russian-women-personals

The Master and Margarita

Russian names

"Не верьте слезам женщины, Алексей Федорович" - "Do not trust the tears of a woman, Aleksei Fedorovich" is a famous statement of the work of Dostoevsky. I do not quote it to start a discussion on the veracity of the message - I have three sisters, I would not dare. But I do it because of the salutation is used. This is an excerpt from a conversation between Ivan Fedorovich and Aleksei Fedorovich. Two brothers, clearly. However ... their surname is not Fyodorovich, but Karamazov. Fedorovich is their отчество [otchestvo] or last name because their father was Fyodor.

In Russian culture the full name of a person consists of an имя (IMIA), a first name, a отчество (otchestvo), a father's name or surname and фамилия (famili! a), a family name.

The name is given by the parents at birth and has its origin in Christianity or in the Russian tradition, sometimes in Judaism. Examples of the first are Ivan, Maria or Konstantin, examples of the second are Oleg, Igor and Olga. Popular Jewish first names are Anna, Mikhail, Lev and David. In the Soviet era new names were sometimes invented to show loyalty to the parent party. Stalina or Lenina, for example. Or Vladlena, from Vladimir Lenin.

The use of the name of the father or the surname dates from the Middle Ages. It was one of the first ways to distinguish one person from another. It was called "first son of ..." or "first name, girl ...".

Presumably surname is just the genitive of the name of the father, but the rules are not so simple as that. The name of the father of a man often ends on -ev, -ov or -vitch, though the latter fo! rm is reserved for the upper class of the 16th to the 17th cen! tury in Moscow. For women was generally added an -a. For example: Aleksey Ivanov Aleksey Ivanovich and Aleksey is the "son of Ivan". Olga Ivanova and Olga is the "daughter of Ivan."

It's still always a common practice, especially in the salutation, calling someone by first name and patronymic in Russian. "Здравствуйте, Ð'ладимир Иванович" means "Hello, Vladimir Ivanovich," with the verb in the second person plural, as the French polite form "you".

The family name was used later, when registers and official archives were introduced, especially after the census of 1897. The family name was introduced to indicate a longer descent. Because, if the above-mentioned Aleksey Ivanov had a son named Igor, UaDreams would not call this Igor Ivanov, but Igor Alekseev Igor Alekseevich or "the son of Aleksey" with no link to the Pedigree Aleksei. So family names started to be used, b! ut the surname has not disappeared. If Aleksey Ivanov had two son, Igor and Vasili, UaDreams call them by their name as a single unit, Igor Alekseevich Ivanov and Vasily Alekseevich Ivanov. And if there was a girl called Elena, she would be Elena Ivanova Alekseïeva.

A Russian family name often originates in a surname, but could also come from a distorted nickname, indicating a profession, or a place name (the name of a place). But this is no different in other languages. Claessens The name is an old family name and origin of names like Beaulieu Lemenuisier and is as easy to discover.

Women's surnames are always treated in a rather conservative and paternalistic way in today's Russia. Other in Belgium a Russian woman changes name when she marries, although it is not a legal obligation. By law spouses may, as in Belgium, using the name of the partner, but they are not obliged to do so and Russian women usually adopt the name of their husband, with -a ! appended to the end.

I know of no example of a man who had adop! ted the name of his wife. Frankly, this is not common practice here either, obviously, but the tradition of male chauvinism is more ingrained in Russia than here. One can still hear in old proverbs like: "a chicken is not a bird and a woman is not a person," or in valves such as "I thought I saw two people, but it was just a man and his wife. "

Finally, a special feature of Russian names is the use of a variety of derivative names, which can express all kinds of emotions. Maria will be called Maria by unknown persons or in formal relations, but friends will call Masha, or Mashenka when they really like. Machunechka are still more intimate, Marusha or Machounïa. Machka is quite rude, but can be used in the family or by adults towards children. For intimate friends: this article is signed Яанушка (Ianouchka).

Social Context

• Introduction
• Russian names
• Russians and foreigners
• The Russians and their dachas
• The calendar systems
• Russian and Dutch

More strange names

The staff of Moscow ZAGS - an administration that is comparable to our Directors civil - raises the alarm. Because more and more parents want to give new and unusual names for their children.

Your guide through the novel

In this section are explained, per chapter, typical notions, names of people and places, quotations and expressions from the novel with a description of the political, economic and social context.