08
History
RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES
BOOKMARKS www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/1155245 Pavel Palazchenko’s book
SECTION SPONSORED BY ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA, RUSSIA
www.langust.ru/etc/new
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dict.shtml More about Pavel Palazchenko
www.vor.ru/century/1962.html The 20th century, year by year
milparade.udm.ru/26/114.htm Military intelligence and the Cuban Crisis
Found in Translation:
To understand
the Russians better
Russian-English
PAVEL PALAZCHENKO
JOURNALIST
I’ve been a translator and interpreter
for almost forty years now, and my fascination
with “the untranslatable” has been growing all
these years. Mind you, we are speaking of Euro-
pean languages that are relatively similar. I would
say that compared to Piraha, the language of an
Amazon tribe which has no concept of numbers
or counting, Russian and English have a world in
common.
One can probably explain almost anything in al-
most any language but what takes one word to
express in English — privacy, for example —
might require a whole phrase in other languages,
including Russian.
Ronald Reagan, famously and wrongly, once
said that there is no Russian word for liberty. In
fact there is one Russian word — svoboda — for
RIA NOVOSTI
English synonyms liberty and freedom. But wait:
we Russians have a difficult-to-render word
1. 2. 3.
volya, whose meaning can be described as
“freedom to act at will” (it also has another mean-
ing: “the world outside prison walls”).
Simple words such as happy or friend are really
not the same as their supposed Russian equiva-
lents. Of course happy and particularly the noun
happiness can sometimes mean the same state
of cloud nine exultation that we invest in the word
schastie, but more often than not happy is just
“pleased” or “content”. So are the Russians in
danger of misunderstanding a simple phrase
such as “are you happy here”? It’s not really
RIA NOVOSTI RIA NOVOSTI RG about happiness but something like “do you like it
here”? Thus words can be, to use the term coined
1. Cuban prime minister Fidel Castro Ruz and Nikita Khrushchev during their meeting in Moscow on 28 of april 1963. 2. 35th president of the USA John Fitzgerald Kennedy. by the Polish linguist Anna Wierzbicka, culture-
3. The first secretary of the Central Commitee of the Communist party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev. specific. Let me coin my own term: subculture-
specific. In “business English” the word aggres-
sive is almost always positive (“we shall aggres-
sively pursue this deal”) while in everyday
Thirteen Days in October 1962 and how the Cuban Missel Crisis was resolved day
speech it can be positive or negative, depending
on the context. Well, in Russian the meaning of the
by day and through the lens of a former director of the American section of the KGB
word agressivny is practically always negative.
Of course, when things get really tough languag-
es borrow words from one another. Today, the
tendency is to borrow heavily from English, for
Coffeepolicy
good reasons (the Western world is good at
technological, economic and cultural innovation)
or for bad ones (we are just being lazy or not very
creative).
From time to time English does borrow from Rus-
sian — terrible words like pogrom or GULAG or
words we are proud of, like sputnik, glasnost, or
perestroika. I hope that in the future our linguistic
exports will be good or at least benign. In the
meantime, foreign reporters writing from Russia
are racking their brains to succinctly describe
A spy and a journalist used alternative
Russian phenomena like siloviki or silovye minis-
terstva. Those who take the easy road say
“power ministries”, which is wrong and can be
misunderstood (“is it about nuclear power?”).
diplomacy to avert a war in October’62
And because “law enforcement” and “security
agency officials” is so long, they just borrow the
word. In dispatches from Moscow, siloviki often
go without explanation. Sapienti sat — a word is
enough to the wise.
The Cuban Missile Crisis began structed to invite Fomin to lunch. grind slowly. Ambassador Ana- derson. The Americans’ reaction and Fomin was present during
45 years ago, following the Scali was on familiar terms with toly Dobrynin studied Fomin’s was unanimous: U.S. aircraft their first meeting in the Soviet
English-Russian
Soviet Union’s deployment of the Kennedys and was well ac- report for three hours before tell- must be sent the next morning to embassy.
nuclear missiles in Cuba. In quainted with the then-Secre- ing him he had no way to send it bomb all missile sites in Cuba. At 2 p.m., Fomin was summoned
MICHELE A. BERDY
response, Washington put its tary of State Dean Rusk. to Moscow. The cipher officer But Kennedy was not ready to to a room on the second floor, JOURNALIST
armed forces on alert. These two Scali and Fomin met in the Oc- was summoned and instructed make the decision, possibly still where he saw the ambassador
events nearly pushed the planet cidental Restaurant, two blocks to relay the message to the KGB waiting for Khrushchev’s reply. with Robert Kennedy. Dobrynin,
to the brink of World War III. from the White House. chief of foreign intelligence via Moscow, however, was silent. clearly nervous, asked Fomin
The newsman told the spy that the KGB line. It was only late at night on Octo- for some information. The KGB
VLADIMIR CHIKOV
the Pentagon had assured the Some time later, Fomin received ber 26 that two letters from the officer immediately realized that
president that all they needed a letter from the Moscow Centre, Russian leader reached Ken- it was not Dobrynin but Kenne-
It took the efforts of Soviet intelli- was his go-ahead to make short saying that they had received nedy. One was conciliatory and dy who wanted him at the meet-
gence and Alexander Feklisov, work of the Soviet missiles and the message but it should be re- the other harsh. ing. RFK had apparently come I have lived on and off in Moscow for
chief of its Washington station, Castro’s regime in a matter of peated through the Foreign Min- In their reply the American lead- to the embassy to size up Fomin nearly 30 years, starting in 1978 as a new college
to defuse the tensions. After So- 48 hours. istry’s channels and should bear ers repeated the conditions Scali and inquire whether he had re- graduate with a degree in Russian language
viet leader Nikita Khrushchev Fomin replied: “The Soviet lead- the ambassador’s signature. had relayed to Fomin. layed the U.S. president’s offer and literature. Although I’ve had a number of dif-
banged his shoe at the UN, Col- ership considers Kennedy a far- Meanwhile, the situation deterio- Books published on the issue to Khrushchev. ferent jobs over the years, I have always been
onel Feklisov, director of the sighted statesman capable of rated. During a meeting in the in the United States say that When Kennedy had not re- translating and interpreting — usually in the literal
American section of the KGB, stopping his generals from act- White House, Kennedy was in- Attorney General Robert Ken- ceived a reply from Khrushchev sense, always in the figurative sense: trying to
was summoned to see the head ing rashly. The Soviet Union can formed that a U-2 spy plane had nedy met with Ambassador by 7:15 p.m., he instructed his understand, interpret and translate a new world
of the organization’s First Chief retaliate by striking at a vulnera- been shot down over Cuba, kill- Dobrynin on October 27. In brother to meet with Dobrynin of words, idioms, connotations, jokes and cultural
Directorate. He was told that ble spot in some other part of the ing the pilot, Major Rudolph An- fact, the two men met twice, again. The ambassador went to values into my own language and world.
he was being appointed to a world of crucial military-political the office of the Attorney Gen- It never really gets easier. There is always an-
very busy station, Washington, importance to Washington.” other nuance to learn, an allusion to track down,
where he would go under the Scali asked if Fomin was refer- Chronology
eral, who said immediately that
Washington needed a Sovi- a meaning that mutated over the centuries. And
name of Alexander Fomin and ring to West Berlin. et guarantee that the missile then the Russian language just won’t stay still
pretend to be a counselor at the “As a countermove, it’s highly 10/18/1962 response, the Soviet govern- bases would be dismantled no and let us translators master it. In the last decade
Soviet embassy. probable,” the Russian agent U.S. President John Kennedy ment proclaims it will deliver later than the next day, and that or so, the language itself has been changing too
At that time, John F. Kennedy replied. meets with Russian Foreign “the most powerful retaliatory if they were not, they would be quickly that you practically need a dictionary of
was fairly new to the presidency. After the meeting, both went to Minister Andrei Gromyko, who strike.” The UN Security Council destroyed. contemporary slang to watch a TV series, and
Khrushchev attempted to devel- report the results to their supe- denies the deployment of So- convenes to discuss the with- Dobrynin insisted that Wash- certainly need on-line translation to read Russian
op good relations with his admin- riors. viet missiles in Cuba. However, drawal of Soviet missiles from ington must agree to withdraw blogs.
istration, but to no avail. “I was not authorized to speak aerial photographs prove that Cuba, along with a U.S. pledge its Jupiter missiles from Turkey Today the biggest headaches for translators
The crisis had several causes, about a possible attack on West the missiles have already been not to invade the island. as a quid pro quo, in exchange are the English cognates. You’d think it would
the most important of which Berlin as a Soviet response to a delivered and assembled on the for the removal of the Soviet be easy, and sometimes it is. Shoping-mol is
was the Bay of Pigs invasion, U.S. invasion of Cuba,” Fomin island. 10/26/1962 missiles from Cuba. After con- clearly shopping mall (even if it really should
launched by the United States recalled. “But I did not expect Khrushchev sends a message sulting the president, Robert be called torgovy centr, standard Russian for a
in the spring of 1961 in an at- that my words would be reported 10/22/1962 to Kennedy. The following day Kennedy said: “The president shopping center). But words like glamour, elitist,
tempt to overthrow the leader to the U.S. president so soon, or The Cuban Missile Crisis begins: the Soviet Union publishes a said that we are ready…to ex- cottage and actual went through a mysterious
of the Cuban revolution, Fidel that two or three hours later Ken- U.S. President Kennedy says in a statement on its willingness to amine favorably the question process of transformation before they appeared
Castro, thus motivating Khrush- nedy would instruct Scali to pro- radio address to his people that withdraw from Cuba the mis- of Turkey.” as glamurny, elitarny, kottedzh and aktualny.
chev to dispatch Soviet missiles pose a compromise.” the Soviet Union has built a mis- siles that the United States One booth in the Occidental In Russian advertising copy, glamurny can be
to Cuba. Fomin was urgently called to sile base in Cuba. He announces considers offensive, on condi- Hotel has a plaque inscribed used for everything from devushki (glamorous
the phone. It was Scali himself, a naval blockade of the island tion that the U.S. withdraws its as the place of “a clandestine babes) to keramika (glamorous ceramics?).
The Cuban Mis-
who asked him for an emergen- to prevent delivery of more So- own Jupiter missiles from Tur- meeting between John Scali, When translating the word back into English,
sile Crisis was re-
cy meeting. viet missiles, and calls on Soviet key. Kennedy rejects the idea, an ABC TV State Department it’s more like glam or glitzy. Elitarny dom is not a
Ten minutes later they met in a leader Nikita Khrushchev to re- reiterating that all work on the Correspondent, and an uniden- place when elitist snobs live; it’s elite housing.
solved in a Wash-
coffee shop at the Statler Hotel, frain from actions that threaten Soviet missile bases in Cuba tified KGB agent, that led to the Kottedzh is not a little bungalow for two, it’s a
ington restaurant.
and Scali relayed the offer made world peace. The United States must be stopped. official negotiated settlement of four-story pleasure palace built by one of the
by “the highest authority”: if the orders naval squadrons and the Cuban Missile Crisis.” country’s newly rich. Kottedzhny posyelok is
Soviet Union dismantled its mis- strategic aircraft to the Carib- 11/02/1962 That “unidentified KGB agent” not a village of cottages, but what Americans
With a war looming, the White siles in Cuba, returned them to bean, puts its armed forces in President Kennedy announces was Colonel Alexander Feklisov, call a gated community. And aktualny has come
House discussed the list of peo- the Soviet Union under the UN Europe on alert, and moves its that the Soviet Union has dis- a.k.a. Alexander Fomin. Some- to mean “the latest rage” of the season. So
ple to be assigned to the govern- control and guaranteed not to nuclear submarines to fighting mantled its missiles in Cuba. times the most important nego- haircuts and colors and styles are all aktualnye
ment shelter. JFK spoke about reintroduce them, the United positions. In short, the world is tiations take place not behind — the last word in fashion.
a threat to national security in States would lift the blockade on the verge of World War III. 11/20/1962 closed doors, but in open public Russians complain about this as much as
his address to the people, while and be prepared to publicly The Soviet Union agrees to with- spaces.
-
we translators do, but you can’t really stop
Khrushchev sent him a letter de- guarantee that it would not in- 10/23/1962 draw its bomber aircraft from language evolution. On the other hand, what
scribing the U.S. naval blockade vade Cuba. Kennedy announces a naval Cuba. The Untied States an- The article was originally people used to say about the UK and the U.S.
of Cuba as “aggressive and un- Fomin promised to inform Mos- “quarantine” of Cuba begin- nounces the end of its naval published in “Novaya Gazeta” can now be applied to a single country: Russia
reasonable.” On the same day cow immediately. ning at 2 p.m. on October 24. In blockade of the island. www.novayagazeta.ru is becoming one nation divided by a common
John Scali of ABC News was in- But the wheels of bureaucracy language.
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