Word origins

• sick man of EuropeThe Ottoman Empire.
• silovikA member of the Russian military, law enforcement, or intelligence services (the KGB or FSB), or a politician with a background in such services.
• SirenikskiySynonym of Sirenik.
• skazA literary technique wherein characters are mainly identified by the linguistic specificities of their speech.
• -skiAdded to a word, name, or phrase to invoke Russianness, Polishness, or a more general Slavicness.
• skomorokhA medieval East Slavic actor or harlequin
• SkoptsyAn underground religious movement in Russia, known for practising castration and mastectomy in accordance with their teachings. The movement was active to the mid 20th century.
• SlaviThe Russian Orthodox Christmas, which is celebrated from January 6 through 13 in outstate Alaska, USA, wherever there is a sizable Russian Orthodox population.
• 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.
• SocolofA surname.
• soft signThe Cyrillic letter Ь/ь (transliterated in English with an apostrophe (’) or prime (′)), which in modern languages using the Cyrillic alphabet serves to denote a soft (palatized) consonant.
• 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.
• SorokineA surname.
• SorokinianOf or relating to Pitirim Sorokin (1889–1968), Russian-American sociologist.
• 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.
• Southern BugA river in Ukraine.
• SovetskA city in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia; formerly, Tilsit.
• sovieticSynonym of Soviet.
• Soviet of NationalitiesOne of the two legislative chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; it represented the interests of members of different ethnicities in the USSR.
• Soviet republicA republic within the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
• 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
• special military operationA military campaign resembling a war; especially the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• 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.
• starshinaA sergeant major in Russia.
• StepanoffA transliteration of the Russian surname Степанов (Stepanov).
• 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.
• Stolichny saladA variation of Olivier salad.
• stolovayaA basic, utilitarian cafeteria in Soviet Russia.
• strannikA religious pilgrim in Russia.
• StribogThe god of the winds, air and sky in Slavic mythology.
• strigolnikA follower of a Russian Christian sect that appeared in the mid-14th century.
• struseA Russian river craft used for transporting freight.
• StudenkinA transliteration of the Russian surname Студенкин (Studenkin).
• 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
• SvetovidThe chief god of the Slavic tribe of Rani and the Polabian Slavs, ruling over war, fertility, and prosperity.
• 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.
• synharmonismVowel harmony.
• 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.
• taimenA species of salmon (Hucho taimen), living in Siberia.
• takirA type of relief, a dry fissured crust primarily formed by filamentous cyanobacteria, occurring in the deserts of Central Asia, and similar to a salt flat.
• talikAn area of permanently unfrozen waterlogged soil surrounded by permafrost
• TamerlanA male given name from Russian or Chechen.
• tamizdatWritings published abroad and smuggled back into the former USSR.
• tamizdatchikAn individual who partakes or participates in the practice of tamizdat.
• tandemocracySynonym of diarchy, especially involving alternation of offices in an allegedly democratic context.
• tankistSynonym of tanker (“operator of a military tank”).
• 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).
• tapochkiRussian house slippers.
• tarantassA low horse-drawn carriage without springs used in Russia, capable of having its wheels replaced with runners during the winter.
• tarbaganAny member of the species Marmota sibirica of marmots that live on the steppes of Central Asia.
• TarnovskyA surname from Russian.
• 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.
• telegaA simple four-wheeled Russian cart without springs.
• telnyashkaA white undershirt with horizontal stripes, sometimes sleeveless, worn as part of a Russian military uniform.
• Temryuk BayA bay of the Sea of Azov, Black Sea, on the Taman Peninsula, Krasnodar Krai, North Caucasus, Southern Russia, Europe
• teremSeparate living quarters occupied by elite women of the Principality of Moscow.
• textologyThe critical study of a text's creation, transmission, and context.