Word origins

• volostA traditional administrative subdivision in Eastern Europe.
• VorobeiA transliteration of the Russian surname Воробей (Vorobej).
• VorobejA transliteration of the Russian surname Воробей (Vorobej).
• VorobeyA transliteration of the Russian surname Воробе́й (Vorobéj).
• VoronaA transliteration of the Ukrainian surname Воро́на (Voróna).
• VorontsoffA transliteration of the Russian surname Воронцов (Voroncov).
• VorsklaA river that runs from Belgorod Oblast in Russia southwards into northeastern Ukraine, where it joins the Dnieper.
• Vosem chartA three-dimensional chart that graphs the political spectrum, mapping cultural issues on one axis, fiscal issues on another axis, and corporate issues on a third axis, with the endpoints representing eight different ideologies.
• voskresnikA Sunday designated for community volunteer work, such as cleaning the streets, after the October Revolution in Russia.
• VotkinskAn industrial town in Udmurtia, Russia.
• VovinA surname. In particular, was a Soviet-born Russian-American linguist and philologist Alexander Vovin, 27 January 1961 – 8 April 2022.
• vozhdA Soviet leader.
• vranyoWhite lies or half-lies ascribed to Russian culture, told without the intention of (maliciously) deceiving, but as a fantasy, or suppressing unpleasant parts of the truth
• VyatkaFormer name of Kirov (“Russian city”).
• vyazA traditional lettering style for Cyrillic and Slavosphere Latin, slender, ornate and interweaving.
• VychegdaA river in the European part of Russia, a tributary of the Northern Dvina.
• vzvarA cold Russian beverage made from boiled fruits (typically fresh or dried).
• war communismThe economic policy of the Soviet Russia from 1918 to 1921 during the Russian Civil War (1917‒23) and the Allied intervention (1918‒25).
• westernismSomething that is characteristic of the western part of a region.
• wet workA covert assassination performed by government operatives.
• when shrimps whistleWhen pigs fly; never.
• white amurA freshwater fish species of the family Cyprinidae (Ctenopharyngodon idella), the grass carp, native to Asia from Vietnam to the Amur River.
• White Armya collation of anti-Bolshevik armed groups that fought the Red Army during the Russian Civil War
• White RussiaA historical East Slavic region.
• White SeaA sea to the northwest of Russia.
• WitkoffA surname from Russian
• wolf's ticketIn tsarist and Stalinist-era Russia, a restricted internal passport issued to those suspected or convicted of political or other crimes which limited where they could travel and reside.
• WolkowA surname.
• WorobeyA surname from East Slavic.
• YagodaA surname from Russian
• YamnayaThe people of the Yamnaya culture.
• yarangaA rounded or conical tent of reindeer hide, the traditional mobile home of some nomadic indigenous peoples of Russia.
• yasakAn in-kind tribute in Imperial Russia exacted from the indigenous peoples of Siberia, usually in fur.
• YastrebovA transliteration of the Russian surname Ястребов (Jastrebov).
• YatskoA surname from Russian.
• YazovA surname from Russian
• yedomaA type of permafrost in the Pleistocene-age with an ice content of 50–90% by volume.
• YefremA transliteration of the Russian male given name Ефре́м (Jefrém).
• YegoryevskA town and the administrative center of Yegoryevsk Urban Settlement in Moscow Oblast, Russia.
• YeletsA city in Lipetsk Oblast, Russia, on the Bystraya Sosna River.
• YelizavetaA transliteration of the Russian female given name Елизаве́та (Jelizavéta), equivalent to Elizabeth.
• YeremeiA transliteration of the Russian male given name Ереме́й (Jereméj).
• yeryA letter of the Cyrillic alphabet: ы (y), now usually simply called "ы"
• YevpatoriaA resort city and raion in Crimea, internationally recognized as part of Ukraine but de facto in Russia. It is located on the Black Sea coast.
• YeyskA town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia
• YezhovA surname from Russian; especially when referring to Nikolai Yezhov, NKVD chief under Stalin's administration and one of the main architects of the Great Purge.
• YezhovshchinaA period of intense political repression and mass purges in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s, particularly from 1937 to 1938.
• YnglismAn esoteric Rodnover (Slavic Neopagan) sect from Russia.
• yoficationThe act of replacing the letter е (je) with ё (jo) in Russian text.
• yoficatorA computer program or person tasked with restoring the Cyrillic letter yo ⟨Ё⟩ in Russian texts where it is replaced by the letter ye ⟨Е⟩.
• yorshA Russian mixed drink of beer mixed with vodka.
• YovanovichA surname.
• yuftRussia leather.
• Yukaghira person with Yukaghir nationality
• yukolaDried fish meat prepared by the peoples of Siberia and the Russian Far East
• Zabaykalsky KraiA krai and federal subject in southeastern Russia.
• zagotzernoA facility for storing and processing grain in certain rural locations in Soviet Russia.
• ZakarpatyeCarpathian Ruthenia, a historic region in the Carpathian Mountains in the west of Ukraine, eastern Slovakia, southeastern Poland, and northwestern Romania.
• ZakharyA transliteration of the Russian male given name Заха́рий (Zaxárij).
• zakuskaAn assortment of hors d’oeuvres.
• zampolitA deputy commander for political affairs in the Soviet Union.
• zapadnichestvoAn 19th-century intellectual ideology which saw Russia's development as dependent upon the adoption of Western European technology and liberal government.
• ZapasA Russian army organization.
• ZatsepinA surname from Russian
• ZaumLinguistic experiments in sound symbolism and language creation, associated with futurist poets of the Russian Empire.
• zelyonkaBrilliant green, especially when thrown on the body of a victim in Russian politically-motivated attacks.
• zemlyankaDugout, earth-house (shelter or dwelling, especially in some Slavic countries).
• zemstvoA Russian district or provincial council, or elective local-governmental administrative division, founded in 1864 by Tsar Alexander the Liberator.
• zerenThe Mongolian gazelle, Procapra gutturosa.
• ZeyaA river in southeastern Russia, a tributary of the Amur.
• zhaleikaA Russian (or broader Slavic) wind instrument with one or two pipes.
• ZhdanovshchinaThe ideological repression of artists and intellectuals in the Soviet Union during the 1940s and 1950s.
• ZhetysuA region of eastern Kazakhstan
• ZhezkazganA city, the administrative centre of the Ulytau Region, Kazakhstan.
• ZhitkurA former town in Kapustin Yar, Kapustinoyarsky Selsoviet, Akhtubinsky district, Astrakhan Oblast, Russia; that was demolished to create the Kapustin Yar military reservation.
• zhretsSlavic pagan priest
• zhritsaSlavic pagan priestess
• zilantA winged snake- or dragon-like creature in the mythology of the Russian, Tatar, Chuvash and Mari peoples around Kazan.
• zindanan improvised prison cell consisting of a hole in the ground covered with a metal grille or grate.
• ZmiyevkaA settlement in Vysokinsky selsoviet, Bashmakovsky Raion, Penza Oblast, Volga Federal District, Russia, founded as a khutor during the time of the Stolypin agrarian reforms (1906–1914).
• ZmiyovkaAn urban-type settlement and urban settlement, the administrative centre of Sverdlovsky Raion, Oryol Oblast, Central Federal District, Russia, first mentioned in 1868.
• ZnamennyA kind of melismatic liturgical chant used in the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church.
• ZnamenskA city, a closed town, a former secret city in Kapustin Yar, Astrakhan Oblast, Russia
• zokorAny Asiatic burrowing rodent native to Central Asia, in the genera Myospalax and Eospalax.
• zolotnikAn old Russian unit of weight, equal to 1/96 of a pound or approximately 4.2658 grams.
• zone of proximal developmentThe space between what a learner is capable of doing unsupported and what the learner cannot do even with support.
• ZubatovshchinaThe creation of police-run trade unions in an attempt to compromise the labour movement.
• zvenoA small grassroots work-group within Soviet collective farms.
• ZyrianA member of the Komi people.
• ЯUsed to represent R in Russian contexts.