Thread: Language/Translation of Soviet Poster

Can someone tell me a)what language this is and b)what precisely it says?

Belarussian.

"Наша армія ёсць армія вызвалення працоўных"
J. Сталін

"Our army is an/the army of the liberation of workers"
Y. Stalin

And it would mean...? Something about our army ___ army.

Originally Posted by Barmaley

And it would mean...? Something about our army ___ army.

ць is the Belarusian infinitive ending (Russian ть)

Ёcць - Есть
працоўных - In Ukrainian the verb to work is Праювати
ў - English W. You will find this in the place of Russian В alot in the language.

Працівний is it in Ukrainian. The В is also pronounced as an English W (Bel. ў) (Mostly in Western Ukraine). Ukrainian often has І where Russian and Belarusian have O (and the jotated version is Ukr. has yi, where Russian has Ye)

Ukr. (Rus.)
Під (Под)
Ніч (Ночь)
хід (ход)
Київ (Киев)
Львів (Львов)

However the I changes back to an O often when the sylable becomes open:
Ночи (nights)
У Києві (In Kiev)
У Львові (In L'vov)


I'm not sure about the use of the letter J. In modern Belarussian the letter is not in their alphabet.

The quote in Russian was:

"Наша Армия есть Армия освобождения трудящихся"

Трудящийся is a present active particple, meaning "those who are working hard"

From the verb Трудиться - to work hard. Root is Труд obviously!

Our army is an armyof the liberation of workers.
Вызволять = освобождать, to give freedom

Originally Posted by JJ

Our army is an armyof the liberation of workers.
Вызволять = освобождать, to give freedom

I already translated it.

Emancipate and Liberate mean the same thing.

So the question begs: Is that poster trying to potray a symbol of the the marriage of a man and woman as the same as the relationship between the Army and the Workers?

OR

Was it customary in 1920 Russia for two grown men to kiss eack other full on the lips if they were really really happy about something?

I think the women of Belarus' let personal grooming slip a bit during the war.

That was my next question!

Ugh

Тошнило.

Firstly, thank you for the extremely detailed explanation -- it was very helpful and informative.

Secondly, the whole kissing thing: kissing on the cheeks was/is? fairly common. As desperate as a soldier on the front lines may have been without his wife/girlfriend, I don't think the message here is "support your troops" in that sense! I think that's what the artist was going for here -- it's just not something that is easily shown. The worker seems to not have lip-lip contact, but rather somewhere behind the soldier. I admit, I bought the postcard, chiefly because it was amusing looking at first glance (that and the one that warned about the dangers of not cleaning your, uhm, "dispenser" after breast-feeding). But really, I don't think it was at all perceived as anything but a genuine expression of gratitude. Even you, DDT, in all your hot-blooded manly virtue, may kiss your liberator, if you fell to the Nazis...

They actually showed this as propaganda FOR the Red Army?

I'm just shocked I haven't seen the word "brokeback" yet...

Slightly off topic, I wonder where in the US I could get a shirt like the peasant has in the photo. It would be cool to wear!

Well I don't know about you guys but I think that there IS a little liplock going on there!

PS there Klinky ol' boy..........I think you can get a "shirt" like that in the ladies dress section in any JC Penny's.

Try a hippie store. Hippies love crap like that. Surely the Republic of KV has hippie outfitters?

I think this poster was maked in our days %)

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Slightly off topic, I wonder where in the US I could get a shirt like the peasant has in the photo. It would be cool to wear!

Oh don't wish what you do not know!
As soon as you dress yourself in such shirt remember:
every Russian soldier will try to arm and kiss you in your lips!
Beware of Russian Embassy and restaurants! Be careful in Airports since that moment!
You will be cursed!