Derek Offord - Using Russian - A Guide to Contemporary Usage

found themselves with no role. Nobody even tried to ask themselves: supposing we could come to an understanding with them, in the cynical oriental manner, and make them obedient puppets, if one again puts it cynically. No, the gamble that was taken in the Iraq war was quite idealistic. And it looks as if it was taken in the sincere belief that the Iraqi people, having come to love the Americans for rescuing them from a barbaric dictator, would enthusiastically set about building the institutions of civil society and democracy. And yet for some reason that hasn’t happened. Instead of gratitude there is a guerrilla war with an extremely unpleasant Islamicist complexion .

In the context of the oriental outlook and political philosophy the perception of such trials both by commentators and among ordinary people will most probably be quite different from what people with an Anglo-Saxon legal consciousness expect. They will see in this a sign of shameful American weakness, they will see an encouragement to people to fight more actively against occupiers who have given [the Iraqis] a bit of rope and to resort among other things to the most barbaric methods – kidnapping people, online executions, well-publicised acts of terrorism against peaceful inhabitants in various countries, and so forth. It looks as if they have forgotten in Washington how they themselves were recently condemning Saddam Hussein for gassing Kurdish insurgents and how the Iraqi army in general would slaughter whole villages of Shiite insurgents including women and children. More likely still they have forgotten in Washington that the Americans have come to a country which until recently had been controlled and governed, and controlled absolutely, only by methods of this sort and which knows no other methods. Now it is being suggested to it [Iraq] that it should prize all the delights ‘of a fair trial’. They won’t prize them!

From the point of view of ‘domestic consumption’ the effect [of the trial]

may of course be more favourable. It will undoubtedly be a sop to American political correctness, democratic traditions and the deep-rooted respect specifically for the army, which people see as an institution that carries out the most noble missions all over the world. However, even in America there are those who will be grumbling: Corporal Sivits, they’ll say, is carrying the can for Rumsfeld and other Washington chiefs. Not to mention the fact that he himself might become a sort of ‘American Budanov’ [a Russian officer accused of shooting a Chechen girl], provoking a reaction to his condemnation ‘to satisfy the Iraqis’ that will not be straightforward by any means .

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2

Passages illustrating register

Like the previous passage, this text contains various features of high register, including the use of active participles and in particular the prolific use of gerunds. However, its purpose is not merely to inform but also to put a point of view and to this end the author deploys a sprinkling of colloquial expressions, often with a hint of irony. The passage is also notable for the care that the author takes to sustain his argument, especially by means of frequent use of transitional words

(see 5.2), and for his maintenance of a sense of contact with the reader by means of various conversational devices. Features of R3 in general and of the political variety of it in particular include the following.

r

grammatical

Present active participles: пeрeходя´щую (4), дaю´щими (28), нeсу´щий

forms

(44).

r Past active participles: привы´кшиe (12), восстa´вших (33),

укорeни´вшeмуся (43).

r Imperfective gerunds: су´дя (9; in a set expression), рaссуждa´я (15), прибeгa´я (28).

r Perfective gerunds: сдe´лaв (15), возлюби´в (18), вы´звaв (48).

syntax

r Use of стaть as copula: Cостaвно´й чa´стью тaко´й поли´тики . . . стa´ло

то, что (5–6).

r Occasional complex sentence structure, especially involving use of some variant of the phrase то´, что, viz. нa то´, что (18), зa то´, что

(32), о то´м, что (35, 47), к тому´, что´бы (27).

r

phraseology

Modish expressions: конкрe´тно (2), нaчинaéтся большоé ми´нноe

по´лe (3), в том числeín the sense of among other things (38–9).

r Colloquial expressions, used with a hint of incredulity or mockery: a вдруг (14), отдувaéтся зa (46).

r Phrases that appear to be quotations, or that are placed in quotation marks to highlight them, perhaps with ironic intent: ‘цивилизо´вaнную

войну´’, (4), ‘цивилизо´вaнную оккупa´цию’ (5), ‘ходи´ть строéм под

ружьём’ (12–13), ‘спрaвeдли´вого судa´’ (39), ‘вну´трeннeго

потрeблe´ния’ (40), ‘aмeрикa´нским Будa´новым’ (48), ‘нa потрe´бу’

(49).

r Transitional words and phrases which maintain the flow of an

argument: При э´том (10), Oднa´ко (20, 45), B контe´кстe (23), B э´том

(26), Beрнeé (34), C то´чки жe зрe´ния (39–40), He говоря´ ужe´ (47).

r Devices suggestive of engagement with the reader: и вот тут (2), Heт

(16), похо´жe (17, 31), the exclamation He оцe´нят! (39), конe´чно (40), бeзусло´вно (41) and the particle мол indicating reported speech (46).

2.11

Classical poetry

It should not be forgotten, even in a book on contemporary usage,

that a magnificent literature has been created in Russian over the last 62

2.11

Classical poetry

two hundred and fifty years and that this literature has greatly enriched the Russian language and continues to inform the consciousness of

educated Russians. It is generally agreed among Russians that the

outstanding representative of their literature is the poet Alexander Puśhkin (1799–1837), who helped to fashion the modern literary

language and exercised a seminal influence on many of the great

classical and twentieth-century writers. Puśhkin’s poetry is not

well-known to western readers, partly because of the near impossibility of translating it successfully. However, it continues to have a vitality and resonance for educated Russians that it is hard to understand in societies where poetry is generally of narrower appeal. It is therefore by no means a purely academic exercise for the contemporary foreign

student of the modern language to emulate educated Russians by

learning passages of Puśhkin by heart.

We therefore offer here the opening lines of Puśhkin’s narrative

poem ‘Me´дный всa´дник’ (‘The Bronze Horseman’), written in 1833.

(The reference is to the statue of Peter the Great (ruled 1696–1725) erected on the bank of the River Nevaín St Petersburg by the

eighteenth-century French sculptor Falconet at the behest of

Catherine the Great (ruled 1762–96).) Puśhkin begins his poem by

imagining Peter contemplating the foundation of his northern capital in the marshy wasteland near the mouth of the Neva´. He then paints a sparkling picture of St Petersburg, the city that by Puśhkin’s lifetime had sprung up there. The extract ends with Puśhkin comparing