Political Correctness in Russia

[John Dunn]

It may be worth recalling that linguistic political correctness was to a large extent a (re)invention of the Soviets (those who carried out the French Revolution probably deserve some credit, as well).  Examples include not only changes in forms of address and titles, but also the attempt (however unsuccessful) to eliminate asymmetric usage between adults of ты [ty] and вы [vy] and the banishment from public language of terms that were deemed pejorative on gender or ethnic grounds (врачиха, генералша, жид, чухонец vrachixa, generalsha, zhid, chukhonets]).  It is also worth remembering that choosing the politically correct term to refer to certain historical or political events remained an issue for as long as the Soviet system existed, as would be revealed by a study of the rise and fall of the various quasi-euphemistic expressions used to refer to the events of the late 1930s and beyond.

This may go some way to explaining the resistance to post-Soviet political correctness that is often encountered.  It is interesting, however, to note that around the end of the Perestroika period some attempts at ethnic political correctness were made, but without long-term success.  The introduction of the terms русскоязычный [russkojazychnyj] and лицо кавказской национальности [litso kavkazskoj natsional'nosti], whatever the motives behind their adoption, backfired spectacularly, and forms such as Таллинн, Кыргызстан, Хальмг Тангч [Tallinn, Kyrgyzstan, Xal'mg Tangch] had mostly disappeared by the mid-1990s.  But the notion has not totally vanished;  only the climate has changed, and if you want to remain politically correct, you must refer to the capital of South Ossetia as Цхинвал [Tsxinval], rather than by the Georgian form Цхинвали [Tskhinvali].  It might also be interesting to consider!
  from this point of view the terminology used to refer to the current period of economic turbulence.

John Dunn.

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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