diff --git a/gensim/corpora/dictionary.py b/gensim/corpora/dictionary.py
index 1fd7e31e61..484684c26d 100644
--- a/gensim/corpora/dictionary.py
+++ b/gensim/corpora/dictionary.py
@@ -172,14 +172,16 @@ def doc2bow(self, document, allow_update=False, return_missing=False):
         else:
             return result
 
-    def filter_extremes(self, no_below=5, no_above=0.5, keep_n=100000):
+    def filter_extremes(self, no_below=5, no_above=0.5, keep_n=100000, keep_tokens=None):
         """
         Filter out tokens that appear in
 
         1. less than `no_below` documents (absolute number) or
         2. more than `no_above` documents (fraction of total corpus size, *not*
            absolute number).
-        3. after (1) and (2), keep only the first `keep_n` most frequent tokens (or
+        3. if tokens are given in keep_tokens (list of strings), they will be kept regardless of
+           the `no_below` and `no_above` settings           
+        4. after (1), (2) and (3), keep only the first `keep_n` most frequent tokens (or
            keep all if `None`).
 
         After the pruning, shrink resulting gaps in word ids.
@@ -190,9 +192,15 @@ def filter_extremes(self, no_below=5, no_above=0.5, keep_n=100000):
         no_above_abs = int(no_above * self.num_docs)  # convert fractional threshold to absolute threshold
 
         # determine which tokens to keep
-        good_ids = (
-            v for v in itervalues(self.token2id)
-            if no_below <= self.dfs.get(v, 0) <= no_above_abs)
+        if keep_tokens:
+            keep_ids = [self.token2id[v] for v in keep_tokens if v in self.token2id]
+            good_ids =  (v for v in itervalues(self.token2id) 
+                         if no_below <= self.dfs.get(v, 0) <= no_above_abs 
+                         or v in keep_ids)
+        else:
+            good_ids = (
+                v for v in itervalues(self.token2id)
+                if no_below <= self.dfs.get(v, 0) <= no_above_abs)
         good_ids = sorted(good_ids, key=self.dfs.get, reverse=True)
         if keep_n is not None:
             good_ids = good_ids[:keep_n]
diff --git a/gensim/test/test_corpora_dictionary.py b/gensim/test/test_corpora_dictionary.py
index bbf5fa339d..16c499b245 100644
--- a/gensim/test/test_corpora_dictionary.py
+++ b/gensim/test/test_corpora_dictionary.py
@@ -120,6 +120,27 @@ def testFilter(self):
         d.filter_extremes(no_below=2, no_above=1.0, keep_n=4)
         expected = {0: 3, 1: 3, 2: 3, 3: 3}
         self.assertEqual(d.dfs, expected)
+        
+    def testFilterKeepTokens_keepTokens(self):
+        # provide keep_tokens argument, keep the tokens given
+        d = Dictionary(self.texts)
+        d.filter_extremes(no_below=3, no_above=1.0, keep_tokens=['human', 'survey'])
+        expected = set(['graph', 'trees', 'human', 'system', 'user', 'survey'])
+        self.assertEqual(set(d.token2id.keys()), expected)
+        
+    def testFilterKeepTokens_unchangedFunctionality(self):
+        # do not provide keep_tokens argument, filter_extremes functionality is unchanged
+        d = Dictionary(self.texts)
+        d.filter_extremes(no_below=3, no_above=1.0)
+        expected = set(['graph', 'trees', 'system', 'user'])
+        self.assertEqual(set(d.token2id.keys()), expected)
+        
+    def testFilterKeepTokens_unseenToken(self):
+        # do provide keep_tokens argument with unseen tokens, filter_extremes functionality is unchanged
+        d = Dictionary(self.texts)
+        d.filter_extremes(no_below=3, no_above=1.0, keep_tokens=['unknown_token'])
+        expected = set(['graph', 'trees', 'system', 'user'])
+        self.assertEqual(set(d.token2id.keys()), expected)        
 
     def testFilterMostFrequent(self):
     	d = Dictionary(self.texts)