How the Bolsheviks revolutionized the Russian language (VIDEO)
They got rid of several letters of the alphabet, which saved a lot of printing space and, actually, made spelling much easier. The most Russian American Tim Kirby takes you to a brief excursion into linguistic history...
If you want to think of the Russian language more optimistically, then you should know that until 1917 it had goofy spelling just like in English!!!
Imagine back then you had to write THIS letter (Ъ) at the end of every word that ended with a consonant... Just because medieval people spoke slowly.
Well, thanks to the Bolsheviks we don't have to do this anymore.
Their revolution came at a high human cost, but unlike with agriculture, they did revolutionize the language quite well.
Lenin and pals wanted to simplify the alphabet and spelling, so that every single peasant could learn to read and write.
Illiterate people can’t read propaganda posters!
In 1918, they dropped the hammer and just kicked out three letters immediately:
- The mysterious "Yat" (ѣ): Gone! Using E instead.
- There were two letters for F. "Phita" (ѳ) - gone. Only one Ф survived the purges.
- The silent "Yer" (ъ): was BANNED from the end of words. (And this at once saved, like, 4% of all printing paper!)
Decimal I and ultra rare Izhitsa ѵ were basically the same as И so also got removed.
Click here to watch more Russian lessons with our most Russian American, Tim Kirby!
