What nicknames were given to Russians by their opponents in wars? "limonka", "katyusha" and other popular nicknames for military equipment
In the army in general and in aviation in particular, almost everyone has nicknames: people, units, units, combat vehicles and inanimate objects. The stories of their origin are interesting.
For example, one commander of the fleet aviation was called “Photographer” behind his back. He had not the slightest connection to the high art of photography, but when making a critique of an officer’s official activities, he always ended it with the word “I’m photographing.” This did not apply to the appearance of a photograph of the person being scolded, but meant his removal from his position.
Or here’s another technician, a big guy and an athlete, who was called “Oculist” because not a single drinking party in which he took part ended without him blackening someone’s eye. Behind the eyes, we mean the object of influence, and not talking behind the back.
Served in one regiment as a senior lieutenant. He looked to be about sixty years old, although in fact he was not forty-five. And he had a nickname - “Colonel”. And that's why they called him that.
It is known that in the officer’s identity card, which was issued one and for the entire duration of service, there is a column: military rank. It provides space for recording military ranks from lieutenant to major general. So he had all these places filled: lieutenant - senior lieutenant - lieutenant - senior lieutenant - lieutenant... and so on until the penultimate line. A careerist, however.
One navigator with the simple surname Golovnya was called the noble surname Balkonsky. One day on a day off, having taken a hefty dose, he smoked on the second floor balcony, from where he successfully collapsed and lay there without the slightest sign of consciousness until he, accompanied by the frightened regiment commander, a lieutenant colonel, was taken to the infirmary. There, having regained consciousness, he saw his native commander and, focusing on the two stars in the pursuit, he said understandingly:
-I saw this lieutenant somewhere.
Then, taking advantage of the momentary lack of attention to his person, he ran away. And they found him sitting with a glass and a cigarette on the same balcony from which he had so safely fallen half an hour ago.
Each pilot who tore more than two tires during landing was given the honorary nickname Pokryshkin until the end of his service in this regiment. Any parachutist who landed unsuccessfully was given a rank reflecting the landing location. If he lands on a summer cottage - Summer Resident, in a vegetable garden - Gardener, in the forest - Forester, in the thick of a herd - Shepherd or Cattleman.
I had a second navigator, whose name was Cossack or Headless Horseman. Before serving in naval aviation, he was a jockey in Rostov-on-Don, hence Kazachok, and The Headless Horseman well characterizes his behavior and career growth.
In one auto platoon there was a fighter known under the pseudonym Trolleybus. Somehow they lost electricity in the basement of the barracks. This soldier was sent there to find and fix the problem. The fighter, having figured out with his brain what the cost was, decided to follow the path of least resistance - he grabbed the wire on the ceiling with both hands (the ceiling in the basement is low) and began to move in small steps in the darkness, feeling for the break point.
Finally found it. It’s good that at least it didn’t kill him to death, but they pumped him out.
Nicknames had regiments, divisions and, in rare cases, squadrons. Thus, one regiment was called Romanian only because during a football match between the regiments of the division, someone, encouraging his own, shouted a phrase from the movie: “Forward, dead Romanians!” And it took root.
For some reason the second regiment was called Zyabrovsky, although the squadron transferred from Zyabrovka was part of the Romanian regiment.
The third, separate regiment of this garrison was called Honghuz or Chinese for two reasons. Firstly, it originated near the Chinese border. And secondly, because of the large number of personnel. The crew of one aircraft could include from 9 to 14 people. And a whole bunch of technicians served him.
And divisions were usually named after the nearest settlement. Ours was initially located in the Sov-Gavansky district, and then, as a result of territorial demarcation, it ended up in the Vanino region. This gave the fleet aviation commander the opportunity to show his wit and joke to our division commander:
-You used to be a owl, but now you’re just a stinker.
An offensive hint at the similarity of our unit to excrement, in terms of its combat qualities, from the point of view of the commander.
By the way, not only inanimate objects become prototypes for the formation of nicknames for people, but people can also become the source of the names of objects. For example, our glorious division commander hated the colors green and yellow. He especially hated dandelions. That is why every single day someone’s caring hand put a bouquet of dandelions in his mailbox, which aroused his dislike for this innocent flower even more...
It got to the point that someone placed a piece of paper and one dandelion on the steps of the division headquarters, just in time for his arrival. The piece of paper read:
Don't touch me Shushpanchik,
After all, I am the last dandelion.
The general's last name was Shushpanov, and the dandelions in this division were called nothing more than “shushpanchiki.”
Nowhere have I seen such a desire to give out nicknames as in aviation, and the apotheosis of this phenomenon can be considered the name of the monument in front of the Officers' House in Monino.
There they sculptured a strong fellow with an artificial satellite in his hand in a rapid rush forward. The jerk turned out to be so rapid that the symbolic clothes slipped back, and this gave rise to the name of the monument - “I’ll let everything go, but I’ll let it go!”
© Alexander Shipitsyn
Today, when weapons rarely have their own name and increasingly only meager alphanumeric combinations in the index, RG remembered the past, namely the bright and ironic nicknames of weapons given to them by soldiers.
"Limonka"
Almost 100 years ago, an unknown inventor created the F-1 grenade. Cheap and easy to manufacture, it was extremely useful against advancing infantry. Its final appearance was a symbiosis of the French F-1 grenade and the English Lemon weapon system grenade. It is not difficult to guess that her first nickname at the front of the First World War was lemon or “limonka”.
The Limonka has been in service with dozens of countries for many decades, with almost no modifications. At the same time, it still holds the palm among the most dangerous anti-personnel grenades. The body of the grenade consists of “dry cast iron” - a material that is very brittle, but at the same time hard. At the moment of explosion, the cast iron shell shatters into separate fragments, which have an irregular shape and sharp edges, hence another name from the Red Army soldiers - “fenusha”. The destructive ability of such a grenade is monstrous, the number of fragments can reach up to 400. By the way, the soldiers of the Red Army had a special tactical scheme for fighting the enemy, where the key to victory was precisely the “lemon”, thrown in time behind the enemy’s backs: a whirlwind of fragments awaited them behind them, and in front - the muzzle of machine guns.
"Mine Frog"
Mines, like other weapons capable of killing many people at once, became widespread during the First World War. Germany has achieved particular success in the cunning camouflage and sophistication of such a device. They created micromines in the form of shiny metal objects (from stationery pens to watches), which were left in places where the enemy might gather, all sorts of tripwires, like cobwebs entangling the forest, and, finally, frog mines "Sprengmine 35".
The principle of operation of such an “amphibian” was that at the slightest contact of its “antennae” sensors, it jumped 25-30 centimeters above the ground and exploded in the air. The benefit of the mine was not so much in the physical neutralization of the enemy, most often the soldier only lost a leg, but in his complete demoralization: the soldiers, having heard the slightest click or crack under their feet, were already “morally killed.”
"Katyusha"
"Katyusha" is one of the symbols of the victory of the Russian army in the Great Patriotic War, a miracle weapon and another subject of controversy between historians - where does such a sonorous nickname come from? The BM-13 or Katyusha field rocket artillery system was accepted into service on June 21, 1941. Despite its small numbers in the early stages of the war, this weapon instantly became popular with both ordinary soldiers and the command. A fundamentally new recoil-free rocket could be installed on almost any type of chassis. He was also very mobile, and one Katyusha salvo was usually enough to send the enemy running without looking back.
Until now, among military historians there are several completely different versions of the origin of the popular name BM-13 or “Katyusha”. The first is firmly and inextricably linked with the song of the same name by Matvey Blanter to the words of Mikhail Isakovsky. As you know, the new invention received its baptism of fire in the Smolensk region, firing a volley of missiles at Bazarnaya Square in the city of Rudnya. The installations themselves stood on a hillock, from where it was more convenient to deliver targeted strikes. The song says:
Apple and pear trees bloomed,
Fogs floated over the river.
Katyusha came ashore,
On a high bank, on a steep one.
In one of his interviews, former Red Army soldier and later historian Andrei Sapronov recalled the following dialogue that took place immediately after the memorable first salvo: “What a song! One of the admiring colleagues said, and I answered him - “Katyusha.”
Another, most common version, even more romantic, says that one of the soldiers, who greatly missed his beloved, once wrote her name on the side of the car. The sonorous name immediately caught the fancy of his fellow soldiers, and soon spread throughout the entire front.
"Big Bertha"
It is one of the "Wunderwaffe" (German: "miracle weapons") of the German armed forces of the early 20th century. Just the sight of a cannon the size of a two-story house should have plunged people into horror. The projectile weighed 900 kilograms, and the charging process took as much as 8 minutes! "Bertha" was created to fight against fortified forts and fortresses, but a much more maneuverable type of warfare, which appeared in the 20th century, forced their production to cease. True, one of the vehicles still survived and even tried to shell Sevastopol during the Great Patriotic War.
The mocking nickname of the model “L/14”, as its real name sounds, was given by journalists from Belgium and France, as they were among the first to suffer under its monstrous fire. The irony was that Bertha was the name of the beloved granddaughter of Alfred Krupp, the owner of the factory and the inventor of this gun. Later, the name took root in the German army itself, which irritated and infuriated the old designer and loving grandfather Alfred, but he could no longer drown out the “voice of the people.”
"Goat"
The immediate and charming nickname belonged to the GAZ-67, a Soviet military passenger car that was used in headquarters and reconnaissance units, as well as in transporting the wounded.
Since 1943, the GAZ-67 began to push out its Lend-Lease competitors Willys MB and Ford GPW, largely due to the greater simplicity of the design, which made it possible for ordinary soldiers to repair the car directly in the field, without resorting to the help of special technicians. There were also disadvantages to this simplicity - the car’s extremely stiff suspension made riding it akin to riding a domestic artiodactyl. It is curious that further attempts to eliminate this defect were unsuccessful, even with additional hydraulic shock absorbers. But the car became a legend of the military, and later the agricultural park of the USSR. Such is the legendary "goat".
Why are special forces call signs needed? Who invented them? We will answer these and many other questions in the article. A call sign (CALL, call sign identification) in radio communications is an identifier that identifies a radio transmitter. As a rule, this is a set of numbers, letters, or a meaningful word sent at the beginning of a communication session and necessary to identify the radio station to the receiving entity.
The PSO is assigned to the transmitter by the communications authority of the state to which it belongs. Call signs represent radio stations, and for radio amateurs, specific participants in negotiations.
Military call signs
Have you ever seen the Official Call Sign Chart? This is a reference document containing a list of communication centers, interaction stations of ships and aircraft, units, commanders and other employees, as well as call signs assigned to them (conventional combinations, numbers, letters) in order to hide their true names from the enemy when transmitting information via technical means of communication .
Our military has long studied voice exchange over communication channels. They were able to find the words that are most convenient to use on the radio, taking into account interference and phonetics of the Russian language.
For many guys, the management did not provide call signs. Therefore, either they have to come up with them on their own, or their commanders give them middle names. Some fighters who received call signs from the table say that they would love to compose them themselves.
Radiocommunication services
What are special forces call signs? They are created via radio communication. Radio transmitters related to the radio broadcast service, in the form of PSO, use the names of the media. If necessary, they sometimes indicate radio frequency ratings.
In the amateur radio service, PSO is more informative. It is a combination of numbers and letters of the Latin alphabet, which includes from three to six characters. An amateur call sign is always exceptional. There are directories and databases containing additional information about the owner of the PSO. The operator of an amateur radio transmitter is obliged to report his PSO at the beginning of the session and, during long-term radio communications, systematically repeat it. Many people strive to increase legibility using the phonetic alphabet. What it is?
This is a standardized way of reading the letters of the alphabet. It is used in radio communications when transmitting difficult-to-hear words, call signs, abbreviations, email addresses, and the like in order to reduce the number of errors.
Service specifics
What do the call sign of a special forces soldier and the nickname of an agent have in common? Both the first and second are pseudonyms. It is interesting that it is under a fictitious name that very often the special forces hero achieves fame. These are the principles of service.
In general, very often any pseudonym or nickname depends on the person’s last name. The second name can also correspond to the actions or type of activity of the fighter. Special forces call signs in radio communications can be either nicknames or names previously invented by the command. Many people say that the choice of a middle name does not always depend on professions and surnames. A battalion may have a single call sign, and its squads and their commanders may have serial numbers. For example, the call sign “Agat” can be modified as “Agat-1” (company commander), “Agat-2” (deputy commander), “Agat-8” (battalion medical instructor). Such a system, in principle, works great in a stationary facility.
What do special forces call signs look like when there is a battle going on? Here everyone is already called either by nicknames or by first names (if there are no nicknames). Due to unfamiliarity, many people get confused about their call signs: it is unknown who is “Amethyst-1” and who is “Amethyst-2”. Many people call each other by specific nicknames. For example, “Mole”, “Crucian carp”, “Khmyr” and so on.
What other standards have the military come up with? Special forces call signs are sometimes assigned based on the personal characteristics of the soldier or his specialty, often from an abbreviation of the last name, first name and patronymic. There are different nuances...
Interception
Many fighters believe that in combat conditions call signs must be treated carefully. Maybe there should be a little personal in them. For example, by intercepting the “Czech” radio, the military even established routes using call signs. What if the enemy is also familiar with a similar system?
What kind of technique is this for identifying “travel routes” based on call signs? But they simply knew, for example, that “Temuchin” was from Churek-Martan, and “Plovets” was from Babai-Yurt. Via radio communication, the fighter intercepts a message: “First, let’s go to “Swimmer” and sit with him for a day. At night we move to Temuchin. They are met at this crossing.
“Swimmer” was the first guy in the village, and “Temuchin” was known as a music lover and played 80s disco. That's why he got his pseudonym.
Online, translators worked in real time only when interacting with artillery and aviation. The Special Forces received transcripts of interceptions that were two days old, but that was enough for the analysts. The operation took place in the form of an ambush.
There are no such analysts in the armies of the potential enemy (which is about 98 countries). They think that the call sign “Kuzya” came from the surname Kuznetsov. The meanings of the words “seeds 7.62”, “castle”, “hillock”, “cucumbers” are indicated in foreign dictionaries of Russian army jargon. In general, many soldiers are thinking about how to secure their airwaves.
It is known that Richard Sorge from 1929 to 1944) had the call sign “Ramsay”, Lev Borisovich (German communist, GRU employee, Comintern agent, executed) had the call sign “Alex”, Richard Vennikas (GRU resident in Finland, Estonian) had the call sign “Alex”. "Bergman."
Of course, when there are powerful shellings, many people forget about nicknames and shout in plain text. It must be added that these middle names are different. One and the same fighter may have a nickname, for example, “Ochkarik,” but the call sign is completely different.
Description
Many are interested in knowing what elite troops are, how the soldiers who serve in them select call signs, where they use them, selection rules, specifics... Many say that the letter “P” should be present in the PSO, since it is clearly audible when interference Call signs of officials consist of three-digit numbers. They are all described in the reference document (TPDL).
The second names of commanders, their deputies and heads of units, headquarters and units are created from a noun and a number (1-3 digits). They are indicated in the division's radio data. For example, “Verba-163”, “Yel-4”.
The control station call sign is a noun. For example, “Focus”, “Ash”. Two sets of call signs are always created - the main one and the backup one. The entire procedure for their appointment, as well as governing documents, are described in the “Manual on the formation of communications in the Army.”
Battalion units do not have their own means of communication, and squads are not even assigned call signs. Therefore, they are appointed only by platoon commanders.
Specialists, as a rule, use primitive schemes. For example, the main one has the call sign “Wing”, and the main group has the call sign “Falcon”. One or two syllable words are used, since long nicknames are difficult to pronounce in battle.
Some elite troops use American standard call signs. In this case, the first letter of the surname in the phonetic Latin alphabet is used: B - bravo, C - Charlie, and so on. The number is then added when the first letters of the surname match. For example, “Foxtrot-1”, “Sierra-2”.
In the Russian troops, the call signs of unit group commanders are very often selected based on a person’s personal qualities - “Leshy-1”, “Bychok-1”, “Condor-1”. If there are few groups, proper names are used. Very often they use the unit's call sign with any additional digit other than one.
Many fighters say that call signs should not be created by changing the surname and should be easily retained in memory, and they should not reflect the external personal characteristics of a person. They argue that most often the second name is the nickname (nickname) of a fighter in everyday life.
Numerical and numerical call signs are commonly found in exercises where there are many superiors and observers present. It is known that there was an officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who fought in Chechnya with the call sign “200” (two hundredth).
Many fighters say that their PSOs were invented by the command and changed every three months, and they created nicknames on their own in accordance with personal qualities or surnames.
The fighters also testify that call signs and nicknames are different things. After all, the TPDL (table of call signs for officials), which the communications provided them with, was completely digital.
In general, call signs and nicknames are operational pseudonyms. They are formed in completely different ways. But behind every such sign there is a real person, whose fate may be of interest not only to historians or specialists, but also to anyone who cares.
"Gyurza"
It is known that the call sign “Gyurza” at one time was Alexey Viktorovich Efentyev. Who is he? This is a Russian and Soviet officer who performed combat missions in Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Kosovo and Chechnya. He successfully carried out his work and for his personal courage this reserve lieutenant colonel was nominated for the title of Hero of the Russian Federation, but he was never awarded.
His call sign “Gyurza” during the First Chechen War was known to every resident of the republic. Efentyev carried out dozens of raids on the rear of Dudayev’s troops, stormed Bamut and unblocked the Coordination Center surrounded in Grozny. During the last operation, Russian journalists and many senior officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the army were rescued.
Special Forces divisions
What are special purpose units (SPU)? These are battalions of aviation, ground forces and navy, trained according to a specific program, as well as police, internal troops, and gendarmerie, necessary to perform special tasks using special means and tactics. It is known that call signs for special forces girls are selected in the same way as for boys - there are no differences.
"Cobra"
Lieutenant Colonel Erkebek Abdulaev (special purpose reconnaissance officer of the Vympel group of the KGB of the USSR) had the call sign “Cobra”. He published his own autobiography. In the special forces of the KGB of the USSR, soldiers like him were called “stuntmen.”
His biography is similar to the life of most Vympel officers, among whom were Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Azerbaijanis and Georgians, Koreans and Karelians. They all defended the interests of their Motherland - they performed one task. Each of them was faithful to his duty to the end, although they all had doubts, worries, and grievances.
"Yakut"
Volodya-Yakut is a Russian fictional sniper, the hero of the urban myth of the same name about the First Chechen War, who became popular due to his high performance. It is believed that this sniper's name was Maksimovich, although in the legend his name is Volodya. It is known that he was a commercial hunter from Yakutia and had the call sign “Yakut”.
US Special Forces
The American logical system of army control is fundamentally different from the Russian one. Not only are the digital call signs inconsistent (the commander is only conventionally referred to as 01 by the soldiers among themselves), but the verbal ones also do not follow the corresponding law of thinking (in the battalion, not all are “birds” and “trees”). And this is fair - without knowing the TPDL (table of call signs of officials), you will never understand in an open interception network who “Dunduk-29” or “Woodpecker-36” is. This is how US special forces work.
In the Special Forces, when conducting a secret operation, it is customary to choose your own call sign (children's nickname, something fashionable, or whatever comes to mind). If a fighter appears on open air while performing a special task, he needs to change the PSO. It is reasonable.
US special forces can cause trouble for a Russian soldier. Radio intelligence and electronic warfare of America are able to crack codes. And even if they don’t know the code, they can monitor the intensity of radio exchange between units or disorient the enemy, jam stations, cause interference, and so on. They can also take bearings from signal sources, which is also bad.
In addition, the Americans have a separate National Security Agency (NSA), which deals with radio and electronic intelligence. This is the most secret institution in the United States.
Nicknames in the army
- At five minutes to two they called one, he was 195 cm tall.
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- We had Vovka “Eggplant”, because of his complexion.
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- Khrapovetsky because he snored heavily
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- Was driven by "Vitamin", weighed 160-170 kilograms
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- There was a “Kranyusha” crane. The guy sometimes braked, and his name was Ilyusha-Kranyusha.
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- The mechanic on my BMP was called “Combat Android”, he got a shrapnel in the back on the BZ, but he still didn’t want to go to the medical unit! He said: “We’ll return home and they’ll cure us.” Still walking!
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- The fighter’s name was “Tankman”. It seems like nothing special. However, he received a chase after he fell into an open sewer manhole. And, having climbed out to the waist, he continued to rub in the topic he started before the fall.
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- Zigag or Zigi. He was a jock, with a figure like Zigzag from the movie “DuckTales.”
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- Popularizer, from the words to lick the ass.
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- Was Blockade (since from St. Petersburg)
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- We had two friends, snipers: they drove “Blind 1” and “Blind 2”. It was fun to listen to them when they were talking on the radio.
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In my company in Chechnya there was “Godzilla” - the guy had a heavy, “dropping steps” gait and his last name was Gazzalov. “Kid” is a good-natured fellow weighing at least one hundred kilos. “Mafia” - served a juvenile sentence for participating in the murder of a policeman. "Svyazyuk" is our eternal carrier of the 159th radio station.
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NICKNAMES IN THE ARMY
The stories of their origin are interesting.
For example, one commander of the fleet aviation was called “Photographer” behind his back. He had nothing to do with the high art of photography, but when he criticized an officer’s official activities, he always ended it with the word “I’m photographing.” This did not apply to the appearance of a photograph of the person being scolded, but meant his removal from his position.
Or here’s another technician, a big guy and an athlete, who was called “Oculist” because not a single drinking party in which he took part ended without him blackening someone’s eye. Behind the eyes, we mean the object of influence, and not talking behind the back.
Served in one regiment as a senior lieutenant. He looked to be about sixty years old, although in fact he was not forty-five. And he had a nickname - “Colonel”. And that's why they called him that.
It is known that in the officer’s identity card, which was issued one and for the entire duration of service, there is a column: military rank. It provides space for recording military ranks from lieutenant to major general. So he had all these places filled: lieutenant - senior lieutenant - lieutenant - senior lieutenant - lieutenant... and so on until the penultimate line. A careerist, however.
One navigator with the simple surname Golovnya was called the noble surname Balkonsky. One day on a day off, having taken a hefty dose, he smoked on the second floor balcony, from where he successfully collapsed and lay there without the slightest sign of consciousness until he, accompanied by the frightened regiment commander, a lieutenant colonel, was taken to the infirmary. There, having regained consciousness, he saw his native commander and, focusing on the two stars in the pursuit, he said understandingly:
-I saw this lieutenant somewhere.
Then, taking advantage of the momentary lack of attention to his person, he ran away. And they found him sitting with a glass and a cigarette on the same balcony from which he had so safely fallen half an hour ago.
Each pilot who tore more than two tires during landing was given the honorary nickname Pokryshkin until the end of his service in this regiment. Any parachutist who landed unsuccessfully was given a rank reflecting the landing location. If he lands on a summer cottage - Summer Resident, in a vegetable garden - Gardener, in the forest - Forester, in the thick of a herd - Shepherd or Cattleman.
I had a second navigator, whose name was Cossack or Headless Horseman. Before serving in naval aviation, he was a jockey in Rostov-on-Don, hence Kazachok, and The Headless Horseman well characterizes his behavior and career growth.
In one auto platoon there was a fighter known under the pseudonym Trolleybus. Somehow they lost electricity in the basement of the barracks. This soldier was sent there to find and fix the problem. The fighter, having figured out with his brain what the cost was, decided to follow the path of least resistance - he grabbed the wire on the ceiling with both hands (the ceiling in the basement is low) and began to move in small steps in the darkness, feeling for the break point.
Finally found it. It’s good that at least it didn’t kill him, but they pumped him out.
Nicknames had regiments, divisions and, in rare cases, squadrons. Thus, one regiment was called Romanian only because during a football match between the regiments of the division, someone, encouraging his own, shouted a phrase from the movie: “Forward, dead Romanians!” And it took root.
For some reason the second regiment was called Zyabrovsky, although the squadron transferred from Zyabrovka was part of the Romanian regiment.
The third, separate regiment of this garrison was called Honghuz or Chinese for two reasons. Firstly, it originated near the Chinese border. And secondly, because of the large number of personnel. The crew of one aircraft could include from 9 to 14 people. And a whole bunch of technicians served him.
And divisions were usually named after the nearest settlement. Ours was initially located in the Sov-Gavansky district, and then, as a result of territorial demarcation, it ended up in the Vanino region. This gave the fleet aviation commander the opportunity to show his wit and joke to our division commander:
-You used to be a owl, but now you’re just a stinker.
An offensive hint at the similarity of our unit to excrement, in terms of its combat qualities, from the point of view of the commander.
By the way, not only inanimate objects become prototypes for the formation of nicknames for people, but people can also become the source of the names of objects. For example, our glorious division commander hated the colors green and yellow. He especially hated dandelions. That is why every single day someone’s caring hand put a bouquet of dandelions in his mailbox, which aroused his dislike for this innocent flower even more...
It got to the point that someone placed a piece of paper and one dandelion on the steps of the division headquarters, just in time for his arrival. The piece of paper read:
Don't touch me Shushpanchik,
After all, I am the last dandelion.
The general's last name was Shushpanov, and the dandelions in this division were called nothing more than “shushpanchiki.”
Nowhere have I seen such a desire to give out nicknames as in aviation, and the apotheosis of this phenomenon can be considered the name of the monument in front of the Officers' House in Monino.
There they sculptured a strong fellow with an artificial satellite in his hand in a rapid rush forward. The jerk turned out to be so rapid that the symbolic clothes slipped back, and this gave rise to the name of the monument - “I’ll let everything down, but I’ll let it go!”
And at our school there was Captain Korolev. But, just as he clearly didn’t match the king’s intelligence or charisma, his name was Knave))
In Mongolia, there was a fighter on the PDS who, while jumping in the steppe, sat bored on parachutes, unsuccessfully lit a cigarette and burned several hundred hectares of steppe and forest in addition, the extinguishing of which was accompanied by maneuvers of manpower, equipment and helicopters, before demobilization he bore the nickname Laur-Balaur))
The company commander was - Art. Lt. Vetrov. Nickname - Draft
There was also a lieutenant, I forgot his last name, but I remember his insignia - Murzik. They gave it for giving the command - “Smirrrrrrr!
I knew one warrant officer (company sergeant major) who, when asked “where to get it,” always answered “to give birth.” Accordingly, the nickname "Stork".
There was a company commander nicknamed “Helicopter” - he constantly ran and waved his arms.
We even came up with a joke: the company commander comes to the battalion commander and says: “my subordinates call me a helicopter.”
battalion commander: "okay, I'll sort it out"
company commander: “Well, did I fly then?”
Our political officer was nicknamed “Talking Head” and “Head of Professor Dowell.” As soon as he starts giving lectures, he will stand behind the table on the stage, behind which the lecturers speak (I don’t remember what it’s actually called) and because of his small stature, only one head is visible.
At our school there was a physics teacher nicknamed "Master". He always dressed in a formal suit with a tie and sandals, as expected, on bare feet. I still couldn’t understand why he had such a nickname until I heard something like this from him: “The distance is forty-one meters.”
The enemy's nickname in war cannot be neutral. Propaganda and rumors always form the image of the enemy. And if the word seems quite innocent, the underlying meaning may be unpleasant.
Bad kind
The method of influencing the army with the help of ethnophilism by propaganda has been known since ancient times. Ethnophilism - “a bad, worthless race” is an offensive nickname, with a negative evaluative, emotional or stylistic connotation. Ethnophilism can be compound, derived from the name, some natural characteristics of a person and from the name of an animal or other creature.
So, during the Northern War of 1700-1721. Swedish propaganda unleashed a flood of publications and bulletins about the horrific actions of the Russians. The enemy always took the form of a monster (Tsar Peter), who was helped by Cossacks and soldiers. “Russian”, “enemy” and “devil” have actually become synonymous.
Describing the situation of the inhabitants of Finland, propagandists associated them with the biblical story of the suffering of the people of Israel in Egyptian slavery, while the Russians were called “Assyrians”, their king - “the bastard of the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar”.
The Patriotic War with Napoleon of 1812 enriched both languages - Russian and French - with such terms as “trash” - from chevalier, “chantrapa” - chantra pas (“can’t sing, doesn’t know how”), “charmer” - cher ami ("Dear friend"). The word “bistro” from the Russian “quickly” has taken root in the French language. To this day in France you can hear “berezina”, which in Russian means “everything is very bad” (“full arctic fox” - slang).
As for the fighters of the Russian army directly, according to the memoirs of Napoleonic General de Marbeau, the Bashkir warriors made a huge impression on the French. For their mastery of bows, the French nicknamed them “cupids.”
In the Crimean War 1853-1856. The French were not so delicate between the Russian Empire and the coalition consisting of the British, French, Ottoman Empires and the Kingdom of Sardinia. This is what Leo Tolstoy writes in “Sevastopol Stories” about a captured soldier: “They are not beautiful, these Russian brutes,” says one zouave from the crowd of Frenchmen. However, the Russian officers themselves, according to Tolstoy, “half-contemptuously, half-affectionately call the soldier “Moscow” or also “oath.”
Bestial nicknames
Bestial nicknames also shape the image of the enemy. As a rule, these are compound ethnophilisms. So, in the English language there are: chinese pig - “Chinese pig”, russian pig - “Russian pig”, varying with the words dog - “dog”, dirty - “dirty”, filthy - “vile”, etc.
In the Great Patriotic War, soldiers of different armies were given short nicknames - Ivan, Tommy, Hans - which most fully reflected their inner essence, while at the same time being an identifier of the expectations of their behavior. Such a neutral nickname was explained by the peculiar recognition of the enemy as a strong warrior.
But the Nazis took it out on the civilian population in full: Schwein - “pig” - they didn’t call the Russians anything else.
From the memoirs of Tamara Grigorieva, who was sent to work in Germany by her stepmother in 1942: “There were 40 of us in the forest, they gave us slippers and picks to chop stones. I didn’t put on slippers, didn’t pick up a pickaxe, and loudly said to everyone: “When our people come, they’ll give it to them.” The policeman grabbed me by the braids and threw me into a pit, where my arms and legs were immediately broken. The whole night there was blood in the barracks. And in the morning they took me to the doctor. I would recognize his face even now. He looked, there was blood coming out, I was all bloody, my hands were covered in blood, he said: Vek, schwein (Go away, pig).”
Eastern passions
"Blue-eyed" - what's wrong with this nickname? But it frightened a native of Central Asia. In 1914, Türkiye entered World War I on the side of Germany. Turkish subjects were obliged to fight against Russia, but the Assyrians refused to participate in hostilities. Christian Assyrians helped Russia and its allies England and France. Türkiye responded by immediately launching a war of extermination against the Assyrian civilian population. A small part survived the massacres and pogroms. About 60 thousand Assyrians left for Russia along with the retreating Russian soldiers. They said: we will go after the “blue-eyed” - that’s what they called the Russians in Turkey.
We must understand that “blue-eyed” is not a neutral concept at all. According to the beliefs of eastern peoples, jinn often took on a human form, and they could be distinguished from people by the color of their eyes - blue - and hair - light. “We will leave with the demons,” that’s what the Assyrians meant when they left inhospitable Turkey.
Decades have passed, and now in peaceful life, Turks call Russian girls with a nickname similar to their name. “Natasha” is a compound nickname.
In the war in Afghanistan (1979-1989), Russian soldiers were called “shuravi”, from the Arabic “council”. This word takes its origin from the Afghan name for Soviet specialists - military advisers - and has a neutral connotation. But for a Russian special forces soldier, “dushman” has an exclusively negative connotation and, translated, means “enemy.”
The Russian nickname “ak-kulak”, “ash-kuloh” - “white ears” - a common nickname for Russians in Central Asia has a negative connotation. The fact is that according to the customs of these peoples, all women must wear scarves, and girls must wear hats. Therefore, Russian girls who shamelessly expose their ears to public view deserve, from their point of view, condemnation.
Another contemptuous way to call Russians:
In Central Asia - “burla” (barge hauler), as well as “shoshka” (pig eater);
In Estonia - “tibla”;
In the USA - "Raski";
In Finland - “Russia”:
“Laomaozi” (“Maozi”), “hairy” is a colloquial designation for Russians by the Chinese.