Georgy Khazagerov, Professor of Rostov State University Scythian vocabulary

he present article is devoted to the study of linguistic concepts in totalitarian societies & the former Soviet Union in particular. The author's aim is to show untraditionalism of the Soviet totalitarian model; for this he has chosen a form of a vocabulary, which includes the most important concepts, realized (or not realized) in the key-words of the given epoch.
          Contrary to a widely accepted approach, treating totalitarian regime as a form of traditional society, alongside with the traditional medieval societies, the author believes that totalitarian societies are highly untraditional in their essence. At least, the Soviet totalitarian model was based on the total negation of national traditions, Christianity & established way of peasant life.
          A possible argument that these societies have created their own traditions &, thus, were based on their own system of values, can be countered by the fact, that a man in a totalitarian society acts as a dummy in some highly modernistic play, having no idea what the government are planning to do next, who will be declared a friend (or public enemy) tomorrow or the day after it. A fine example of this was given by G.Orwell in his well-known book.
          Thus, analysis of the language - the most reliable witness of the society's untraditionalism -may bring some interesting discoveries. If one could examine Stalin's classicism more attentively, he would see its kinship with the modernism of the beginning of the 20th century. This can be traced both in form (e.g. in abbreviation) & in the semantic changes in the key-words, advance of these key-words, in the metaphors, which determine public conscience.
          Below we give an abstract of one vocabulary entry called "The American Way Of Life".

American Way Of Life

          Originally, the expression American way of life was used to describe some fictitious reality, which was created to contrast the soviet way of life & was pictured mostly in cartoons. Later it was brought to life in our country, in the grotesque forms of the cartoons & got a name "westernization" or "the market economy".
          The main characteristic of the American way of life is social contrast ("America is a country of contrasts"), interpreted as a formula of existence. The antipodes in this model are the wealthy ( "businessmen" or "pests"), acting as robbers & the poor (mostly unemployed), living in slums without any right, hope or way out. This contrast is further stressed by rude & heartless behavior of the rich, which has been characterized during the pre-cartoon period as low conduct, grin of capitalism during the cartoon times & cool behaviour in post-cartoon times. Here is a sketch of a typical capitalist: he's sitting with his feet at the table, he's chewing a gum, smoking cigars, holding a stick; his pockets are full of money & pistols. An average citizen - a broken crooked man - is scavenging under supervision of a policeman with a rubber truncheon. At the background one can see the blindfolded Statue of Liberty. Everywhere there are intrusive implications of sexual life...