The Great Knout, in particular, with a handle about 24 inches long and which was soaked in milk and left to dry in the sun to make it even firmer, could be lethal if the accused was ascribed 20 lashes or more.Īn illustration of the Knout in a book by French author, Germain de Lagny, published in London in 1854ġ. The number of lashes was pre-determined according to the severity of the accused’s crime and too many could prove fatal. The sentenced was usually tied to a wooden post, or a wooden triangle, stripped, and then lashed with a knout. In Russia, the knout was historically used as a tool for corporal punishment, to flog the accused. The English word ‘knout’ stems from the French transliteration of the Russian word кнут ( knut). KnoutĪ flogging whip with a lash of leather thongs twisted with wire used (as in czarist Russia) for punishing criminals. In fact, he said that this group, who prided themselves on being the brains of the nation, were in fact ‘not brain, but dung’ ( На деле это не мозг, а говно). Lenin was extremely critical of this social group, not considering them to conform to the true social classes laid out in Marxist ideology. By the 1870s the term came to denote an entire social strata in Russian society: a group of people who were engaged in the cultural and educational spheres and believed that their higher purpose lay in shaping the culture and politics of their society. While it traces its origins to Latin, the word ‘intelligentsia’ only entered worldwide usage as a result of its Russian application. Intellectuals who form an artistic, social, or political vanguard or elite. It was under Stalin, however, that the Gulag system underwent massive expansion and that labour camps became the places of repression that they are remembered as today. Whilst you might assume that the Gulag system was established by Stalin, it was in fact introduced in 1919 by Lenin as a progressive alternative to prison. The word “Gulag” is an acronym for Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei, or Main Camp Administration. Yuri Gagarin became the first cosmonaut to travel into space, in 1961Ī system of prison labour camps in the Soviet Union from 1930 to 1955, where many people died. Interestingly, whilst ‘cosmos’ means ‘universe,’ ‘astro’ means ‘star.’ Today, ‘astronaut’ is far more commonly used in the English language, but ‘cosmonaut’ is an official word in the dictionary, which tends to imply a Soviet astronaut.
Up until 1961, several words were used to denote a ‘cosmonaut.’ It was only after Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, in 1961, that the word cosmonaut was officially recognised. This term is a direct anglicism of the Russian word космонавт, deriving from the Greek kosmos (universe) and nautes (sailor). CosmonautĪn astronaut from the former Soviet Union. This scandal elicited such outrage in Britain, that Brits began hand-knitting ‘balaclavas,’ which they sent out in packages to the front, in order to keep troops warm.
A significant number of British troops, refused any leniency in their official (and rather impractical) uniforms, froze to death in the perishing temperatures. Most students of Russian are probably aware that quite a hefty number of English words have crept into the Russian dictionary: ranging from джинсы (jeans) to хедж-фонд (hedge fund) But, did you know that a number of English words have Russian origins…? BalaclavaĪ close-fitting garment covering the whole head and neck except for parts of the face, typically made of wool.īalaclavas get their name from their use at the Battle of Balaclava (a town near Sevastopol in the Crimea), which took place during the Crimean War of 1854.
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