Russian truth. This is interesting. After all, language tells how people think, how they perceive the world and how society thinks. The United States has two words for positive rights: "Liberty" and "freedom" and so on. Russia has two words for the truth and three words for the lie. It is certainly not a coincidence. The Russians have the word pravda, which is the truth but not the absolute truth. Rather, Pravda is the truth to get rid of awkward wicked situations. It’s a bit like a tactical truth. Istina is the opposite of a lie. Istina is true, as true as it can be. But pravda there is more, sometimes it can be true, sometimes it can be not so true. Three words to a lie. Vranjo is a noble lie. But it is a noble lie in a strategic level. It is also kind of a way to get rid of nasty situations. The Russians know it, we don't know it. We think that there is only truth and lie in the world It's just black and white, or plus and minus. We think so because we usually have it that way. The lie in Russia was born under the Mongol rule During Mongol rule: Violence and lying were a way to survive. This tradition has been since then in that system. Russia has word a krugovaja poruka, or gang guarantee. By the way, the Finnish word "porukka" (gang) comes from here. It means that when we have some set of people in a gang with a common goal. Be it the Kremlin leadership or the Russian armed forces or whatever. We have a common goal and when I will go out of the circle of the gang and will lie elsewhere. Those part of my gang shall hear that I lie. They don't judge me as a liar because they understand that I am using tactical truth (vranjo) to achieve the greater goals of our gang. The use of tactical truth, or a lie is accepted if it is made for the gang. Just like you can steal when you don’t steal too much or from the wrong guy. You also get to lie if you lie for the better good of the gang. Us in the West, the truth is black and white. A good book from Masha Gessen that I took with me here. "The Future is History" Worth reading to anyone interested in this theme. Masha Gessen talks about doublethink (as did Orwell in 1984). That is, at the kitchen table, different things are said than outside the doors. Here is a little the bit of the same situation. Everyone understands that Robert was talking about a different topic at the kitchen table than in public. Everyone understands why it happened. This is based on the group launching their own story, for example "We had nothing to do with the poisoning of Skripal." Or that "We have nothing to do with the shooting down of the Malaysian plane". This is based on the fact that we in the West, under the rule of law when we make an argument, we need to be able to 100 %, unequivocally prove the claim to be true. But when Russia makes an argument, there are always small gaps left here and there that we westerners start to think about, "Is that so?" The notion of lie and truth works differently in Russia. Examples: The Terijoki government (Russian attempt to make a puppet government to Finland in 1939) had a story that the working population of Finland was tired of the Mannerheim-Tanner (Marshal of the Finnish Defence Forces in the 1939) fascist junta and formed a government to liberate the Finnish people. Then when the Russians attacked they found out it wasn't quite the case as what the propaganda had said. Or this. The president said "We have nothing to do With interferencing the 2016 U.S. presidential election". He says just like that. The Russians who see and hear this know that "We were there, but we didn't get caught." Then the West thinks, "Well, who were they, if not Russians?" Because we don't realize the use of Russian tactical truth. When they went to Crimea, Putin said, "They are not Russian forces." If our commander-in-chief of the Finnish Defence Forces would deny the Finnish soldier that they are not Finnish soldiers, that would lead to unfortunate situations. The soldier would go on a strike or it would get depressed or something. But the Russians were proud that our president would be able to use tactical truth Putin said "They are not Russian forces." We started thinking here in the west, "Well, who are they then? Where did they come from?" Then they had two or three days to take over Crimea completely, then Putin remembered, "Oh, they were Russian troops after all". Or this shooting down of a Malaysian plane. It has been proven unequivocally that it was from the Russian 53rd Air Defense Brigade the missile that fired that plane down. The wildest stories that were moving in Russia were that when the situation was at its hottest, these people were already dead there on the plane. This story was spread. Those people who died in the accident did not die in the attack but they were already dead before the missile struck the plane. But no one questioned it because the Russians knew it was a tactical truth. They did not question how the captain of the plane was made to fly a plane full of dead people. No one questioned it because they knew it was a tactical truth. Or, in the Donbass region, brave miners went to fight the fascist junta in Kiev and then protest during which some civilian protesters forgot to take away their IDs of the Russian Armed Forces when participating to the protests. Or "We have nothing to do with the hacking of the DNC, the US Democratic Party." In fact, they got caught both the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service, and the FSB, the civilian intelligence, both caught on servers. Or that “We don’t have nothing to do with the poisoning of Skripal.” Except that there was a Russian intelligence colonel who had received a medal from Putin There was also a doctor present there who was tasked with making sure Chepiga, who was performing the poisoning operation on Skripal, would not be exposed to the poison himself. The funniest thing here is that this Chepiga's grandmother, who lives near Arkhangelsk, had in her foolishness gone to show a picture where Chepiga gets From the hand of Putin the Soviet medal. You never guess what happened to the Grandma after that? Grandma disappeared. Or that “we’re not involved in Eastern Ukraine". Here is the tomb of a 21-year-old paratrooper. In Pskov. Fallen in the Donbass. We need to understand that the use of Russian truth and falsehood is completely different from our thinking. If they say something, they won’t necessarily mean it, but the tactical truth is meant as an instrument to slip through a slightly open doorway to get out of a nasty situation."
www.thetimes.co.uk
