The article deals with the elements of Russian cultural code in folklore and literary works of the Russian-Chinese and Mexican-American borderlands. The object of the study is the texts united by the topos of the border. The borderland is considered as the place of the most intense interaction of cultures. The authors focus on the features of the polylogue of cultures at specific loci: Trekhrechye, Northern China (right bank of the border river Argun); California and Baja California (Mexican-American border) — historically marked by the “Russian presence”. These loci are characterized by linguistic contacts of the Russian language with Chinese and Evenk (Trekhrechye, right bank of the Argun River); Russian with English and Spanish (California and Baja California). The relevance of the study connected with the growing academic interest in the phenomenon of cultural and linguistic interaction in the borderlands. The authors explore significant units of Russian cultural code: personal names (anthroponyms), toponyms, exoticisms based on Russian song folklore of the Trekhrechye and the literary works of contemporary authors of the Russian-Chinese and Mexican-American borderlands (Chi Zijian, G. Valdes). The verbal cultural code contributes to the preservation and transmission of cultural information in a situation of close interaction with a foreign culture. The work uses comparative-historical, structural-semiotic and linguocultural research methods. The study confirms that specific linguistic units, onyms (anthroponyms, toponyms) and exoticisms, are significant elements of the Russian cultural code, which is actualized in the polylogue of cultures in borderland loci.