SEELANGS Digest - 18 Aug 2008 to 19 Aug 2008 (#2008-299)

[John Dunn]

Here is a fresh delivery of balm in the form of at least a partial answer to Stephen Pearl's questions.

The interface between vast wealth and political, shall we say, leverage first became relevant in 1996 during El'tsin's re-election campaign, and the first term used to refer to this state of affairs was семибанкирщина [semibankirshchina], coined by the journalist Andrei Fadin on the model of the 17th-century семибоярщина [semibojarshchina].  During 1997-8 this term gave way to олигарх [oligarkh], perhaps because the group had changed its membership, perhaps because the joke had started to wear thin.  None of the sources I can immediately lay my hands on gives the paternity of this usage, and I would indeed imagine that this is no longer capable of being established.  It may be noted that the word олигарх [oligarkh]  is not included in the 1998 edition of G.N. Skljarevskaja's Tolkovyj slovar' russkogo jazyka konca XX v.

At the time of its coming into the use the meaning was very precise: these were men who combined great wealth with either real political power (Berezovskii, Chubais, though he was not one of the original 7) or political ambitions (Khodorkovskii); those who did hold an office of state could wield power therough their media holdings.  It was only after the election of 2000 and the so-called равноудаление олигархов [ravnoudalenie oligarkhov] that the word underwent a significant change of meaning, as the question of political power or ambiitons ceased to be relevant.

I hope the nerve ends are feeling better.

John Dunn.


-----Original Message-----
From: STEPHEN PEARL <sbpearl1 at VERIZON.NET>
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:18:46 -0700
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] SEELANGS Digest - 18 Aug 2008 to 19 Aug 2008 (#2008-299)

Brian Mason's raising of the topic of "Oligarchs" provides me with a welcome peg on which to hang and vent a long-standing - and long suppressed -  gripe.
   
   It also confirms the fact that the use of the word "oligarchs" in the Russian media  to describe the major beneficiaries of "prikhvatizatsiya" ["grabitization"] has become far too deeply entrenched for the rot to be stopped. 
   
   The question is how and why did this fairly learned  Greek word come to be chosen for the purpose rather than another which much more aptly describes the phenomenon in question, namely "plutocrat". After all, the connotation of "oligarch" is that of "a few" keeping "power" in their own - collective- hands. As far as I know, there was never a suggestion even by their detractors that the Russian "oligarchs" were in some kind of group conspiracy to capture and keep political power.  "Plutocrat", on the other hand, precisely connotes and highlights the connection between wealth and power.
   
  . Forgive me if I sound grouchy about this, but I guess that a classical education has left me with some extra-sensitive nerve endings.
   
  When was "oligarch" first used for this purpose in the Russian media and by whom? Does anyone know?  As to why? An answer to that would be far too much to expect. 
   
  I don't exclude the possibility that the word "oligarch" has a history of use for similar purposes in Russian that predates the current generation of Russian plutocrats? 
   
          Any balm to those abraded nerve endings would be most welcome.  Stephen Pearl
   
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John Dunn
Honorary Research Fellow, SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
University of Glasgow, Scotland

Address:
Via Carolina Coronedi Berti 6
40137 Bologna
Italy
Tel.: +39 051/1889 8661
e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk
johnanthony.dunn at fastwebnet.it

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