Nina Popova (C), a poetess and the deputy head of the Russian Writers’ Union, presents an anthology of patriotic poems entitled “For Our Friends” celebrating the courage of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, during the 10th edition of the “Red Square” book festival in Moscow on June 6, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP
Euphemisms to talk about the dead, military jargon, patriotic poems and self-censorship: two-and-a-half years of fighting in Ukraine have had an impact on Russian language and literature.
On February 24, 2022, President Vladimir Putin announced a “Special Military Operation” — referred to by its Russian acronym as “SVO”.
The abbreviation has become ubiquitous in Russia — repeated by political and military officials, used on social networks, in books and on illuminated billboards on the side of the road of the Russian capital.
Usage of word ‘war’
The use of the word “war” was initially completely banned and punishable with a prison sentence.
It has reappeared in official language, even from Mr. Putin, but only to describe what he says is a war instigated by Ukraine and the West against Russia.
Nina Popova, a pro-government author who is also the deputy head of the Russian Writers’ Union, uses the word without batting an eyelid.
Her organisation, a propaganda tool during the Soviet era, oversaw the publication in June of an anthology of poems entitled For Our Friends celebrating the courage of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
She said the appearance of patriotic poems and songs shows that the conflict in Ukraine “is starting to take on a sacred dimension”.
That status has long been occupied by the “Great Patriotic War” — the Russian name for World War II which Mr. Putin places at the heart of his rhetoric on Russian greatness and regularly compares to the “SVO”.
An example of the omnipresence of the “SVO” acronym is its use in the form of wordplay in the slogan “Join our people!” plastered across the country to encourage Russians to join the army.
Another change is that the government no longer denies losses in an effort to “soften the shock for public opinion”, the linguist said.
Several euphemisms are used in Russian to refer to losses, including “200s” to refer to military deaths or “300s” for injuries.
These expressions feature in an informal “dictionary of the SVO” shown off by Ms. Popova.
It has a lot of the jargon used by the army such as “bird” or “Batman” for drones but also new words to refer to mobilised soldiers such as “mobiki” or even “chmobiki” — the latter with the addition of another word meaning “scum”.
Critics of the “SVO” resort to self-censorship and silence.
While in 2022 “you could hear people expressing doubt on public transport or with their neighbours,” the linguist said, “they now stay silent”.
