question about a "Russian" dish

There is a sort of salad made in italy that is called "Insalata russa" - "russian salad". It is generally made with boiled potato cubes, carrot cubes and peas in mayonnaise. A few times i;ve had it with the addition of beets (which are not particularly liked here, so maybe that;s why it's not so common).
I guess it;s like a kind of potato salad with peas and carrots, and sometimes beets, but heavy on the mayo.
We were talking with friends who had different ideas about the origin of this.
Some said it was not a russian dish at all (sort of like "french dressing" you get in american restaurants, with ketchup in it, which is not french).
Others said it was actually russian (the beets would make me think this) but of course in russia it is not called "russian salad" just as "french fries" are not called "french fries" in france.
Does anyone know if this is actually a russian salad?

Oh, yeah, and someone suggested that it's actually eaten in russia, but is called "italian salad"!

wow, thanks for the various replies. I knew i'd get the info from you guys.
siduri

Hi Ed,
When i was in high school in the states, (back in the 60s), fettuccine alfredo were very popular. My friend lived next door to a guy who nwas friends with the actual Alfredo from Rome. (Although there are two restaurants, and i guess two alfredos who both claimed to be the original). He came over as a guest of these neighbors and they had a party where alfredo showed everyone how to make his famous fettuccine. I was a kid and not invited, but my mother went and i remember how she and my friend's mother said they were made - and we had them at home after that too.
You put the hot, drained pasta back in the pot with an egg, butter and parmigiano. No cream. You mix it with the residual heat of the pasta, nothing more, and serve immediately.,
It's actually like a carbonara, except no pancetta and with butter.
But there was no cream. The creaminess is given by the half-cooked egg and the butter.
That said, i've spoken to many romans, and no one, i mean NO one, has ever heard pf fettuccine alfredo, and many were disgusted when i described it (italians can be very picky about eating only the thinhgs they grew up with) - some horrified at putting egg on what is already pasta with egg in it. I can't imagine two restaurants in the same area in a city can possibly survive on a dish only served to tourists, so maybe i don;t know the right people. But the fact remains that no one I know has ever heard of it. My father in law said that it couldn;'t be an italian recipe, because no one would put egg on egg pasta (carbonara is made with regular pasta, not fettuccine) "it makes no sense" he said, "it;s too rich" and "it';s an 'americanata" (an american thing).

Oh, and probably the egg is not used in the states as much because of the risk of salmonella, since if you cooked the egg thoroughly the dish would not be very good, it would be like overcooked scrambled eggs and pasta. I don;t hear much about salmonella here, and don;t know if it's because the eggs are less likely to have it, or if they don;t make a big deal about it. I know that pork is all and has always been all tested for trichinosis, so can be eaten raw or undercooked (prosciutto is raw ham, and called "prosciutto crudo" here - meaning literally "raw ham" - not very appealing! - and what we call ham is called "prosciutto cotto" - cooked ham).