Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a derog. term for a Russian.

1855		Colonial Times 12 Dec. 2/2: The ground was honeycombed with mines, and the retreating ‘Ruskis’ fired them in all directions.
1858		F. Duberly letter July in Tisdall Mrs Duberly’s Campaigns (1963) 197: Was I the English-woman who had gone with the armies to make war against the Ruski?
1875		Brisbane Courier 1 Dec. 5: The Afghan Sirdars [...] must be asking themselves whether it will profit them most to side with the Ruski.
1878		Coventry Times 5 Sept. 4/6: The Russ and Turk and Asian heights contend.
1878		Somerset Co. Gaz. 1 June 7/4: Who shall [...] trample on Italian’s power? / Rusky will! Rusky will!
1883		H. Smart Hard Lines II 268: Wild rumours that the allies really mean striking a blow, which I presume in our less stilted vernacular means have a cut at the Ruskis.
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 179: If we could have only gone straight on to the Crimea, we should indeed have made the ‘old’ ‘Ruskies’ sit up.
1898		Regiment 21 May 115/2: [H]e drove straight at the stolid mass of grey-coated Russian cavalry [...] whirling his bloody axe around him, and sending many a Russkie to his last account.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 20 Mar. 5/1: The average person [...] isn’t rabidly pro-Russ or pro-Jap.
1917		‘Ian Hay’ Carrying On 16: Both visitors broke into a joyous chant of ‘Russky! Russky!’ They were escaped Russian prisoners.
1918		G.E. Griffin ‘The Men Who Were’ Ballads of the Regiment 44: The guidon’s a ‘Russ.’.
1921		Eve. Teleg. 24 Mar. 2/5: Lady Muriel Paget [...] nursed many a wounded ‘Ruski’ back to life.
1930		(con. 1914–18) Brophy & Partridge Songs and Sl. of the British Soldier 158: Russki. — A Russian soldier.
1937		E. Raymond Marsh 441: He had uncovered the face of Ben the Russky. The Russky, and no other!
1945		E. Hemingway letter 4 Sept. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 600: The true good intentions of the Russkis who know atomic bomb promotes necessity for such undertstanding.
1950		Sydney Morn. Herald 23 Oct. 3/1: A high-ranking Northern officer [...] said something about ‘Ruski’ and signalled us to pull them out.
1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 111: What’s the Rusky doing?
1952		(con. 1944) Wilder & Blum Stalag 17 [film script] 25: Hey – Russki – Russki!
1963		C. Wood ‘Spare’ in Cockade (1965) I i: These Russkis had guns ... right?
1976		P. Conroy Great Santini (1977) 252: It would take just one Marine wife or one Marine kid to start working for the Russkies and every move the Corps made would be transmitted to Russia.
1978		Maledicta II:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 168: Rusky Any Russian, person of Russian descent, or with a Russian surname. Less commonly, a Rooshkin. Both are semi-synonymous with ‘Communist’ among right-wingers.
1980		(con. 1940s) O. Manning Sum of Things 417: They don’t want the Russkies to advance on that front.
1987		B. Chatwin Songlines 83: So he could say to the Rooskie in Geneva, ‘Look, old boy, we also have the Cloud!’.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 107: The Russkies were running Czar Nicholas II out on his can.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1856		Cornwall Chron. (Launceston, Tas.) 30 July 2/4: The [...] French and English were shaking hands and bidding most affectionate farewells to their Ruski comrades.
1881		Hawaian Gaz. (Honolulu) 15 June 4/2: The Rooski Courier, which we lately received from Moscow, publishes the following intelligence.
1927		Queenslander (Brisbane) 8 Dec. 3/2: One of the choice Russki Communists is Dogitoff.
1939		W. Winchell On Broadway 8 Nov. [synd. col.] The first of the Russky runaways introduced vodka at the soirees.
1952		B. Appel Plunder (2005) 278: How about one of those Russky blondes?
1999		Guardian Guide 20–26 Nov. 12: Just look at the world-renowned Russkie twinkle-toes Mikhail Baryshnikov.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 254: I’m splicin the mainbrace with that old Rusky seadog Yurry.

3. the Russian language.

1961

M. Terry Old Liberty (1962) 33: Spicer and Bielo talked back and forth [...] chewing the fat in Russky.