The Return of the Russian Leviathan

GLOSSARY AND ABBREVIATIONS

Chaadaev, Pyotr – Russian philosopher who wrote eight Philosophical Letters between 1826 and 1831, the main thesis being that Russia had always lagged behind the West and had contributed nothing to progress. The letters were considered unsound and were banned by the Russian imperial authorities. Chaadaev was declared insane and put under constant medical supervision.

Cheka, Chekist – The first Soviet secret police force formed after the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917 was called the ‘All-Russian Extraordinary Commission’ (Russian: Vserossiiskaya Chrezvychainaya Komissiya), abbreviated to VChK (Russian: Ve-Che-Ka) and commonly known as Cheka (from the initialism ChK). The word ‘Extraordinary’ in the title suggested that it would have extraordinary powers. Throughout subsequent Soviet and Russian history, although the name has changed on a number of occasions (the last Soviet version being the KGB and, post-Soviet, the FSB), the organization became an essential part of the state apparatus. A member of the first organization hence became a Chekist, a nickname by which members of the successor organizations have always referred to themselves. A system run by Chekists may be referred to as Chekism.

Decembrists – Army officers who staged an unsuccessful uprising in 1825 in support of greater freedoms. Some of the ringleaders were executed, most were imprisoned or sent into exile in Siberia.

Disinformation – ‘Disinformation’ is one of the few words to have come into English from Russian. It means the use of false, misleading or partially true information with the deliberate intention of misleading the recipient. It should not be confused with ‘misinformation’, which is the passing on of inaccurate or wrong information in the mistaken belief that it its true.

DPR – Donetsk People’s Republic, Donetskaya Narodnaya Respublika or DNR; one of the two self-proclaimed areas in Eastern Ukraine to have called themselves Novorossiya after the Russian-backed war broke out in 2014; see LPR.

Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation – The Russian Parliament, created by the post-Soviet Constitution of 1993. The Federal Assembly comprises the Federation Council (the upper house, sometimes referred to as ‘the Senate’) and the State Duma (the lower house).

FSB – Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti, Federal Security Service; the post-Soviet successor to the KGB (see below).

Glasnost – ‘Openness’, a part of Mikhail Gorbachev’s plan to reform the USSR. He realized that his plan to restructure the country – perestroika (see below) – would not work if people did not finally admit openly to problems and shortcomings. Glasnost encouraged people to do this.

GULAG – The system of prison camps established across the Soviet Union under Stalin in 1929. It is an acronym for Glavnoe upravlenie lagerei, the Main Directorate of Camps. It became known in English especially with the English-language publication of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s major work, The GULAG Archipelago, in 1974. The fact of its publication abroad was the main reason why, that year, Solzhenitsyn was exiled from the USSR.

KGB – Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti, Committee for State Security; the last name of the Soviet era for the secret police, initially established by the Bolsheviks in 1917 as the Cheka.

LPR – Lugansk People’s Republic, Luganskaya Narodnaya Respublika or LNR; one of the two self-proclaimed areas in Eastern Ukraine to have called themselves Novorossiya after the Russian-backed war broke out in 2014; see DPR.

Muzhik – ‘A bloke’; originally meaning a peasant man, it is now used either to suggest a common or uncouth fellow, or, in a male company, ‘one of the guys’.

NGO – Nongovernmental organization, such as charities. This can also (in Russian) be used to signify not-for-profit organizations.

OMON – Otryad militsii osobogo naznacheniya. Special police squads, used particularly for crowd control or as riot police. They were first introduced in the late 1980s, shortly before the break-up of the USSR. Since then the Russian police have renamed themselves ‘police’ instead of ‘militia’ but the acronym ‘OMON’ has remained the same.

Oprichnik – The term given to a member of the Oprichnina, an organization of praetorian guards established by Tsar Ivan the Terrible to govern a division of Russia from 1565 to 1572.

Papirosi – Cheap Russian cigarettes which, instead of a filter, have a cardboard tube that is pinched twice before the tobacco is lit at the other end.

Patsan, (pl. patsany) – ‘Lad’, as in the idea of being ‘one of the lads’, a word commonly used in the criminal subculture. This is very much a part of Putin’s view of himself and why he feels he can connect with the male part of the Russian population.

Perestroika – Mikhail Gorbachev’s plan to reform the Soviet Union when he was General Secretary of the Communist Party (and thus, leader of the country) between 1985 and 1991. Perestroika literally means ‘restructuring’; but the Soviet system proved incapable of restructuring and in 1991 collapsed. See also Glasnost.

Potemkin Village – Something put on purely for show, with no substance behind it. The term comes from stories of a fake portable village built solely to impress Empress Catherine II by her minister and lover, Grigory Potemkin, during her journey to Crimea in 1787. As the Empress rode past, she saw what appeared to be smart dwellings and happy peasants; but the ‘dwellings’ were no more than stage sets.

Propiska – Soviet-era registration, which allows the bearer to live in a particular city, introduced to prevent mass migration to the big cities. This is considered by the Council of Europe to be a violation of human rights, and when Russia joined the Council in 1996 it agreed to do away with the propiska.

Samogon – Homemade vodka, particularly produced in the Russian countryside. Russians can be very inventive in making samogon, using all kinds of grain, fruit and vegetables.

Siloviki – Literally, the men from the ‘power ministries’. But this is not referring to energy; it means ‘power’ in the sense of strength (Russian: sila), and refers to the security forces (such as the KGB/FSB), Ministry of Defence and Ministry of the Interior (which as well as being responsible for the police also has thousands of its own troops) as well as for numerous other uniformed services: the National Guard (Rosgvardia), the Prosecutor General’s Office (General’naya prokuratura), The Investigative Committee (Sledstvennyi komitet), the Federal Guards Service (FSO), the Federal Prison Service (FSIN), the Federal Emergency Committee (Emercom), etc.

Sovok – A slang term, which came in towards the end of the Soviet Union to mean either the old-fashioned Soviet way of doing things, or someone whose mentality was still stuck in those outdated ways. The added irony is that it is also the Russian word for a dustpan.

Stukach, (pl. stukachy) – Commonly used slang term for someone who denounces other people, especially (but not exclusively) in Stalinist times. It is derived from the verb stuchat, ‘to knock’.

SVR – Sluzhba Vneshnei Razvedki, the External Intelligence Service; the part of the former

KGB (see above) responsible for intelligence gathering outside Russia.

Toska – ‘Longing’, ‘yearning’ or even ‘melancholy’. Russians can be very emotional; and when abroad (either by choice or, even worse, because of exile), ‘toska po rodine’, ‘yearning for the Motherland’, can be a very powerful emotion, greater than is conveyed by the term ‘homesick’.

Valenki – Winter boots made of felt, looking like oversized wellingtons. They tend to be worn by peasants or labourers.

VKontakte (VK) – Russian social media network, rather like Facebook.

VTsIOM – Vserossissky tsentr izucheniya obshchestvennogo mneniya, Russian Public Opinion Research Centre: founded in 1987, this is the oldest polling centre in Russia.

Vysotsky, Vladimir – Vladimir Vysotsky was a popular singer of ballads in the 1960s and 1970s, whose often humorous songs were regarded as being on the edge of what was acceptable to the Communist leadership. He died in 1980 aged just forty-two, which helped contribute to his cult status.

White House – In Soviet times, the White House was the seat of the Russian Supreme Soviet (Parliament). It was at the heart of the opposition to the failed coup against the Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, in August 1991; and then the scene of the stand-off against the Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, in October 1993, which ended when Yeltsin ordered tanks to fire on the building. It is now the seat of the Russian government.