Word origins

• sheftsvoIn the Soviet Union, a form of patronage where more skilled or advanced workers (such as military troops or a factory) provided assistance and mentoring to the less skilled (such as farmers and construction labourers).
• sheltopusikPseudopus apodus, a large glass lizard found from southern Europe to Central Asia.
• ShigotizhA transliteration of the Russian female given name Шиготи́ж (Šigotíž).
• ShikotanAn island in the Kurils, occupied by Russia but claimed by Japan.
• ShkadovA surname from Russian
• ShlisselburgA town in Kirovsky district, Leningrad Oblast, Russia.
• ShoiguA surname from Tuvan
• ShoshaA surname from Russian.
• shtrafbatA Soviet penal battalion that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II.
• shtukaA specific generalization of a Drinfel'd module.
• SirenikskiySynonym of Sirenik.
• -skiAdded to a word, name, or phrase to invoke Russianness, Polishness, or a more general Slavicness.
• skomorokhA medieval East Slavic actor or harlequin
• slepezA type of mole rat, Spalax microphthalmus.
• smerdA member of a class of peasants in medieval Rus', perhaps initially freemen but later gradually reduced to a lower status.
• SMERSHCounter-intelligence organisation attached to Russian army units during World War II.
• smetannikA type of sponge cake made with smetana.
• Snegurochkathe Snow Maiden, a character in Russian folklore who assists her grandfather Ded Moroz in bringing gifts to children every New Year.
• sobornostA unity of people in loving fellowship.
• sochineniyaThe collected or complete works of a given writer or composer, especially a Russian one.
• solonchakA pale or grey soil found in arid to subhumid conditions with poor drainage.
• solonetzA type of soil with a so-called "natric horizon" within the upper metre of the soil profile and a subsoil with higher clay content than the upper horizon, the latter having more than 15% exchangeable sodium.
• solongoiThe mountain weasel.
• SolovyevA transliteration of the Russian surname Соловьёв (Solovʹjóv).
• sophiologyA controversial school of thought in Russian Orthodoxy, holding that divine wisdom is to be identified with God's essence, and that this divine wisdom is in some way expressed in the world as 'creaturely' wisdom.
• sosiskaA small sausage made from a mixture of ground meats, spices, and sometimes other ingredients like breadcrumbs or grains.
• sotniaA Russian or Ukrainian army unit of about a hundred soldiers, chiefly with reference to Cossacks.
• sovkhozA large, state-owned farm in the Soviet Union.
• sovnarkhozAny of the regional economic councils of the Soviet Union, which were created in 1957.
• SovnarkomThe Council of People's Commissars.
• SpalnoyeA hamlet in Borkovsky selsoviet, Sudzhansky Raion, Kursk Oblast, Central Federal District, Russia, situated on the banks of the River Psyol.
• spasibothank you
• StalinabadFormer name of Dushanbe from 1929 to 1961; a city in Tajikistan, Soviet Union.
• stanitsaA Cossack village.
• StanovoyA mountain range in Sakha Republic and Amur Oblast, Far Eastern Federal District, Russia.
• staretsAn Eastern Orthodox elder, typically a monk or hieromonk, often renowned for holy wisdom, who functions as an adviser and teacher.
• StaroobriadtsiThe Old Believers.
• StaroselyeSeveral settlements in Russia.
• starostaIn Russia, the head man of a village community.
• StarostinA surname from Russian.
• StaroyeA hamlet in Akatovskoye Rural Settlement, Gagarinsky Raion, Smolensk Oblast, Central Federal District, Russia.
• sterletA smaller, common Eurasian sturgeon, of the species Acipenser ruthenus.
• SterlitamakA city in Bashkortostan, Russia.
• stilyagaA member of a youth counterculture from the late 1940s until the early 1960s in the Soviet Union, who followed Western music and fashion.
• stiobA Russian genre of ironic but ostensibly earnest parody associated with the Soviet era.
• stolovayaA basic, utilitarian cafeteria in Soviet Russia.
• strannikA religious pilgrim in Russia.
• strigolnikA follower of a Russian Christian sect that appeared in the mid-14th century.
• struseA Russian river craft used for transporting freight.
• subbotnikA Saturday designated for community volunteer work, such as cleaning the streets, after the October Revolution in Russia.
• SuchanA surname.
• SudzhaA town in Kursk Oblast, Russia.
• SukhonaA river in the European part of Russia, a tributary of the Northern Dvina River.
• SunzhaA town in Sunzhensky, Ingushetia, Russia.
• SurovikinA surname from Russian
• sushkaA traditional Eastern European small, crunchy, mildly sweet bread ring eaten for dessert, usually with tea or coffee.
• SuskoA surname of Slavic origin.
• suslikAny of several large Eurasian squirrels, of the genera Citellus or Spermophilus.
• SuslovA surname from Russian
• svirelAn old folk Russian wind instrument of the end-blown flute type.
• SychiA hamlet in Uvarovka urban settlement, Mozhaysk Okrug, Moscow Oblast, Central Federal District, Russia.
• syrnikA fried Eastern Slavic quark (curd cheese) pancake.
• syrtA kind of elevated flatland in Russia and Central Asia.
• syuzhetThe way in which the story is told throughout a book or film; an employment of narrative.
• tachankaA horse-drawn machine gun, usually a cart or open wagon with the gun installed in the back.
• talikAn area of permanently unfrozen waterlogged soil surrounded by permafrost
• tamizdatWritings published abroad and smuggled back into the former USSR.
• tamizdatchikAn individual who partakes or participates in the practice of tamizdat.
• Tannu TuvaA partially recognized Marxist-Leninist people's republic northwest of Mongolia that existed between 1921 and 1944; roughly coterminous with modern Tuva; official names Tannu Tuva People's Republic (1921–1926) and Tuvan People's Republic (1926–1944).
• tarbaganAny member of the species Marmota sibirica of marmots that live on the steppes of Central Asia.
• tarpanAn extinct Northern European wild horse, Equus ferus ferus.
• TavolgaA surname from Russian.
• taygaA town in Kemerovo Oblast, Russia.
• tchavicheSynonym of chinook salmon.
• tchetvertAn obsolete Russian unit of volume.
• teremSeparate living quarters occupied by elite women of the Principality of Moscow.
• TinkoffA surname of Russian origin
• TitievA transliteration of the Russian surname Титиев (Titijev)
• TmutarakanA medieval Kievan Rus' principality and trading town located on the Taman Peninsula.
• TobolA surname.
• tolkachIn the Soviet Union, an employee whose role was to use informal connections to make it possible for their enterprise to meet or manipulate the government-imposed targets.
• tolkushaA traditional Kamchatkan and Chukchi food made of dried fish meat or roe mixed with fat and berries and extended with edible plant bulbs or stems, ground and pounded together for a long time to yield a white paste.
• tolstovkakosovorotka (type of shirt)
• TolstykhA surname.
• TolyattiA city in Samara Oblast, Russia.
• TonskyA surname from Russian.
• topshurA plucked two-string lute traditionally used by the Altai people.
• TorzhokA town in Tver Oblast, Russia.
• totchkaA Russian unit of length, equivalent to 0.01 inches.
• tovarishComrade, especially with reference to the former USSR.
• TrakhtenbergA surname from German.
• treshchotkaan old Russian percussion instrument
• TroianovskiA transliteration of the Russian surname Трояновский (Trojanovskij).
• Tsar BombaA 50-megaton thermonuclear bomb, detonated by the Soviet Union in October 1961. It was the biggest nuclear bomb ever exploded.
• tsarevichA son of a tsar, a prince in Russia or Bulgaria.
• tsarevnaThe daughter of a tsar.
• tsaritsaa tsarina
• tselinaA "virgin land": an underdeveloped, scarcely populated, high-fertility region of land often covered with chernozem soil in Russia and Kazakhstan.
• tsesarevichCrown prince (heir apparent or presumptive) in the Russian Empire, from 1797 till 1917.
• TsiolkovskiyA transliteration of the Russian surname Циолковский (Ciolkovskij).