[LINK] Language is a virus

[rfmcdonald]

Alexei Yurchak's July 2003 study Soviet Hegemony of Form: Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More" (PDF format) examines the way in which Soviet public language masked the radical transformation of Soviet realities. Post-Stalinist realities--specifically, the use of boilerplate language and the end of inquisitorial inquiry into the true intentions of Soviet citizens--allowed this language to be undermined quietly and unthinkingly by hundreds of millions of ordinary Soviet citizens, using the language in ways that deformed its original intent. By the time Gorbachev came around and opened up public discourse, the gaps became publicly known, and too great to effectively bridge.