Tiuremno-blatnaya lirika [SEC=PERSONAL]

[Olga Meerson]

Dear Robertjan, dear all,
(In case any of these is any news, those to whom it is not, please pardon me): 

отвязный = свободный, освобождающий, дающий чувство "покоя и воли", говоря языком Пушкина
кочумать = молчать, храня тайну

The problem with protest and dissociation is two-fold: 
Not only do all Soviet or former Soviet citizens feel like their state having been a huge labor camp (cf. Galich's "жиыем мы, как на облаке, есть баня и сортир, а за колючей проволокой пускай сидит весь мир"), but the authorities are also like criminals (here, Shalamov was factually right). Consequently, criminal jargon is appropriated both by the authorities and the protesters (here Shalamov wanted to resist something he couldn't). The language becomes pan-national; herein lies its strength for reforming Russian language as such. There is no point to resist this process for political or purist reasons--anymore than there is a point to resist any language development, for a true linguist--more an observer than a norm-setter.

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