25 Russian Words Used in English (and 25 More That Should Be) By Mark Nichol

Many Russian words have been appropriated by the English language. Some, like mammoth and sable, are easily assumed to be from a more closely related language. Others were originally specific to Russian culture but can be applied to analogous Western concepts, such as a reference to an American politician retreating from Washington, DC, to his dacha, or to a comment about a troika of conspirators.

Here is a list of well-known Russian words and their original meanings and later connotations, if any. Below that youll find another set, that one consisting of words known to few, if any, speakers of English who are not bilingual in Russian or familiar with Russian culture. The latter list is ripe for exploitation in English. (Try referring, for example, to an elite cohort as the nomenklatura or to a petty bureaucrat as a namestnik.)

Either list can be mined for analogous meanings. Some require no annotation, while others should be introduced carefully in context or even glossed; which approach to take depends on the content and its audience.

Familiar Russian Words (Absorbed into English)

1. Agitprop: artistic political propaganda, from a truncated form of the Russian forms of the words agitation and propaganda

2. Apparatchik: a Communist Party member and/or functionary, from the Russian form of the word apparatus

3. Babushka: in Russian, old woman; in English, a type of scarf commonly worn by babushkas

4. Beluga: a type of whale or sturgeon

5. Bolshevik: a revolutionary or radical, from name of the majority Communist faction in Tsarist Russia, ultimately from the Russian word for majority

6. Commissar: an official

7. Cossack: a Russian ethnic group associated in popular culture with military prowess and a nomadic society; the name, like the ethnic appellation Kazakh, derives from the Turkish word for nomad

8. Dacha: a country house

9. Duma: a legislative body

10. Glasnost: a policy of political openness and transparency, from the Russian word for publicity

11. Gulag: originally an acronym for a Soviet-era system of forced-labor camps; it now can refer to any repressive or coercive environment or situation

12. Intelligentsia: the intellectual elite of a society, from the English word intelligent

13. Kopeck: a Russian coin

14. Mammoth: a prehistoric mammal, and, by extension, a synonym for massive

15. Menshevik: the name of the minority Communist faction in Tsarist Russia, originally in power briefly after the Russian Revolution but defeated by the Bolsheviks

16. Perestroika: the Soviet-era system of reform, from the Russian word for restructuring

17. Pogrom: originally, violent persecution of Jews in Russia; now, any officially sanctioned attack on a particular group

18. Politburo: the Soviet-era primary source of government policy decisions, a truncation of the Russian forms of the words political and bureau

19. Ruble: the basic unit of Russian currency

20. Sable: a mammal related to the weasel whose sleek black coat was long prized as a clothing material, and, by extension, a synonym for black

21. Samizdat: prohibited literature produced clandestinely

22. Samovar: an urn for heating tea

23. Sputnik: a traveling companion; also, the name given to a series of Soviet-era satellites, the first objects launched into space

24. Taiga: the far northern coniferous forests of both Asia and North America, from a Turkish or Mongolian word

25. Troika: a carriage or sleigh pulled by three horses, or a triumvirate (a ruling or administrative trio)

Unfamiliar Russian Words (Not Yet Absorbed into English)

26. Druzhina: a unit of bodyguards and elite troops

27. Glavlit: the Soviet-era government censorship agency

28. Izba: a log house

29. Knout: a whip used in punishment

30. Konyushy: an official responsible for horses used in ceremonies

31. Kulak: a well-off farmer

32. Lishenets: a disenfranchised group

33. Matryoshka: a set of Russian nesting dolls

34. Muzhik: a peasant

35. Namestnik: an administrator (from the Russian word for deputy)

36. Narkompros: a Soviet-era agency responsible for education and culture, later called the Ministry of Enlightening

37. Nomenklatura: the Soviet elite, holding prestigious government and industrial posts (from the Latin term nomenclature, list of names)

38. Okhrana: the Tsarist secret police

39: Oprichnik: Ivan the Terribles brutal bodyguards and henchmen

40. Prikaz: originally, a bureaucratic position; later, an administrative directive

41. Propiska: a Tsarist regulation requiring subjects to remain in their hometown

42. Rasputitsa: spring and fall periods in which, because of heavy snow or rain, unpaved roads are impassable (possibly related to the name of Rasputin)

43. Sambo: a form of martial arts

44. Silovik: the elite

45. Spetsnaz: special-forces soldiers

46. Tamizdat: prohibited literature produced outside the country

47. Tovarishch: a companion or fellow traveler; used as a direct form of address in the Soviet Union, equivalent to comrade

48. Ukase: a decree; refers specifically to a government proclamation or generically to an arbitrary command

49. Ushanka: a fur cap with ear flaps

50. Zek: an inmate

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