We speak post-Soviet

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In connection with the collapse of the USSR, it was natural to expect renaming of "specifically Soviet" geographical names. For example, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, called Frunze, was renamed Bishkek in February 1991. The adoption of such renaming is mandatory for all countries, and on Russian maps, of course, the city of Frunze disappeared and Bishkek appeared. But along with the renaming, there were changes of a different kind. It is difficult to generalize them, but in general it can be said that it was the Russian names that were proposed to be corrected, bringing them closer to how they are written in the state languages ​​of the new countries. The initiative came from these countries themselves. In particular, this was the case with the capitals: Ashgabat (Aşgabat) instead of Ashgabat, Tallinn (Tallinn) instead of Tallinn, Almaty instead of Alma-Ata (the capital of Kazakhstan until 1997). This caused controversy, led to confusion, but as a result, the old names remained on Russian maps: Ashgabat, Tallinn, Alma-Ata.

The situation with the names of some countries in the post-Soviet space turned out to be difficult and conflicting. In all these cases (but especially in country names), the choice of the "correct" option is governed not by linguistic considerations, but by what can be called politics or, with some stretch, ideology. In the 1990s, this issue was resolved at the level of the presidential administration and the government, where recommended lists were drawn up.

The main document regulating the names of countries today has become the All-Russian Classification of the Countries of the World. It was adopted by a resolution of the State Standard of the Russian Federation ( now it is the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology. - Note "Cold" ) in 2001 and is regularly subject to changes. Naturally, it also includes countries that have emerged in the post-Soviet space. Although the existence of such a document does not mean that all issues have been resolved: fierce discussions on social networks have been going on for a couple of decades and still continue. The main passions boil around the names of the three countries.

Belarus or Belarus? Belarusian or Belarusian?

was chosen in the All-Russian classifier The political decision here has long been made, and the option Belarus (full name - Republic of Belarus ) . This does not mean that the word Belorussia has disappeared from the Russian language: this was, in particular, the name of the Soviet republic. But if we are talking about a modern country, we must follow the classifier. Another thing is that in reality, Russian speakers may habitually use the old version, but this happens in Russia, but in Belarus itself this option is practically not found.

It is important to note that the Russian language in this country is the state language along with Belarusian, that is, Belarus can rightly decide to write in Russian, although this should not necessarily apply to the territory of Russia. In addition, we are faced with another problem here. Replacing a traditional name with a new one leads to a kind of linguistic paradox. Although the political decision was made in favor of the new version, it affected only the name of the country, and for the people and language (even more widely - for the corresponding adjective) the old names were preserved. This is how things are in Russia. However, in Belarus itself, variability has arisen: both the people and their language are sometimes (especially in independent media) in Russian called differently than outside of Belarus: Belarusians and Belarusian . To complete the picture, one could also add that in Belarusian this adjective is written with one "s" (belaruski), which is also found in texts in Russian (belarusian).

During the popular protests in Belarus in 2020, the name belarusa in Russian began to appear on social networks and even in the media outside of Belarus. The poet Lev Rubinstein wittily called this spelling empathy.

Linguistic arguments incline us to the old spelling "Belarus", which, firstly, is familiar, and secondly, is transparent at the level of morphemes: "o " is a connecting vowel between two intelligible roots -bel- and -rus- . In addition, the name of the language and people is logically connected with this name: Belarusian and Belarusians . Nevertheless, a political decision has already been made, which is also politically correct: in Russian we write Belarus , but Belarusians and Belarusian .

However, the linguistic argument associated with the connecting vowel is easily canceled at the political level: now the name of the country is not translated into other languages ​​as before (for example, in German Weißrussland), but is transliterated (for example, in German Belarus ) . And now this word is not translated into Russian, but is borrowed entirely, so morphemic transparency is not required.

By the way, the refusal to translate the name of the country should not be considered unique. We can recall at least such countries as Cape Verde and Côte d'Ivoire. This is a transliteration of borrowings from, respectively, Portuguese and French, replacing the once familiar translations: Cape Verde Islands and Ivory Coast.

Moldova or Moldova?

The situation with Moldova is similar to the situation with Belarus, only it is simpler. In this country, Russian is not a state language, and the writing in it is not Cyrillic, but Latin ( except for Transnistria, where the Cyrillic alphabet is used. - Approx. "Cold" ). Most likely, therefore, there is less confusion and, accordingly, less discussion on this topic. Along with the usual option Moldavia, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a new name appears Moldova . Moldovan politicians insist on it, and it is accepted by Russia. Thus, Moldova turns out to be both a politically correct and politically correct name. That is what is found in the All-Russian classifier.

The linguistic costs are also very similar to the previous case. Speaking in modern Russian, we are again forced to acknowledge the fact that Moldovans live in Moldova and speak Moldovan .

Kyrgyzstan or Kyrgyzstan?

The fate of the new name for Kyrgyzstan was different. The Russian language is used quite actively in it and has the status of an official one, so some of the processes are reminiscent of those already described. In the country itself, both in Kyrgyz and in Russian, the name Kyrgyzstan is used , which, admittedly, sounds somewhat difficult in Russian (after all, combinations of letters ky and gy are not very familiar to the Russian language, as is the combination zstan ). For this or for some other reason, the new name Kyrgyzstan was also rejected at the political level: Kyrgyzstan is indicated in the All-Russian classifier (full name is the Kyrgyz Republic ). In other words, with regard to this country, the political decision turns out to be not politically correct, but conservative.

However, the word Kyrgyzstan can appear in Russian texts and in Russia where it is important to emphasize political correctness: for example, in bilateral political or commercial agreements. Just as one can talk about the Belarusian version of the Russian language, which contains the words belarusy and belarusian , we can single out the Kyrgyz version of Russian, which, in particular, contains the words kyrgyzy and kyrgyz .

Interestingly, at some point there was competition between the names of the people Kyrgyz and Kyrgyz . Moreover, these words, half-jokingly, half-seriously, have taken on different meanings: in their homeland, the nationalist-minded Kyrgyz began to be called Kyrgyz, and the Kyrgyz - Kyrgyz, oriented primarily to Russian culture. Now, apparently, the word Kyrgyz has won this competition, but only in Kyrgyzstan.

Georgia or Sakartvelo?

A very special case with the words Georgia and Sakartvelo . There are various names for this country in different languages. In Georgia itself, the country is called Sakartvelo, literally “the country of Kartvels”. In English, the country is called Georgia, and this name has entered many other languages. Similarly, Georgia is found not only in Russian, but also in a number of languages, and in many it appeared precisely thanks to Russian. In order not to confuse the reader, I will not recall another well-known name - Iveria . In 2011, Georgia turned to friendly countries with a request not to use this familiar name for us, that is, to replace Georgia with Sakartvelo or, for example, with the English equivalent. It should be noted that this is not a small phonetic or graphic correction of the name, as in the cases considered. For Russia and other countries, this is more like a drastic renaming, although in fact it is not, because nothing has officially changed in Georgia itself.

Georgia's proposal was accepted by South Korea, switching to the English version, as well as Japan and Israel. At the very end of 2020, the State Commission on the Lithuanian language also changed the name of Georgia (Gruzija), and already to Sakartvelo (Sakartvelas). It is impossible to say for sure, but one can suspect that, along with political correctness, the mechanism of repulsion from the Russian language worked.

In Russian, such a replacement has not occurred and, apparently, will not happen in the near future. Here, in addition to political motives, both cultural and linguistic ones are important, which lead to that result. The choice between conservatism and political correctness in favor of the former is connected with the deep embeddedness of Georgian civilization and its name in Russian culture. In Russia, they know and appreciate Georgia, they admire the theater, cinema, literature, and cuisine. Images of Georgians are found in many Russian films and novels. In this situation, the replacement of the name of the country is especially painful, and the paradox described above will lead to an even sharper break in the names of the country, people and language. It turns out that Georgians who speak Georgian live in Sakartvelo. In addition, if Belarus is still visible behind Belarus, then the name Sakartvelo has nothing to do with Georgia. Such drastic changes are indispensable for real renaming, but how do you feel about today's Germany being called "correctly": Germany ?

In Ukraine or in Ukraine?

Next to the names of countries there is a less formal area, which is also regulated by political correctness. Including - the choice of a preposition with the word Ukraine : in or on . In principle, this also applies to the prepositions from and with : if we speak in Ukraine , then from it, and if on - then from , but the public discussion focused only on the first pair of prepositions. I will not repeat the entire argument, since this dispute has been going on for more than 10 years.

Initially, changes occurred in the Ukrainian version of the Russian language. The choice of a pretext in began to be associated with the idea of ​​statehood. The requirements of political correctness are sometimes based on not quite scientific ideas, which does not negate their emotional significance. It should be noted that the preposition on , of course, in no way denies the statehood of Ukraine, but only emphasizes the isolation of this country for the Russian language.

It is interesting, however, to see how the attitude to the choice of pretext changed in Russia in the 21st century. to use the preposition in At first , politicians began , while the intelligentsia, including specialists in the Russian language, preferred the traditional preposition on . However, as relations between Russia and Ukraine worsened, the attitude to the choice of pretext also changed. Behind these pretexts was seen not only political correctness, but also a certain ideology. Russian statists switched to the more conservative pretext na , while those sympathetic to Ukraine began to use the pretext v . The principal points of strengthening the ideological role of the pretext were 2014 and 2022. By analogy with spelling, we can talk about grammatical empathy.

The Baltics or the Baltic States?

The competition of such expressions as the Baltics and the Baltics , or the Baltic countries, is a completely different case. Here, as with the choice of preposition, the degree of regulation is less than in country names. There are also differences from a content point of view. Perhaps there are no reasonable grounds for canceling the noun Baltic and the adjective Baltic , except for one - a stable association with the Soviet Union. It is no coincidence that the phrase Baltic countries appeared in the Latvian media in Russian at the very beginning of the 1990s, that is, in the process of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Particular attention should be paid to the Russian language in the Baltic countries. Although Russian is neither a state nor even an official language in any of them, Estonia's special language inspectorate insisted , for example, on spelling Tallinn with two n's at the end and threatened to fine local Russian-language media for using the traditional Russian spelling Tallinn .

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Summing up the conversation about the names of countries, we can say that, as a rule, the competition of words turns out to be a competition of linguistic conservatism and political correctness. Sometimes political correctness is introduced in an aggressive way, leading to heated discussions. The aggravation of political relations with neighbors becomes another criterion for choosing one or another word.

Linguistic reasoning is almost never decisive, and in this sense one can only congratulate linguists for not having to take responsibility for decisions that will almost certainly be unacceptable to a large number of people and possibly lead to deep social divisions. Ultimately, such decisions may not be the end of the dispute, but the beginning of irreducible variability.