I was fascinated by the artwork here, but I had to enlarge that poster to make out the bottom line of text. That is when I realized that the hammer was striking a left facing profiled head in back of a clock face.
"Byem po lzhyeoodarnikam"
So I want to the old "Russki-Angliski Slovar", otherwise known as the "Russian English Dictionary" to attempt to learn what the third word meant, as the first two words were easy - "We strike/beat for...". I even went online to determine what the word was. No luck, perhaps because it is a word out of modern usage, but many words that begin with "l" and "zh", sometimes with a vowel between them, refer to lies, perjury and deception, and those that spread them. Putting "l", "zh" and sometimes "ye" in front of a word may even mean "pseudo-". An "oodarnik" is a percussionist in the musical sense of the word or shock of striking power in the military sense. So would a proper translation be "We beat those who would beat a different drum"? Get in step, comrades.
I learned a new word from a suggested translation of the word - "sciolist":
"Sciolist - definition of Sciolist by the Free Online Dictionary ... www.thefreedictionary.com/Sciolistsci·o·lism (s -l z m). n. A pretentious attitude of scholarship; superficial knowledgeability. [From Late Latin sciolus, smatterer, diminutive of Latin scius, knowing, ..."
So, I did a little more burrowing on what an "udarnik" was. In the Soviet system, they were over-achievers - literally "shock workers", who substantially exceeded their quotas who were made famous for their efforts, sometimes at the cost of the quality of the work or with the unacknowledged support of their co-workers.
To use a modern English colloquialism, a "lzheoodarnik" is someone who "fakes it until he makes it", and the poster claims that "We kill those who fraudulently exceed their quotas". Motivating, isn't it?
I was fascinated by the artwork here, but I had to enlarge that poster to make out the bottom line of text. That is when I realized that the hammer was striking a left facing profiled head in back of a clock face.
ReplyDelete"Byem po lzhyeoodarnikam"
So I want to the old "Russki-Angliski Slovar", otherwise known as the "Russian English Dictionary" to attempt to learn what the third word meant, as the first two words were easy - "We strike/beat for...". I even went online to determine what the word was. No luck, perhaps because it is a word out of modern usage, but many words that begin with "l" and "zh", sometimes with a vowel between them, refer to lies, perjury and deception, and those that spread them. Putting "l", "zh" and sometimes "ye" in front of a word may even mean "pseudo-". An "oodarnik" is a percussionist in the musical sense of the word or shock of striking power in the military sense. So would a proper translation be "We beat those who would beat a different drum"? Get in step, comrades.
I learned a new word from a suggested translation of the word - "sciolist":
"Sciolist - definition of Sciolist by the Free Online Dictionary ...
www.thefreedictionary.com/Sciolistsci·o·lism (s -l z m). n. A pretentious attitude of scholarship; superficial knowledgeability. [From Late Latin sciolus, smatterer, diminutive of Latin scius, knowing, ..."
Yes, indeed.
So, I did a little more burrowing on what an "udarnik" was. In the Soviet system, they were over-achievers - literally "shock workers", who substantially exceeded their quotas who were made famous for their efforts, sometimes at the cost of the quality of the work or with the unacknowledged support of their co-workers.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udarnik
http://russiapedia.rt.com/of-russian-origin/udarnik/
To use a modern English colloquialism, a "lzheoodarnik" is someone who "fakes it until he makes it", and the poster claims that "We kill those who fraudulently exceed their quotas". Motivating, isn't it?