STALINKA

[Edward M Dumanis]

On Sun, 25 Sep 2005, Galina Rylkova wrote:

> personally, I see no problem with "Stalinka" as short for "Digital  
> Library of Stalinism" (its full name). It is analogous to "Istorichka,"  
> "Teatralka," "Inostranka," "Publichka" and alike. I rarely heard these  
> libraries called by their full names.


Sorry but this is exactly where the problem is.
I can only say that those names were given to libraries with the idea of 
familiarity. Cf. "zajdjom k Ninke i Galke na chajok."
This type of familiarity excludes animosity that the name of Stalin 
creates nowadays. "Stalinka" would be quite appropriate in the "uncle Joe"
time but is inappropriate now as I am concerned. I know many people who
would find this name to be insensitive, just softly speaking.
Of course, it does not exhaust all the meanings associated with the suffix
-k-. However, in the presented context, the meaning is restricted to the
one of familiarity (and possibly hidden affection). Cf. "chitalka" and
"kurilka."
Similarly, "X-iana" is normally not just a collection devoted to X, but
a kindly viewed one and clearly with respect extended to X.
Since it seems that my previous suggestion to test the name with
substitution of Hitler for Stalin did not convince all of you, please try
another substitution with Bin Laden: "Bin Ladenka" or "Bin Ladeniana."
Do you still think that for Russians who live in USA it would be a good
idea to call, say, a corresponding FBI collection by such names?
By some reason, I thought that the answer would be obvious. I guess I was
mistaken.

Let me say now a few words on the origin of this discussion.
Not being a clairvoyant, still I think I can bet that the authors were
inspired by Leninka, a favorite place for many scholars in Moscow.
However, there is an important detail missing: that was not a place
of Lenin's archive but rather a library named after Lenin, and this is
what Leninka refers to. For a library, or archive named after Stalin, the
name Stalinka might be appropriate. It is possible that such a collection
exists, say, in the Republic of Georgia. Then there is nothing wrong to
call it Stalinka since it would be just a reference to an existing
collection.
However, to name a new collection as Stalinka is the same thing as to name
it after Stalin. It is clear that if a collection is named after X, the
name of this collection expresses certain respect towards X. So, X-ka
would inherit the same meaning.

Sincerely,

Edward Dumanis <dumanis at buffalo.edu>


> 
> On Sep 25, 2005, at 10:21 PM, Francoise Rosset wrote:
> 
> > I'm interested as to why the word "Stalinka" itself is a problem
> > (I associated it with both the housing projects and the Leninka,
> > as mentioned already by others, or else anything to do with Stalin).
> >
> > I'm not Russian, did not live through or specialize in Stalin's time,
> > so this is a serious and genuine question.
> > Is it because it's too mild? too facetious? because it was used to
> > glorify Stalin? Why would Russians in particular see this site as
> > disrespectful or a glorification or apologia?
> > Would the title "Stalinka" signal to Russians that that's what
> > they should expect?
> >
> > The only thing marginally un-serious in the e-mailed announcement
> > was the lead-up, delivered in Helena Goscilo's usual tongue-in-cheek
> > tone.
> >
> >>  > "Hitleriana" and "Hitlerka" for a Russian collection of  
> >> Hitler-related
> >>  > papers but it would look like a collection for Neo-Nazis.
> >
> > And so would this set of pictures to a neo-Stalinist -- but is that  
> > because
> > this site is warped, or the beholder?
> > "Hitleriana," "Staliniana," "X-iana," etc. are standard descriptors  
> > and titles
> >  for "sundry materials about" X.
> >
................./snip/........................

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