Vocabulary of Soviet Society and Culture: A Selected Guide to Russian Words, Idioms, and Expressions of the Post-Stalin Era, 1953–1991

Description

Irina H. Corten’s Vocabulary of Soviet Society and Culture is an experiment in what Soviet scholars call lingvo-stranovedenie — the study of a country and its culture through the peculiarities of its language. Not a conventional dictionary, Corten’s lexicon is selective, offering a broad sampling of culturally significant words concerning politics, ideology, the economy, education, arts and letters, social problems, and everyday life as well as language associated with the personalities and activities of individual Soviet leaders. The entries are listed alphabetically in English transliteration followed by the Cyrillic, although readers familiar with Russian may prefer to use the Cyrillic alphabet listing included in this volume. In each entry the author provides a succinct but full explanation of the term and, whenever possible, authentic examples of its use and cross-references to other entries. A reader may approach the lexicon either sequentially or with the aid of a subject thesaurus that divides the material into specific topics. A listing of complementary sources of reference appears in a useful bibliography. Humor is an important ingredient of this book, and Corten includes many examples of Soviet jokes in her explanations of terms. Corten reveals how, in a society that was highly repressive until recently, the coinage and use of acerbic catchwords, pithy sayings, and jokes, or anekdoty, enabled people to communicate their ideas and feelings about their condition with relative impunity. With this fascinating lexicon of "Sovietisms," Corten provides an invaluable medium for understanding Soviet life in the post-Stalin era. Important for students and scholars of the Soviet Union and the Russian language as well as engaging and easily accessible for the general reader, this vocabulary fills a critical gap in the available resources on Soviet linguistics and culture. Contents ......Page 8 Acknowledgments ......Page 10 Introduction ......Page 12 Abbreviations and Dates ......Page 18 Classification of Terms by Subject ......Page 22 A......Page 34 B......Page 41 C......Page 54 D......Page 57 E......Page 67 F......Page 68 G......Page 70 I......Page 76 K......Page 79 L......Page 95 M......Page 98 N......Page 106 O......Page 115 P......Page 119 R......Page 141 S......Page 147 T......Page 162 U......Page 170 V......Page 171 Z......Page 178 Selected Bibliography ......Page 186 Alphabetical Listing ......Page 190