troika

noun

Etymology: From Russian тро́йка (trójka, “a group of three”).

1. A Russian carriage drawn by a team of three horses abreast.

   “A great writer of the last epoch, comparing Russia to a swift troika galloping to an unknown goal, exclaims 'Oh, troika, birdlike troika, who invented thee!' and adds, in proud ecstasy, that all the peoples of the world stand aside respectfully to make way for the recklessly galloping troika to pass.”

   “When Gogol wrote his great passage on the troika speeding across the steppes, he likened it to Russia itself, advancing across the earth.”

2. A party or group of three, especially a ruling council of three people in Soviet or Russian contexts.

   “The investigator suspected the poor dead bastards were just a vodka troika that had cheerily frozen to death.”

   “The bare troika of Boolean operators brought them into metaphorical being.”