On August 20 at 18:00, a meeting will be held on the topic “Self-Isolation: The Language of Purity” as part of the project “How Has the Russian Language Changed in the 2020s?”

We will discuss how the Russian language has changed since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and under tightening repressive legislation, as well as how new vocabulary reflects society’s attitude towards current events.

Speakers:

· Yulia Izmailova – Master of Psychology, Russian language editor specializing in video game localization.

· Andrey Olunin – Economist and manager, volunteer at Queer Asylum Finland.

During the discussion, we plan to cover the following topics:

• The emergence and spread of new words since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic: самоизоляция (self-isolation), удалёнка (remote work), дистанционка (distance learning), ковид-диссидент (covid dissident), чипирование (chipization), шмурдяк (poor quality vaccine or alcohol), etc.

• The language of Russian state propaganda: родитель №1 и родитель №2 (parent No. 1 and parent No. 2), отмена Запада (cancellation of the West), биполярный мир (bipolar world), духовные скрепы (spiritual bonds), ЛГБТ-экстремизм (LGBT extremism), западная зараза (Western contagion), Гейропа (Gayropa), etc.

• The language of repression and censorship: запрещённый исполнитель (banned performer), лояльные артисты (loyal artists), голая вечеринка (naked party), очищение общества (cleansing of society), культурная зачистка (cultural purge), etc.

The meeting will take place at the cultural venue Albatross, address: Kanavaranta 7 F, 00160 Helsinki.

The discussion will be held in Russian. For those who cannot attend in person, an online broadcast will be available on the Suomi–Venäjä-seura YouTube channel.

Link to the online broadcast: https://youtube.com/live/YlP7rE7dzoI

The project is organized by Suomi–Venäjä-seura in partnership with Initiative FoReDi, with the support of a Juhlarahasto grant.

The aim of the project is to promote a better understanding of changes in the Russian language among Russia specialists living in Finland.