Thread: Did Stalin have a Georgian accent?

Hey all! I have a sort of odd question for you... does anyone know if Stalin had a Georgian accent in Russian? I was reading the section on Russian jokes in wikipedia, and it mentioned something about adopting a heavy Georgian accent while telling Stalin jokes. Anyway, I just wanted to know if there was a linguistic reason for this, beyond the fact that he was from Georgia.
Спасибо!

I often wondered about this too. He was born in the 1880s or 90s i think in georgia... So when/ where did he learn to speak russian? Or were people already speaking russian there at that time?

Though when telling stalin jokes using the accent is probly just for good measure. Like if an american was telling a joke about boris yeltsin, he might talk in a russian accent.

yes, he had...i remember i was watching some kind of chronological movie about him...and as far as i remember he had an accent..

Канэшна, имэл аксент.

"А ви папитайтесь, таварищ Горький. Папитка - не питка, не правда ли, таварищ Берья?"

He had really strong accent.

Yes, he had some accent but in my opinion it was not that strong. Georgians usually have a broad accent, and in comparison with them Stalin's one was slight.

Stalin - Speech on 3rd July 1941
http://download.sovmusic.ru/m/st_30741.mp3

Stalin - Victory over Germany
http://download.sovmusic.ru/m/st_1945.mp3

So where did he learn russian? Did he speak georgian too?

I'm not sure that he also spoke Georgian. Most people in the former Soviet republics knew Russian very well at the time. What's more, Stalin used to speak to a lot of the party's leaders in the 1920s. Even if he couldn't speak good Russian in the 1920s he had a good chance to improve it. And he seized that chance!

Could women be fighter pilots in the soviet union? Can they now? In america they can. Anyways, i ask because in the movie 007 - Goldeneye Theres a woman, Zina, who is from Georgia and they say she's an Ex soviet fighet pilot.

Was that at all possible or bad research by bond.

The "Night Witches" are heros of Russia. Their missions took just as much skill and bravery as any fighter pilot!

http://www.nzfpm.co.nz/theatres/tow_tbfm.htm

i wasnt doubting the skills of women as pilots, only wondering of soviet military allowed them.

I don't think so now. On Moscow news in Sept there was film of an American fighter pilot group visiting Russia. There was one female pilot who got asked all the questions and she was treated like a real novelty. I think the announcer made some side comment that there weren't any fighter pilots in the Russian military. But I think it's interesting that the Night Wiches were so important to the defense of Russia and also that the first woman in space was a Russian, but now no women flying fighters (or at least no publicity about them if they exist).

I think that there were a few female pilots in the USSR. The reason for it was that they probably wanted to show that the Soviet Union is the country where everyone had liberty...shall we say, freedom of choice. I don't think that there are now more female pilots in Russia.

Dogdoy, do you know that a woman on board a ship is believed to be a bad sign?

no , i did not know.

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

Dogdoy, do you know that a woman on board a ship is believed to be a bad sign?

I think that belief is outdated nowadays or isn't it?

I mean military ships

Here's what Wikipedia says about Stalin:
"At eight years old, Soso began his education at the Gori Church School. When attending school in Gori, Soso was among a very diverse group of students. Stalin and most of his classmates were Georgian and spoke mostly Georgian. However, at school they were forced to use Russian. Even when speaking in Russian, their Russian teachers mocked Stalin and his classmates because of their Georgian accents."

So, yes, he did speak Georgian. Even if people knew Russian well at the time though, you have to remember that Russian never replaced the languages of the sattelite nations of the Russian (and later, Soviet) empire/union. Despite programs/encouragement otherwise. I suppose if he was young enough when he started learning it (in this case, he might have acquired a native accent. What could be the case, though, is that he attained educated native fluency in Russian, but since Georgian was only a home language, spoke (on the state department scale) what would about to a level 3 or 4, basic proficiency or advanced proficiency; lots of second-generation kids in America have show this phenomenon. I dunno, I was just curious if it still showed later, since my Russian isn't fantastic and I can't find any recordings of Stalin to check for myself.

In the youth Stalin (of course) not only spoke Georgian perfectly -- he wrote verses in Georgian. And, probably, not so bad ones -- because some poetry by Iosif Dzhugashvili was published in some georgian poetry anthology back in 1900's.

One of my coaches (I was a rhythmic gymnast) is from Ukraine and she said that they were required to learn Russian in school. If they wished to learn Ukrainian, it was treated as a second language.

Originally Posted by MalenkayaKatinka

One of my coaches (I was a rhythmic gymnast) is from Ukraine and she said that they were required to learn Russian in school. If they wished to learn Ukrainian, it was treated as a second language.

We were required to learn both Russian and Ukrainian in Ukraine. What language was the first and what was the second depended on what school the child attended. For example I lived in russian speaking area of Ukraine and attended "russian" school, so we studied russian as a primary language and Ukrainian as a second (and English as third ).