About the previous retweet..
There are some phrases uttered by Presidents that Americans regard as iconic. And they are, in that they resonated with their actual audience (American voters). But were they iconic with their ostensible audience?
How did we, the Soviets, regard them?
There are some phrases uttered by Presidents that Americans regard as iconic. And they are, in that they resonated with their actual audience (American voters). But were they iconic with their ostensible audience?
How did we, the Soviets, regard them?
Let's take Reagan's "Tear down this wall." I can tell you with 100% certainty that nobody in the USSR ever heard it. I didn't know Reagan said these words until I was in my 30s and I consider myself a student of history of the American-Soviet relations.
We simply weren't aware...
We simply weren't aware...
But you can bet your ass we knew Reagan called us the "Evil Empire" (it was actually translated as "Imperiya zla", or "Empire of Evil"), though we had no idea it was a Star Wars reference (what is Star Wars?). We just thought Reagan was comically ignorant of our form of gov't.
How about Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you"? Nope. Never heard it. But there is one Kennedy quote that millions of Russians know. You will never guess which one it is.
"The greatness of a nation is determined by Olympic medals and space exploration..."
"The greatness of a nation is determined by Olympic medals and space exploration..."
Struggling to remember when JFK said this? He never did. This quote was invented out of whole cloth by Soviet journalists because these were two areas in which we were better than America.
Kennedy may as well have said "the beauty of matryoshkas and the taste of buckwheat gruel."
Kennedy may as well have said "the beauty of matryoshkas and the taste of buckwheat gruel."
Interestingly, the same rule applies in reverse. Khrushchev's "We will bury you" actually sounded more tongue-in-cheek in original Russian than the rather menacing translation leads you to believe. The actual phrase he said while pounding his shoe was different anyway...
What Khrushchev said during the shoe rampage was "Ya vam pokazhu Kuzkinu mat", which literally means "I will show you Kuzka's mother." The exact origins of this idiom are not clear but it's meaning is "I will show you what's what" or "I will show you who is the boss."
The "we will bury you" phrase was uttered on a separate occasion and was said rather light-heartedly.
