{"id":138,"date":"2008-05-31T08:07:34","date_gmt":"2008-05-31T12:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=138"},"modified":"2014-07-16T17:49:06","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T17:49:06","slug":"who-owns-the-rights-to-lenin%e2%80%99s-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/who-owns-the-rights-to-lenin%e2%80%99s-face\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Owns The Rights To Lenin\u2019s Face?"},"content":{"rendered":"

After his death in 1924, the face of \u0412\u043b\u0430\u0434\u0438<\/span>\u043c\u0438\u0440 \u0418<\/span>\u043b\u044c\u0438\u0447 \u041b\u0435<\/span>\u043d\u0438\u043d <\/strong>was used for mainly religious purposes, as he became known as a sort of \u2018icon\u2019 for the Soviet Union. After the death of the Soviet Union, the face of Lenin, and even more so his profile, has been used for a wide array of purposes, many of them purely commercial, some even rudely capitalistic. If Lenin must have been spinning in his grave \u2013 uhm, I mean mausoleum<\/em>, back in the days of building communism and being on the constant watch-out for a classless society, then I suppose he\u2019s getting sweaty with movement in modern Russia of today. Here and now you\u2019ll run into Lenin in places where you least of all expect him to, like in advertisement for juice or on children\u2019s t-shirts, while at the same time statues of him are being torn down quietly all over the country. But then again, the Russian mind has a history of being complex and even more so the Russian soul \u2013 and which one of these two body parts was it that he had more influence on? If there\u2019s a Bolshevik Hell, I\u2019m sure to burn in it: I call the minor statues of Lenin [those are often forgotten and will probably be the last to go, if they ever will that is] \u00ab\u041b\u0435<\/span>\u043d\u0438\u043d\u0447\u0438\u043a\u00bb<\/strong> [\u201clittle Lenin\u201d] which has the suffix \u00ab\u0447\u0438\u043a\u00bb<\/strong> in the end, which used in this waysand in this context is what in Russian is called a \u00ab\u0443\u043c\u0435\u043d\u044c\u0448\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u0435\u043b\u044c\u043d\u043e-\u043b\u0430\u0441\u043a\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u0435\u043b\u044c\u043d\u044b\u0439 \u0441\u0443<\/span>\u0444\u0444\u0438\u043a\u0441\u00bb <\/strong>[diminutive-endearment suffix]. Such a suffix is often used when wanting to express certain feelings (perhaps of endearment<\/em>) toward certain things, or if the things talked about are small. In my case, though it is risky to be your own therapist, I\u2019d say my distortion of the Russian leader\u2019s name is an expression of my familiarity both with him and the statues of him. Come to think of it, I\u2019ll probably not go straight to Bolshevik Hell for this \u2013 in usual manner The Party will probably invite me up for tea in Communism Heaven first, where they\u2019ll treat me cookies and smile at me, right before denouncing me in their paper \u201cHeavenly Pravda\u201d<\/em> and purging me\u2026 Anyway, that\u2019s not important \u2013 and may be offensive to some \u2013 what I wanted to discuss was this ad that I came across today:<\/p>\n


\nThe verb \u00ab\u043f\u0440\u0438\u043d\u0430\u0434\u043b\u0435\u0436\u0430\u0442\u044c\u00bb<\/strong> (impf.<\/em>) [sig. pres. <\/em>\u044f \u043f\u0440\u0438\u043d\u0430\u0434\u043b\u0435\u0436\u0443<\/span><\/strong>, \u0442\u044b \u043f\u0440\u0438\u043d\u0430\u0434\u043b\u0435\u0436\u0438<\/span>\u0448\u044c<\/strong>] is not only an interesting and a very useful verb to know, but also one of my personal favorites. When paired only with the dative case it has the meaning of \u2018to belong to\u2019<\/em> as in the sentences above. When paired with the preposition \u00ab\u043a\u00bb<\/strong> it translates as \u2018to belong to; to be a member of\u2019<\/em>. The following sentence illustrates the flexibility of this verb as it\u2019s paired with \u00ab\u043a \u0447\u0438\u0441\u043b\u0443<\/span>\u00bb<\/strong> [to the number] plus genitive: \u00ab\u041c. \u041c. \u0417\u043e<\/span>\u0449\u0435\u043d\u043a\u043e<\/a> \u043f\u0440\u0438\u043d\u0430\u0434\u043b\u0435\u0436\u0430<\/span>\u043b \u043a \u0447\u0438\u0441\u043b\u0443<\/span> \u0441\u0430<\/span>\u043c\u044b\u0445 \u0438\u0437\u0432\u0435<\/span>\u0441\u0442\u043d\u044b\u0445 \u043f\u0440\u043e\u0437\u0430<\/span>\u0438\u043a\u043e\u0432 20-\u0445 \u0433\u043e\u0434\u043e<\/span>\u0432\u00bb <\/strong>[Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko<\/a> was among the most famous prose writers of the 1920\u2019s]. There\u2019s also a noun that\u2019s derived from it: \u00ab\u043f\u0440\u0438\u043d\u0430\u0434\u043b\u0435<\/span>\u0436\u043d\u043e\u0441\u0442\u044c\u00bb (fem.<\/em>)<\/strong>[accessories, articles, gear; belonging (to), affiliation (with); characteristic, attribute]. You could say \u00ab\u044d<\/span>\u0442\u0438 \u0448\u0442\u0430\u043d\u044b<\/span> \u043c\u043e\u044f<\/span> \u043f\u0440\u0438\u043d\u0430\u0434\u043b\u0435<\/span>\u0436\u043d\u043e\u0441\u0442\u044c\u00bb <\/strong>[these pants are my belongings] but you could also say \u00ab\u044d<\/span>\u0442\u0438 \u0448\u0442\u0430\u043d\u044b<\/span> \u043f\u0440\u0438\u043d\u0430\u0434\u043b\u0435\u0436\u0430<\/span>\u0442 \u043c\u043d\u0435\u00bb <\/strong>[these pants belong to me]. Though the connotation of these sentences differs slightly, I have chosen them to illustrate two ways of saying pretty much the same thing with these two words \u2013 get your hands of my pants!<\/p>\n

I saved the best for last, to turn to the question posed in the title of today\u2019s entry: who has the right to Lenin\u2019s face? Living relatives of Lenin, perhaps, but then again he and Krupskaya failed to have any children? And if there any members of the Ulyanov clan still up and about, shouldn\u2019t they rather be fighting for a burial of their relative then profiting from his legendary beard? Clearly the Russian Communistic Party isn\u2019t claiming any rights to his profile and making people pay to use it (because if it did, they\u2019d be in a much better financial situation)? Maybe it belongs to us all, maybe it was written somewhere in his will \u2013 \u00ab\u043c\u043e\u0451<\/span> \u043b\u0438\u0446\u043e<\/span>, \u043a\u0430\u043a \u0438 \u0432\u043b\u0430\u0441\u0442\u044c \u0438 \u043c\u043d\u043e<\/span>\u0433\u0438\u0435 \u0434\u0440\u0443\u0433\u0438<\/span>\u0435 \u0432\u0435<\/span>\u0449\u0438, \u0432\u043e\u043e\u0431\u0449\u0435<\/span> \u043f\u043e\u0447\u0442\u0438<\/span> \u0432\u0441\u0451, \u043f\u0440\u0438\u043d\u0430\u0434\u043b\u0435\u0436\u0438<\/span>\u0442 \u043d\u0430\u0440\u043e<\/span>\u0434\u0443\u00bb <\/strong>[my face, like power and many other things, generally speaking almost everything, belongs to the people].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After his death in 1924, the face of \u0412\u043b\u0430\u0434\u0438\u043c\u0438\u0440 \u0418\u043b\u044c\u0438\u0447 \u041b\u0435\u043d\u0438\u043d was used for mainly religious purposes, as he became known as a sort of \u2018icon\u2019 for the Soviet Union. After the death of the Soviet Union, the face of Lenin, and even more so his profile, has been used for a wide array of…<\/p>\n

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