The expressive magic of ancient Slavs: addressing five naive questions about Russian profanity.

1. Did the Tatars bring profanity to Holy Rus'?

Mothers find it hard to believe that their son is just a mischievous rascal on his own. They always think that all troubles stem from the fact that the little one got involved with bullies who taught him bad things. This reflects the logic of those who support the widespread misconception that street cursing is a cursed legacy of the Tatar-Mongol yoke.

Well, my friend, it’s time to tell you some uncomfortable truths. The Golden Horde has nothing to do with this at all. The three main roots, which have been passed down like a precious relic from generation to generation on Russian soil, are simply absent in Turkic languages. However, strong expressions can be found in Novgorod birch bark letters from the pre-Mongol period. Most importantly, words starting with “e,” “p,” and “h” are present in other Slavic languages. You can ask a Pole, a Serb, or a Bulgarian, and you will hear the same painfully familiar words in response. And you will also realize that the phrase “brother Slavs” is by no means an empty phrase.

2. Why did our ancestors invent these words?

Scholars lean towards the hypothesis that profane words were used by pagan Slavs to perform magical rituals. These words were directed at deities responsible for fertility. They were supposed to fertilize the earth to yield a rich harvest. For farmers, the closest and most understandable analogy to sowing seeds and harvesting was conception and childbirth. Therefore, words related to the lower body were chosen for the rituals.

Remember the axe that, in obscene songs, floated down the river from the village of Kukuyevo? Well, scientists have described how Croatian peasants used this iron tool in a rain-calling ritual. They would throw the axe upwards and shout those very obscene words, hoping that the Heavenly Father would fertilize Mother Raw Earth with rain.

A reconstruction of such a ritual can also be seen in Tarkovsky's film "Andrei Rublev," where an icon painter monk finds himself in a village of pagans celebrating the night before Ivan Kupala. Essentially, this is a festival of flesh, and Andrei struggles to resist the temptation to engage in a wrestling match with one of the girls to increase the yield of spring and winter crops.

When Rus' accepted Christianity, the new religion actively fought against pagan cults. Words used during magical spells were subjected to a cultural taboo. They were declared shameful and blasphemous. However, by becoming obscenities, these words did not disappear from the people’s lexicon.

3. Is it true that Russian profanity is more expressive than its foreign counterparts?

In this regard, the Russian language is unique, believes Doctor of Philological Sciences Aнатолий Баранов, head of the department of experimental lexicography at the Vinogradov Institute of the Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Profane words exist in all languages, but not all reach the level of expressiveness and taboo that Russian profanity does. For instance, German profanity is less powerful than ours because it derives not from the act of reproduction but from the motive of relieving oneself (this family of words includes scheiße). Creating a bullet from excrement, or rather an expression that brings forth thunder and lightning, remains problematic.

Spanish uses words denoting sexual organs for cursing, but for Spaniards, these do not carry the weight of sacrilege and blasphemy. The first academic dictionaries of the Spanish language included this vocabulary. In contrast, obscenities are still prohibited from entering Russian language dictionaries (except for specialized publications). Perhaps Spanish curses lack the anti-divine motive that emerged in our context during the struggle between Christianity and paganism.

As for the French merde, and the English fuck and shit - these are actually analogues of the Russian “damn it!”, “screw it,” “who cares,” and so on. A vocabulary similar to ours truly does not exist in other languages, according to Professor Baranov.

4. Is it possible to eradicate profanity?

This is impossible, scholars believe, because profanity is a phenomenon of oral culture. One can eradicate obscenity in printed publications or ruthlessly ban users in social networks who abuse the freedom of speech. There is also a ban on the use of unparliamentary expressions in public places (though it is not always observed). However, banning profanity in oral speech in general seems unfeasible.

Nevertheless, scholars propose that there is a clever way to eliminate the nuclear triad that constitutes the heroic power of Russian profanity. But for this, it should not be banned; instead, the taboo on its use in public spaces should be lifted. If the ban is relaxed, these words will lose their current significance and expressiveness. And then it will all go according to Mayakovsky: “Words gradually become a habit, wear out like clothing...”. Words of three or five letters will blur in everyday conversations and lose their sacred meaning.

5. Is there any benefit to salty expressions?

During the Soviet era, profanity was often used even among cultured people as a marker of authenticity. The thing is, all elevated vocabulary was occupied by communist ideology, which, by Brezhnev's time, few believed in. Therefore, in the speech of educated people, this obscene vocabulary functioned as a sign of sincerity: I speak the truth, I do not deceive.

Moreover, numerous experiments have shown that profanity has a doping and pain-relieving effect. For instance, during strength exercises, athletes who swore performed 5-10% better (for example, swearing increased grip strength on a hand expander by 2.1 kg).

During pain sensation tests, where participants had to keep their hands in icy water for as long as possible, those who swore endured the pain 33% longer.

It is believed that even educated individuals are not wrong to curse under certain circumstances to relieve negative emotions - for example, when you hit your fingers with a hammer while driving a nail. A classic description of this situation is remembered from the film "Gentlemen of Fortune," when the highly cultured character played by Evgeny Leonov utters the phrase that has entered the public lexicon: “This Vasily Alibabeyevich, this bad man, dropped the battery on my leg, the bastard!”