Wanted—Russian military slang

(Er, that’s a request, not a movie title, btw)

Anyway—I’m back on a writing kick again, lately, and I was wondering if anyone here could help supply me with some slang. Specifically, Russian military slang.

I’ve got a group of characters who’re basically former Russian/Soviet special forces, and I’m hoping to salt their dialogue a bit—both to make them sound a little more foreign, and hopefully to help establish character a bit more.

Most of their dialog is written in english—they’re working with an english-speaking organization, and under several American characters—so I had the idea that at least some of the slang would be rendered in english (if it would sound intelligible—but probably at least some that sounds completely insane when translated, if it’s funny enough), though others would probably be shown in untranslated Russian when the commandos are frazzled, distracted, in want of an English equivalent…or want to sneak in something unflattering.

Can anyone help me out?

Dictionary of Russian Slang - it’s ten years out of date, but there may well be some stuff in there that’s useful to you. Most of it is based on lexicons kept by the Russian police in the Soviet era, and the bias toward criminal/underworld slang is apparent even on a casual perusal. Still, I think it’d be a good place to start.

I’m told the quintessential, rolls right out Russian insult is “eb tvoyu mat”, meaning go fuck your mother. It’s often shortened to “tvoyu mat”, or just “mat”. It can be used for both personnal slurs, or as a general purpose swear in case of frustration or surprise.

Thiscould also help, though it’s not specifically military slang, just generic Russian idioms.