1. A lot of people are struggling with this. So here’s an easy guide to distinguish the various peoples of the Russian Empire/Soviet Union, which may illuminate racial tensions, motivations, etc…

2. Ethnic Russians have surnames that end in -ev (Turgenev), -ov (Bulgakov), and -in (Putin, Bunin). Gentile Russians can also carry Polish-derived surnames that end in -sky (e.g., Kandinsky, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky). You may also find a Ukrainian -ko, or -chuk/uk (Rodchenko)

3. If someone’s surname has the properties above they are likely a Russian gentile EXCEPT if:

3a) They have the given names Nathan, Aaron, Mark, Samuel, Yakov, Abraham/Abram, Joseph, Isaac, and David.

These are Biblical names and not normally given to gentiles.

3b) They have a last name that derives, in part or in whole, from a Hebrew or Yiddish-German word. Examples are names with suffixes like -man, -shtadt, -vald, -thal, -burg, -shtein, -son, -is (as in “Mila Kunis”), and -rod (as in Axelrod) and so forth

4. If a surname sounds German and not Russian, it may be either Jewish or gentile. There are the “German”-sounding names that end in -er, -ner or -ler (ex: Becker, Adler, etc…). Many Russians have Volga German or Baltic German ancestors, often with upper-class backgrounds.

5. For example, Vadim Shefner, Alexander Herzen, and Alexander Blok all have non-Russian German surnames, but descend from gentile German colonists. Russian inventor Boris Rosing may be assumed Jewish b/c of his surname. Yet, his name descends from a Dutch gentile, Peter Rozing.

6. If both first and last names appear Russian in some form, the easiest way to identify a Jew is looking at their Russian patronymic “middle name” — (That is, the name that ends in —ovich).

7. If someone is named Vladimir Ivanov, a name the equivalent of “John Smith,” but his patronymic is “Moisevich” — meaning, “son of Moshe,” this clearly reveals his origins.

8. One easy way of determining if someone is likely a gentile but has a non-Russian ancestor providing a surname is to see if the family otherwise descends from nobility. Jews were not ennobled and could not marry into nobility.

9. Finally, if a surname looks totally butchered with hard consonants and reads strange (ex: Shargus, Chukray), there are likely Jews whose names have been “Slavified” from something else.

10. Next time you meet someone and they reveal their name as "Boris Matzner," and say their father was Russian, you can think back to this thread.

11. (BONUS) Names that seem vaguely Russian but have Islamic-sounding aspects to them --- say, Akhmedov -- are likely derived from the peoples of the Caucasus, many of whom are Islamic by religion but culturally have been molded by Russia for generations, if not centuries.