevich, tsesarevich
ukase
veche
Yevsektsiya
zampolit
zemshchina
Zemsky Sobor
zemstvo

Religious

Doukhobor
Chlysty
Lippovan, Lipovan, Lipovans
Molokan
Raskol
Raskolnik
skoptzy
yurodivy

Technical, special

chernozem
soil type
Tokamak
a plasma confinement device
Mir
a Russian space station
polynya
area of clear water in arctic ices
rasputitsa
a season of muddy roads
Obsolete Russian weights and measures
pood
a measure of weight
verst
a measure of distance

Various

These are some other untranslatable Russian terms that have articles in English language Wikipedia.
BAM
bayan
Belomorkanal (canal) and Belomorkanal (cigarettes)
banya
bylina
Cantonist
chainik
chastushka
dacha
dedovshchina
Junker (Russia)
katorga
kurgan
kurtka
Lysenkoism
Lunokhod
mat
muzhik
palochka
Pravda
sambo
samizdat
sharashka
Soyuz
tatary
titlo
Vostok
Yabloko
yaranga
zaum
yat
yer
Ya

See also

External links

Russian

 

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