... For We Are Russians

We are often told the Russian civilization is in fact a part of the European, Western one. That is, we at all not Asians and shouldn’t look at the East.

In this thesis only one part of the statement is correct: we aren’t Asians.

But from the fact we aren’t Asians doesn’t follow at all that we are Europeans — for we are Russians.

I explain it as one-two-three.

A certain sovereign, Ivan the Great, known also under the number IV and name “the Terrible”*, wrote to the Queen of England approximately so: you, the silly woman, put interests of trade above the state interests, and you are a servant of your merchants.

Russian Beauty is the Queen of Ice!

Liza Tuktamysheva

My sincere congratulations go to Elizaveta Tuktamysheva who won gold at the Figure Skating World Championship in Shanghai!

Her great effort was supported by still younger Elena Radionova, who became third after the free skating.

If my memory does not fail me, no Russian girl has taken the world's gold since 2005; so, glory to beautiful Liza now!

BTW, just FYI: Liza Tuktamysheva is a Russian Udmurt (or Votyak) from Glazovo, now living in St. Petersburg. Lena Radionova was born in Moscow to Russian parents, coming from Donetsk (this fact in no case makes the Ukrainians).

No doubt, one of the organic features of Mother Russia that make her invincible is her multi-ethnical composition: one our great Russian nation includes more than 180 'nationalities' (with Russian being just one, albeit the first one, in the list).

False Friends Spoil Communication

As you may know, there are so called 'false friends of interpreters'. That is formally similar words in different languages, which meanings differ.

Sometimes this difference is well known to everybody speaking this or that language. Just some samples for you to understand or remember better.

Russian 'students' do learn, but in colleges and universities only. Russian 'spectacle' is a theatrical performance of a play only. Russian 'sinus' is the mathematical sine only (except for the Russian medics, maybe), etc., etc.

But sometimes it's not the case and diversity of meanings is not that great or evident. And these 'hidden' discrepancies of meanings can be really misleading in communication.

Here, a popular Russian joke:

On the Russian-Latvian border, during passport check a Latvian officer asks a Russian tourist in English:
— Nationality?
— Russian.
— Occupation?
— No-no-no, just traveling!

In fact, it's not that fun. In Russian language the word 'оккупация' — occupation — has only a negative connotation, it is often illegal and made by states using military power. Germany and allied troops occupied a huge part of Soviet territory during the WW2. After the WW2 the allied powers occupied Germany. This is the only meaning of the word in Russian, we absolutely cannot have something like "Occupy Wall Street" or an "occupied seat" in a restaurant.

This is one of the reasons why we Russians (well, most of us) do not accept talks about the Soviet occupation of the Baltic countries in 1939—1940. Formally, all the democratic proceedings required by the intrernational law of the time were done in these countries, and they became Soviet republics, were incorporated in the USSR in a peaceful way. In fact, for an English speaking person they were occupied (albeit in a formally legal way and without any military actions); but for Russian speakers they were not at all, just because the USSR did not conquer these territories using its military power and losing lives of its soldiers.

A similar thing happens with annexation (e.g., of the Crimea). In Russian, 'аннексия' is a violent, 'forced attachment' of some other country's territory. However, in English annexation is "the incorporation of new territory into the domain of a city, country, or state" — neutral definition without any negative connotation. Thus, in Russian using the Russian word 'аннексия' to describe the reincorporation of the Crimea into Russia is kind of a clear sign marking, say, anti-Putin political position of a person.

Unfortunately, plenty of inadequately educated translators and interpreters seldom know and feel these differences. And it's not just a job; it's a hard and very responsible work — to make peoples clearly understand each other across state and language borders.

Hopefully this helps a bit.

Russian: What Does It Literary Mean?

In my opinion, an my opinion is based upon not only foreign media, but on numerous personal talks with people in Germany, the UK, the USA and other countries, use of the very word 'Russian' often leads to misunderstanding.

It's like a matryoshka, and talking about Russia (or Ukraine, for the matter) you shouldn't forget about it. The Russians are not only Russians, ok?

By the way, your word 'nationality' is also often confusing for us, being a 'false translator's friend'. The Russian word "национальность" of the same Latin origin means 'ethnicity', not state citizenship. And ethnicity means a lot in such a multi-ethnical country (or empire — I don't care) Russia is.

We have about 100 (one hundred) ethnicities counting more than 100 thousand people each, and in general our last census recorded about 350 ethnicities. Wiki has a good table on the matter. And all these people, being Buryats, Ossetians, Yakuts, Mansi's and many many other names, are Russians by nationality; definitely including close to 80% of Russian Russians.

What is important in all this Ukrainian madhouse spreading its infection worldwide, by the way, is that Ukraine is also a multi-ethnical country, though evidently to a lesser extent than Russia. And with the tiny little history of just 23 years after the disintegration of the USSR; Ukraine never existed as a self-standing independent state before, except for about one year during the bloodiest Civil War which exploded in Russia after Antanta decided to support anti-Bolshevik forces soon after the October Revolution.

Here, I'd like to remind you of a Gallup pool conducted in 2008. It clearly shows that 83% of Ukrainian population preferred to respond in Russian, and only 17% responded in the Ukrainian language. Nevertheless, the Russian language in Ukraine is not official; the language problem, worsened by active, and even aggressive ukrainization, was definitely one which lead the country to the present state of civil war.

So, as for Ukraine, people who are Ukrainians by nationality, can be ethnically Ukrainian speaking Ukrainians, Russian speaking Ukrainians, Russians (by their Ukrainian own census about 8 millions, yet the figure seems to be artificially decreased), and a number of ethnical minorities, including Crimean Tartarts (they have their own Turkic language), Hungarians and many others in Trans-Carpatian region.

So, talking about Russian and Ukrainian problems, you are to clearly understand what you are talking about now: nationality and citizenship, or ethnicity. And the latter issue is not less important on the territory of the former USSR; in Soviet passports there was a special line for ethnicity. Yet, especially in cities with well established industry, there were many interethnical marriages, when the husband could be Russian and wife Ukrainian, or Armenian and Azerbaijani, or Buryat and Komi, or Tartar and Jewish, etc. And it was the parents' joint decision, what ethnicity was to be written into the special field of birth certificates of their children, and later in their passports.

As for me personally, I am definitely Russian, I belong to Russian culture, Russian is my native language. In the time of Russian Empire my ethnicity was called 'Velikoross' (Great Russian), and the biggest were 'Malorossians' ('people of Small Russia', Ukrainians) and 'Belorussians' (people of White Russia'). Yet my blood includes drops of some other ethnicities, as it is common for many of my compatriots. I know that one of my great-grandmothers was a Crimean Tartar. I also can have a tiny little drop of Polish blood: one of my grandfathers came from a village in Ryazan' region of Russia, where captured Polish POWs were forced to settle back in the 17th century, and his family name 'Polyakov' (literally, "of Polish origin") can be a sign of it. But many of my friends and colleagues, and my classmates, and university-mates are and were Russian Armenians, Russian Tartars, Russian Jews, etc.

Just to finish. When the USSR was strong, the ethnical matter meant less; the social lifts were open to all ethnicities, and many colleges and institutes were obliged to teach a certain percentage of students coming fron ethnical minorities. With the disintegration of the USSR, ethnical issue arose in its full strength in some regions, and lead to many mass riots and bloody conflicts, mainly in the Asian and Caucasian parts of former Soviet Union. Who is a current 'nationalist' in Russia (not necessarily Russian ethnically)? The one standing for his (or her) ethnicity, not nationality.

I consider it as a great disaster and civilizational regress, as no ethnicity in my opinion is better than others. My younger son is a sportsman, a figure skater, and a skating rink is a nice place to show who is stronger, quicker and can jump higher. AK-47 is the worst way to prove one's advantage over others.

That's all for now; yet I feel the matter is so important that I will go back to it from time to time to dig some aspects deeper, and sometimes I will definitely touch it in my publications.