Any linguists out there?
Something I would like to understand because we are using terms all the time which might be put in question.
The name of the USSR for instance:
Why is it translated, and used as Union of socialist soviet republics.
There is a translation available for ‘soviet’. It is ‘council’, simple as that.
In German it means Rat. Soviet republic could be translated as republic of councils, or Räterepublik. The latter term was actually used in German until the mid 1930s.
How about English? Has it always been ‘soviet republic?
Was the foreign wording chosen with a purpose to hide the meaning of the word? Was it fashionable to say soviet instead of council?
No German would call the USA Vereinigte States von Amerika, or the UK Vereingtes Kingdom von Grossbritannien, but the USSR became Sovjetrussland. Strange, isn’t it?
Olaf
posted by http://wimw-Bachmann.blogspot.com at 11:45 AM
3 Comments:
Oh, I think it was "All power to the Soviets!" from the beginning. Here's Lenin on that subject: http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/jul/18.htm
(to be sure, it might have been translated later). I suspect it had something to do with the fact that "council" just doesn't suggest what Soviet does; it's such a blah word. Much like using "Fuehrer" instead of leader. "Hail, Leader!" doesn't quite have the same effect, even though Kershaw translates the word just that way.
Hm...
Lenin was a Russian. If he uses a Russian word, that was not my problem.
I wonder why e.g. the old slogan
Alle Macht den Raeten [all power to the councils]
changed for Alle MAcht dem Sovjet.
Perhaps it was the influence of Comintern that pressed through a more Russian-oriented version.
Paul,
thanks for the info. Tht makes sense.
Olaf
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