Well, I have been asked a question - I have to answer it.
> From: "Johannes Angermuller <fp280@fen.baynet.de>" <jsang@arches.uga.edu>
> Anyway, as to the discussion about the use of "comrade" I'd like to
> mention that the Soviet communists usually say "tovarishch" which seems
> to be still pretty ambigous as to its political overtones in present-day
> Russia (Andrey, don't you use it sometimes in the neutral meaning of
> 'guy'?).
Well, I am afraid that though the original meaning of "tovarishch" is
really not so much far from 'guy', or just 'friend', it is NOT used
in the above-mentioned context, just because of the point discussed
at the moment. At present (though actually almost since 1918) "tovarishchi"
in Russia is used as almost a sinonyme of "communists" -
surprisingly the same can be said about some Arab countries:
originally neutral rafi:q (pl. rifa:q - "friend, companion") in some places became
virtually sinonymous to "communist", e.g. the
bloody conflict inside the Yemen Socialist [though, actually,
Communist] Party in Aden in 1986 was described by the non-coommunist Arab
press as "h*arb al-rifa:q" ("the War of the Comrades"). Or, a bit
stronger case. In 1983 in Aden I found out that the sausage was
denoted by some part of the Adenese as "zubb al-rafi:q" (pl. "azba:b
al-rifa:q") - just do not ask me what "zubb" means in Arabic!
Yours,
Andrey Korotayev, Moscow, RUSSIA