Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Useful Russian words

ne boltai - don't babble
voronok - black raven (Russian equivalent of the Black Maria)
poryadok - order
ushanka hat
pospeshish - lyudei nasmeshish - if you do things in a hurry you will make people laugh
kozha da kosti - skin and bones
sushki - tiny sweet bagels
dvoika - failure
gluposti - silliness
dvoechnik - a failure
pyatorka - success (five)
chut chut - a tiny bit
molodets - good for you
kotlety
kulturnaya - cultured
blat - connections
gorit i gorit - burning and burning
holod sobachii - dog's freezing cold
vodovorot - whirlpool
lishnie lyudi - useless people
chuzhoi - not part of the family
svoi - part of the family
besporyadok - disorder
rukhami ne trogat - do not touch with hands
Nyet hud bez dobra - there is no evil without good
hozyain - master
dushi - serfs/souls
ukaz - a decree
uzhasnaya - awful
chernila - ink (a name for cheap port)
svolochi - bastards
Most of these were taken from Elena Gorokhova's ace biography A Mountain of Crumbs.

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