About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

11 Probs. Communism 47 (1962)
That's No Lie, Comrade

handle is hein.journals/probscmu11 and id is 113 raw text is: That's No Lie, Comrade By Ronald Hingley IT WILL BE generally agreed that Soviet society has evolved a special style of public behavior which may be observed when Soviet citizens engage in diplomacy, good will contacts, political or cultural celebrations and the like. This style is highly original, but its creation has been assisted by many diverse influences. For exam- ple, one influence has been a tendency-natural in the members of an authoritarian society-to imitate the man- ner of the overall boss. Thus, under Stalin, the Russians whom one met tended to be as taciturn and inscrutable as their leader. After Stalin's death and Khrushchev's rise, they suddenly became bluff, bonhomous and clubby, reproducing the image of their new leader, homely prov- erbs and all. Stalin, of course, was not a Russian at all, nor was he very much like a Russian. But in many ways Khru- shchev is a typical Russian, so that his ascendancy has opened the door for elements in the Russian national character to influence the Soviet style of behavior to a greater degree than before. This style has spread to non- Russian areas whose inhabitants are often pathetic as they mechanically reproduce fashionable and required postures. To some extent the new manner has also affected Communists in the satellites and in the free world. In the West sufficient attention has not yet been given to the important ways in which Soviet behavior has been conditioned by the Russian national character, perhaps because national character is such an elusive thing and so often provokes misleading and even offending gen- eralizations. The assessment of a people is at best a crude and unscientific procedure, and in attempting it one must never trip into the pitfall of attributing national characteristics without discrimination to all representa- Mr. Hingley is University lecturer in Russian at Oxford University, Research Fellow of St. Antony's College, and author of several works on Soviet literature. This is his first contribution to Problems of Communism. tives of a given nationality with whom one may come in contact. That this common fault is tactless and foolish need not, however, deter one from enquiry, and in the present instance the writer will try to rely as far as pos- sible on the evidence of Russians about themselves. Such an enquiry can all too easily give the impression of being anti-Russian when it is nothing of the sort. The fact is that humanity in the mass (on which conclu- sions about national character have to be based) is less prepossessing than in small doses. Russians, Ger- mans and the British considered in the lump are less pleasant than the Russians, Germans, and Englishmen whom one knows. Moreover, there appears to exist a law whereby, when national characteristics become insti- tutionalized (as has happened in Soviet Russia), it is precisely the more absurd characteristics which push out the more dignified and attractive. Perhaps I can best put this in perspective by considering what might have happened if my own country, England, had undergone a Bolshevik Revolution, instead of Russia. If, as a conse- quence, the more famous English qualities had become features of the official Communist behavior-style, the results would obviously have been completely different from what we now find in Russia. But would they have been any less absurd? I doubt it. Yet to believe this is not necessarily to be anti-English. The Fine Points of Vranyo With these qualifications, we may now approach the subject at hand, which is the influence on Soviet behavior of a specific Russian characteristic-the tendency to in- dulge in what the Russians call vranyo. Just how untranslatable this is may be illustrated by reference to the two main Russian-English dictionaries, one of which renders the word as lies, fibbing, nonsense, rot, and the other as idle talk, twaddle. To these words may be added the Irish blarney, which comes nearer than 47

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most