Obshchestvennaia Zhizn'

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Nora Favorov wrote:

> Dear Wise Ones in Matters Slavic,
> I am working on a translation that has forced me to confront head on
> a term that has bothered me for years.  What, exactly, is общественная
> жизнь (see subject line if you haven't conquered computer cyrillic
> yet)?  Obviously it's not "social life" as we understand it in English.
> Also obviously, it encompasses much of what happens in a society.
> Does it include...
> functioning of government services?
> changes in religious practices?
> functioning of the economy (shelves full in stores, jobs available,
> paychecks issued on time)?
> health care?
> crime or the relative lack thereof?
> forums for community interaction?
> education at all levels?
> or does it have more to do with the interaction of individuals
> throughout society--closer to what we would call "social institutions"?
> In this case I include marriage in the subset, but not the economy.
>
> The specific context in which I've encountered this word is a sentence
> describing the breakdown and restructuring in many областей
> общественной жизни after the October Revolution.
>
> As it stand now in my translation, I've rendered the term merely as
> "society"--("breakdown, rebuilding and restructuring that was taking
> place in many areas of society"). Does that work?

In this sentence, it works for me.

I did a quick Яndex search, specifying only encyclopedias (results at
<http://yandex.ru:8081/yandsearch?text=%22%EE%E1%F9%E5%F1%F2%E2%E5%ED%ED%E0%FF+%E6%E8%E7%ED%FC%22&stype=encyc>).

A cursory look suggests that it does not encompass the economy (the
phrase "сферы общественной жизни, отрасли экономики и т.п." seems to
imply that these do not overlap), nor "public life" as we understand
it in the West: "о текущих событиях политической и общественной
жизни..."

Other interesting phrasings that appeared in the first few hits:

"... лица или организации в различных сферах общественной жизни (например,
воспитание, наука),..."

"... и разных сторон духовной и общественной жизни человечества..."

"[Плеханов Георгий Валентинович] применял диалектический метод главным
образом к познанию общественной жизни. Из диалектики, понимаемой как
"алгебра революции", П. делал вывод о закономерности и неотвратимости
социальной революции. Анализируя историю учений об обществе, П. на
большом историческом материале доказывал, что только диалектический
материализм раскрывает закономерный характер общественно-исторического
процесса (см. "Литературное наследие Г. В. Плеханова", сб. 5, 1938,
с. 4-5). П. стремился раскрыть структуру общественной жизни и
взаимодействие её сторон. С точки зрения П., марксистский
социологический анализ создаёт основу научного предвидения главных
направлений общественного развития (см. Избранные философские
произведения, т. 3, с. 50)." -- БСЭ at
<http://encycl.yandex.ru/cgi-bin/art.pl?art=bse/00060/02000.htm&encpage=bse&mrkp=/yandbtm7%3Fq%3D-832755728%26p%3D1%26g%3D20%26d%3D0%26ag%3Denc_abc%26tg%3D1%26p0%3D1%26q0%3D431277989%26d0%3D31%26script%3D/yandpage%253F%26q0%3D431277989%26p0%3D1%26d0%3D31%26a0d0%3D511%26a1d0%3D511%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fencycl%252Eyandex%252Eru%252Ftexts%252Fbse%252F00060%252F02000%252Ehtm%26text%3D%2522%25CF%25C2%25DD%25C5%25D3%25D4%25D7%25C5%25CE%25CE%25C1%25D1%2520%25D6%25C9%25DA%25CE%25D8%2522>

HTHAL

--
War is hell. Bush wants to go to war. Fine. Let him go to hell.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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