Russian Dictionary of Quotations

[Andrew Jameson]

Review

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Konstantin Dushenko
Published by Agraf, Moscow, 1997. Price circa #20. Vinyl, 632pp. ISBN 5 7784
 0031 4
For a culture which loves dictionaries, it is surprising that Russian has not
 had a
dictionary of quotations before now. Even if a Dictionary of Contemporary
 Quotations such
as this would have been impossible for political reasons, a dictionary with
 mainly
classical, literary and maybe also religious content would not have been
 unthinkable (on
similar lines to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations). In compiling a Dictionary
 of
Contemporary Quotations (DCQ) Dushenko shows a certain structural indebtedness
 to the
ODQ, for example using a mixed alphabetic and number system to locate the
 quotations. In
this case each letter of the alphabet has its own sequence of numbers for the
 quotes. The
main body of quotations is in alphabetical order of the originator, followed by
 separate
sections "Anonymous Quotations: Songs; Political Slogans; Advertising texts;
 Other
anonymous quotations and expressions". There is an index of all names mentioned
 and an
index of quotations, listed by the first word, rather than by a key word.
In content, of course, the DCQ differs markedly from the ODQ, whose major
 content is
Biblical, classical, and literary. The DCQ cheerfully includes song texts,
 broadcasting
and mass media, cinema, radio and television, and titles of plays, books etc.,
 all
excluded by the ODQ. The DCQ's international content is understandably greater.
 The DCQ
has many short quotations of the "catch phrase" type from world politics and
 business
dating from the 1930s onwards. Often a small article discusses the likely
 origins and
antecedents of each item. Arguably this dictionary is as good as any for
 tracking down
this or that political/economic/social quotation of the 20th century, and there
 is a
special six-page index of foreign-language quotations at the back of the book.
Political quotations reveal that Soviet history is still very much alive in the
 Russian
mind: major collections are from Lenin (15pp) Stalin (10pp), Churchill (4pp) and
 Trotsky
(3pp). There are also many quotations from political figures of the tsarist
 Dumas and the
revolutionary period. It comes as a surprise to discover that the phrase
 "peaceful
coexistence" was first used by Chicherin in 1920. Some of Nikita Khrushchev's
 more
notorious sayings are here, and I could have wished for more. Present day
 politicians are
included, many of them in quotes that they must surely wish had been totally
 forgotten.
To mention only one, Pavel Grachev's words on the taking of Grozny in January
 1995:
"Eighteen year old youths were dying for Russia - and with a smile on their
 faces.."
Fortunately the Russian genius for humour is represented with, among others,
 Mikhail
Zhvanetsky, Yakov Kostyukovsky and Arkady Raikin. Under Raikin we are
 re-directed to 11
different scriptwriters who produced his material. Here are all the old
 favourites:
"Shutki shutkami, no mozhet byt' i deti!" "Normal'no, Grigorii! Otlichno,
 Konstantin!"
"Poskol'znulsya, upal, poteryal soznanie, ochnulsya - gips!" "Ya ne p'yu. - A ya
 p'yu?"
Significant literary collections are from Mayakovsky (an unbelievable 17pp), Ilf
 and
Petrov (11pp), Blok (7pp), Mandelshtam (6pp), Akhmatova, Esenin, Gorky,
 Pasternak,
Vysotsky, Okudzhava (all 4-5pp) and Tvardovsky (3pp). Apart from many glorious
 lines
cited, the dictionary quotes, with the same Schadenfreude shown in the choice of
political quotations, the most craven panegyrics to Stalin written by certain
 poets in
the thirties.
All in all, for me, a quite absorbing bedside book which widens one's horizons
 about
Russian life, literature and politics and often provides a fascinating
 mirror-image of us
in the West as seen through Russian eyes.
ANDREW JAMESON