Soviet phraseology

The topic of this article is not limited to the Russian language, since this phraseology also permeated regional languages in the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, Russian was the official language of inter-nationality communication in the Soviet Union, and was declared official language of the state in 1990, therefore it was the major source of Soviet phraseology.

Taxonomy

The following main types of Sovietism coinage may be recognized:

• Semantic shift: for example, "to throw out" acquired the colloquial meaning of "to put goods for sale". In the circumstances of total consumer goods shortage, putting some goods on shelves had a character of certain suddenness, captured in the expression. "Ivan, grab your avoska, oranges have been thrown out down on the corner!" — it was not that someone jettisoned oranges; rather a makeshift stall was set up in the street to sell oranges.
• Intentional word coinage for new elements arisen in the Soviet/Eastern Bloc world, often as abbreviations and acronyms: Gosplan, KGB, gulag, kombed, agitprop, etc.
• Colloquial word coinage: khrushchovka, psikhushka.
• Stylistic cliches: "forever alive" (about Vladimir Lenin), "laboring intelligentsia", to distinguish "good" intelligentsia from "bad" intelligentsia of the past, etc.
• Political and ideological slogans Soviet people saw everyday everywhere. Often they were exploited in Russian political jokes. For example, the formula "The Party is Intelligence, Honor, and Conscience of our Epoch" was mathematically transformed into "Intelligence is party minus honor minus conscience of our epoch."
• Quite a few pejorative terms were standardized for numerous enemies of the people and other anti-Soviet subjects: "sharks of imperialism", "rootless cosmopolitans". "The whore of capitalism" was an epithet for genetics.