Thread: Обращение на "вы"

Originally Posted by alexsms

It's an interesting question. It's a time-honored tradition in Russian to use вы and sometimes to not use it. Sometimes the borderline is very obscure, and when this borderline is not observed this may cause tensions.


but Господин/Госпожа is very official and is never used when addressing professors. In fact this is used often to establish the distance between the parties, when such distance is necessary.
One has to remember that Господин/Госпожа hasnt been used in Soviet times (товарищ was the universal address), and is now often viewed with suspicion by many.

to those who watched Pozner-Bezrukov interview - think about how they addressed each other, and you see that it's an important problem in Russia...

Thanks for your explanation.

What would those "very official" situations with господин/госпожа be though? When you are talking to, say, a Госдума member? Police? МЧС?

What would / or actually: do you do in those situations?