Strictly speaking, this is the list of English words borrowed from Russian. Not all of them are of truly Russian or Slavic origin. Some are borrowed or constructed from classical ancient languages, such as Latin or Greek, others are borrowed from indigenous peoples of the Russian Empire.
Most of them are used to denote things and notions specific to Russia, Russian culture, politics, history, and only a few of them, such as mammoth, vodka, intelligentsia, taiga, tundra, pogrom, and possibly some others are in the "mainstream" usage, independent of Russian conext.
- babushka
- babka (American HeritageŽ Dictionary erroneously claims it is Polish), a kind of cake
- balaclava
- balalaika
- bistro, bistrot, French-style bar, from the Russian word bystro, "quickly".
- blintz, pancake
- bolshevik
- borsch
- boyar
- cosmonaut
- Cheka
- commissar
- cossack
- dacha
- duh, sounds as "yes" in Russian (spelt as да in Cyrillic)
- Duma
- glasnost
- Gulag
- intelligentsia
- Kadet
- kasha, Buckwheat groats, Russian for "porridge"
- katorga
- kephir (kefir)
- KGB
- kniaz
- kopek (kopeck, copeck)
- krai
- kulak
- kumis (kumys)
- kvass (kvas)
- Leninism
- mammoth
- matryoshka
- Menshevik
- mir
- nomenklatura
- oblast
- perestroika
- pirogi, also Polish pierogi, (plural) dumplings or pies.
- pirozhki (piroshki) small pirogi
- pogrom
- Politburo
- ruble (rouble)
- samovar
- shashlik
- Smersh
- soviet
- sputnik
- stakhanovite
- stalinism
- Stavka
- steppe
- taiga
- Troika (triumvirate)
- Troika (dance)
- troika (sled)
- tsar
- tsarina
- tsesarevich
- tundra
- vodka
- Yevsektsiya
- yaranga
