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Help[Facts] Groucho and other Marxist names
in reply to a message by Lenin Oaiya
From a brief Google search I failed to come up with an etymology for Lenin, but I do have a theory: Lenin was born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. During his early revolutionary period, he adopted a number of noms-de-guerre, including V. Ilyin (Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary). Maybe the nicknename "Lenin" -- which he finally adopted -- was itself constructed from "V. Ilyin".
I bet your parents were marxists to give you such a name. In Greece I have met a few folks with names such as Lenin and Stalin, all born in the late 1940s of communists parents. Marxist-chic names abound in several former communist-bloc countries, including Vladilen/a (from Lenin), Titoslav/a, Titomir/a, Staljingradka, Komsomolka (Komsa), Ruska, Vjazma, Sutjeska, Neretva, Petoletka (five year plan), and pythonesque names such as Traktor/ka (sic!) as well as a -- hold on to your hats! -- an Armenian name meaning "five year plan completed in four years." (check out http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/kokkalis/GSW2/Aleksov.PDF) :P
I bet your parents were marxists to give you such a name. In Greece I have met a few folks with names such as Lenin and Stalin, all born in the late 1940s of communists parents. Marxist-chic names abound in several former communist-bloc countries, including Vladilen/a (from Lenin), Titoslav/a, Titomir/a, Staljingradka, Komsomolka (Komsa), Ruska, Vjazma, Sutjeska, Neretva, Petoletka (five year plan), and pythonesque names such as Traktor/ka (sic!) as well as a -- hold on to your hats! -- an Armenian name meaning "five year plan completed in four years." (check out http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/kokkalis/GSW2/Aleksov.PDF) :P
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Replies
Hail Freedonia!
I cant belive I missed that Lenin anagram :P I see our Komrade Kommissar Mikhail K (may revolutionary traktors pave his roads)also includes the name Melor.
It would be cool to compile a list of names constructed by totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. Some more examples include:
- "Stalin", meaning ("steel") in Russian. That was Joseph Jugashvili's adopted handle -- he had all the charm of Hitler, except for the humor.
- Rem, acromym of revolution, Engels, and Marx.
- Melsor, acronym of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and October Revolution. In the 50s most dropped the "s" :PPP
A interesting site about communist naming practices in Azerbaijan: http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/43_folder/43_articles/43_names.html
To end this posting with a more positive note, a very popular and beloved name in contemporary Greece is Byron, to honor Lord Byron and his support during the war for Greek independance in 1821.
I cant belive I missed that Lenin anagram :P I see our Komrade Kommissar Mikhail K (may revolutionary traktors pave his roads)also includes the name Melor.
It would be cool to compile a list of names constructed by totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. Some more examples include:
- "Stalin", meaning ("steel") in Russian. That was Joseph Jugashvili's adopted handle -- he had all the charm of Hitler, except for the humor.
- Rem, acromym of revolution, Engels, and Marx.
- Melsor, acronym of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and October Revolution. In the 50s most dropped the "s" :PPP
A interesting site about communist naming practices in Azerbaijan: http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/43_folder/43_articles/43_names.html
To end this posting with a more positive note, a very popular and beloved name in contemporary Greece is Byron, to honor Lord Byron and his support during the war for Greek independance in 1821.
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They may have won all the battles ... but we had all the good names (apologies to T. Lehrer)
I've changed my name - I think it's time that a good Celtic Communist (revolutionary not totalitarian) like myself should commemorate her May 1st birthday with the appropriate cultural references...
By the way, did the governments actually construct/recommend the names? or did they arise from people's natural willingness to believe what they were told? or even their own enthusiasm for change? or a bit of all three?
I've changed my name - I think it's time that a good Celtic Communist (revolutionary not totalitarian) like myself should commemorate her May 1st birthday with the appropriate cultural references...
By the way, did the governments actually construct/recommend the names? or did they arise from people's natural willingness to believe what they were told? or even their own enthusiasm for change? or a bit of all three?
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Communist anagrams of "Mayis Beltane Mc Demonheart "
- My Neanderthal commie beast
- Obstinately menaced hammer
- Damnable enormity machetes
- Demonstrably, I am the menace
- The nasty demoniacal member
- Mathematical Red enemy snob
- Damnably, the eastern Commie
- Manly beater and the Commies (good name for a group!)
- My Neanderthal commie beast
- Obstinately menaced hammer
- Damnable enormity machetes
- Demonstrably, I am the menace
- The nasty demoniacal member
- Mathematical Red enemy snob
- Damnably, the eastern Commie
- Manly beater and the Commies (good name for a group!)
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My given name...
anagrams as 'endemic hater', so these are definitely an improvement. But on this board could I really claim to be the only 'nasty demoniacal member'? So many would be jealous...
anagrams as 'endemic hater', so these are definitely an improvement. But on this board could I really claim to be the only 'nasty demoniacal member'? So many would be jealous...
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Cool, May 1 is my favorite holiday! Not out of any working-class solidarity, mind you, but because of the Dionysian ways with which it is celebrated in Greece (nudge-nudge, wink-wink).
Regarding your retorical question, I think its a bit of all three - on the one hand a few governments did owtlaw traditional names (eg. in Albania), and others changed surnames to serve political ends (eg. names ending with -ev were changed to -evski in southern Jugoslavia to sound less Bulgarian and to forge a pseudo-Macedonian ethnicity). Of course there were the idealists who named their children "Traktor" in the height of proletarian aesthetic, as well as obsequious party adulators who named their twins Vladlen and Vladlena to earn socialist brownie-points..
P.S. At what RPMs does a Celt Revolutionaries like yerself revolve?
Regarding your retorical question, I think its a bit of all three - on the one hand a few governments did owtlaw traditional names (eg. in Albania), and others changed surnames to serve political ends (eg. names ending with -ev were changed to -evski in southern Jugoslavia to sound less Bulgarian and to forge a pseudo-Macedonian ethnicity). Of course there were the idealists who named their children "Traktor" in the height of proletarian aesthetic, as well as obsequious party adulators who named their twins Vladlen and Vladlena to earn socialist brownie-points..
P.S. At what RPMs does a Celt Revolutionaries like yerself revolve?
1
It wasn't a rhetorical question - I wanted you to answer it!
Thanks for the info - I don't know as much as I would like about eastern European names.
May 1 celebrated with Dionysian ways in Greece? hmmmm.... must contrive to be there for my birthday some year (makes note in long-term to do list).
>P.S. At what RPMs does a Celt Revolutionaries like yerself revolve?
Well, that's the good thing about being a Celtic Revolutionary Communist, you see; first of all you prove that you are a sun-god from first druidic principals, then you let everything else revolve around you. It's a sort of zen revolution...
Thanks for the info - I don't know as much as I would like about eastern European names.
May 1 celebrated with Dionysian ways in Greece? hmmmm.... must contrive to be there for my birthday some year (makes note in long-term to do list).
>P.S. At what RPMs does a Celt Revolutionaries like yerself revolve?
Well, that's the good thing about being a Celtic Revolutionary Communist, you see; first of all you prove that you are a sun-god from first druidic principals, then you let everything else revolve around you. It's a sort of zen revolution...
1