In the present study we have investigated the association of three single nucleotide polymorphisms in glutathione peroxidase (GPx) genes GPX1 rs1050450 (P198L), GPX3 rs2070593 (G930A) and GPX4 rs713041 (T718C) with the risk of cerebral stroke (CS) in patients with essential hypertension (EH). A total of 667 unrelated EH patients of Russian origin, including 306 hypertensives (the EH–CS group) who suffered from CS and 361 people (the EH–CS group) who did not have cerebrovascular accidents, were enrolled in the study. The variant allele 718C of the GPX4 gene was found to be significantly associated with an increased risk of CS in hypertensive patients (odds ratio (OR) 1.53, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.23–1.90, P adj= 0.0003). The prevalence of the 718TC and 718CC genotypes of the GPX4 gene was higher in the EH–CS group than the EH-alone group (OR= 2.12, 95% CI 1.42–3.16, P adj= 0.0018). The association of the variant GPX4 genotypes with the increased risk of CS in hypertensives remained statistically significant after adjusting for confounding variables such as sex, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure and antihypertensive medication use (OR= 2.18, 95% CI 1.46–3.27, P= 0.0015). Multiple logistic regression analysis did not reveal any interaction between various combinations of GPX1, GPX3 and GPX4 genotypes regarding the risk of CS in patients with EH. The study demonstrated for the first time that the C718T polymorphism in the 3′-untranslated region of the GPX4 gene could be considered as a genetic marker of susceptibility to CS in patients with EH.