Word origins

• VoronezhAn oblast and federal subject of Russia.
• VyacheslavA transliteration of the Russian male given name Вячесла́в (Vjačesláv).
• kashaA porridge made from boiled buckwheat groats, or sometimes from other cereal groats.
• OrlovA surname from Russian.
• KalashnikovA particular model of Russian assault rifle.
• systemaA Russian martial art, first appearing in the 1990s, involving a wide variety of fighting styles, including hand-to-hand combat, grappling, knife-fighting and firearms (with the specific elements usually dictated by the individual school).
• TuvaA republic and federal subject of Russia, located in southern Siberia.
• balaklavaA former city in Crimea, now part of city of Sevastopol
• VesnaA mythological female character associated with youth and springtime in early Slavic mythology.
• BrezhnevA transliteration of the Russian surname Бре́жнев (Bréžnev); usually refers to the Russian revolutionary and Soviet Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) Leonid Brezhnev.
• IlyichA surname from Russian
• GrigoryA transliteration of the Russian male given name Григо́рий (Grigórij), equivalent to Gregory.
• fitaThe obsolete Cyrillic letter Ѳ, ѳ formerly used in Russian to write proper names and loanwords derived from or via Greek.
• AleksandraA transliteration of the Pannonian Rusyn or Russian female given name Александра (Aleksandra)
• prospektIn Russia, a broad, multilane and very long straight street in urban areas, which serves as an arterial road.
• ByelorussiaBelarus
• YaroslavlAn oblast and federal subject of Russia.
• kraiA region or province in Russia.
• SmolenskAn oblast of Russia.
• MakarovA Soviet service pistol, the PM
• SvetaA diminutive of the female given name Svetlana, from Russian
• SukhoiA Russian aircraft manufacturer.
• burkaA dress made from felt or karakul (the short curly fur of young lambs of the breed of that name), traditionally worn by men of the Caucasus region.
• ArkhangelskAn oblast and federal subject in northwestern Russia.
• samovarA metal urn with a spigot, for boiling water for making tea. Traditionally, the water is heated by hot coals or charcoal in a chimney-like tube which runs through the center of the urn. Today, it is more likely that the water is heated by an electric coil.
• limanA wide estuary formed as a lagoon at the mouth of one or more rivers, where flow is constrained by a bar of sediments (created by either the current of a sea or a sediment-saturated river), especially in the Black Sea region.
• YakutskThe capital city of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Russia
• BorisovA transliteration of the Bulgarian surname Борисов (Borisov).
• barmyContaining, covered with, or pertaining to barm (“foam rising upon beer or other malt liquors when fermenting, used as leaven in brewing and making bread”).
• VitebskA city in Belarus.
• rotanA long rattan cane used for corporal punishment.
• MishkinA surname from Russian.
• kalanThe sea otter.
• TverAn oblast of Russia.
• AbkhazAbkhazian: of or pertaining to Abkhazia, the Abkhazian people, or their language.
• PeterburgSynonym of Saint Petersburg: a federal city of Russia.
• carboliteA phenol formaldehyde resin analogous to Bakelite used in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union
• YekaterinburgA city, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, the fifth-largest in the country by population.
• astrakhanClosely-curled black or grey fleece of very young karakul lambs from Astrakhan.
• NorilskA city in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, second largest city north of the Arctic Circle.
• kurganA prehistoric burial mound once used by peoples in Siberia and Central Asia.
• PetrogradFormer name of Saint Petersburg, from 1914 (when Russia entered World War I) to 1924 (when Lenin died), a major city in Russia.
• MedvedevA transliteration of the Russian surname Медве́дев (Medvédev).
• TyumenA city, the administrative center of Tyumen Oblast, Russia.
• bolshevismThe strategy used by the Bolsheviks in attempting to gain power in Russia.
• LadogaA freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia, near Saint Petersburg, and the largest lake in Europe.
• PenzaAn oblast of Russia.
• kaftanA long tunic worn in the Eastern Mediterranean.
• SemenovA surname from Russian
• banyaA type of steam bath, popular in Russia (and in some parts of Alaska as well).
• OrenburgAn oblast of Russia.
• BogdanovA transliteration of the Macedonian surname Богданов (Bogdanov).
• ZhukovA transliteration of the Russian surname Жу́ков (Žúkov).
• BichA surname.
• kefirA fermented milk drink from the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, similar to yogurt but more liquid.
• studenSynonym of kholodets.
• OkhotskAn urban locality, a work settlement, the administrative center of Okhotsky district, Khabarovsk Krai, Russia.
• pivoA type of Central and Eastern European pilsner.
• KubanA river in Russia in the North Caucasus. It flows through the Karachay-Cherkessia, Stavropol Krai Krasnodar Krai, and Adygea.
• MorozovA surname from Russian.
• CominternAn international association of Communist parties, established in 1919 by Vladimir Lenin and dissolved in 1943.
• SlutskyA transliteration of the Russian surname Слу́цкий (Slúckij).
• SorokinA surname from Russian.
• YashinA transliteration of the Russian surname Я́шин (Jášin).
• buranA Soviet spacecraft, modeled after the American Space Shuttle.
• ChernovA surname from Russian.
• sbornikA collection of manuscripts; an anthology.
• MogilevA city in Belarus.
• StepanovA transliteration of the Russian surname Степанов (Stepanov).
• apparatThe Soviet machinery of state bureaucratic administration, or a similar communistic structure.
• ZaporozhyeAn industrial city, the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia urban hromada, Zaporizhzhia Raion and Zaporizhzhia Oblast, in south-central Ukraine, on the River Dnipro.
• VologdaA river in Russia.
• MazinA male given name from Arabic.
• KuznetsA surname from Russian.
• almascaviar from the albino beluga
• YakutiaA republic and federal subject of eastern Russia. Official name: Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Capital and largest city: Yakutsk.
• SpetsnazSpecial forces in Russia and other post-Soviet states.
• RyazanAn oblast of Russia.
• LyudmilaA female given name.
• LebedA transliteration of the Russian surname Ле́бедь (Lébedʹ).
• DitkoA transliteration of the Carpathian Rusyn surname Дї́тко (Djítko).
• VelikovskyA surname
• saigaSaiga tatarica, an antelope which inhabits a vast area between Kalmykia, Kazakhstan, southern Siberia.
• NKVDThe People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs — the Soviet interior ministry known for its secret police, forerunner of the KGB.
• SokolowA surname.
• SafinaThe star 88 Aquarii.
• KalininTver, Russia (Тверь).
• UlyanovskAn oblast of Russia.
• AsyaA female given name from Russian, of modern usage.
• SakhaA person of Sakha ethnicity.
• MaynA river in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Magadan Oblast, Russia, one of the major tributaries of the Anadyr.
• SalyutAny of the spacecraft involved in the Salyut programme, the first space station programme undertaken by the Soviet Union, from 1971 to 1986.
• Kostromaa river in Russia running from north to south into river Volga
• garmonA kind of smaller Russian button accordion.
• kalugaHuso dauricus, a sturgeon of the Amur river basin in northeast China and southeast Russia.
• VsevolodA transliteration of the Russian male given name Все́волод (Vsévolod).
• RPKA Soviet 7.62×39mm cartridge light machine gun
• kolinskyThe Siberian weasel, Mustela sibirica
• NenetsA member of a people who live in the extreme northwest of Russia; a Samoyed.
• GerasimovA surname from Russian