Difference between revisions of "Template:Russians Lie"

e 

Yes, the Russian is incapable of telling downright lies; but seems equally incapable of telling the truth. The intermediate phenomenon for which he feels the utmost love and tenderness resembles neither truth nor lozh [lie]. It is vranyo. Like our native aspen, it pops up uninvited everywhere, choking other varieties; like the aspen it is no use for firewood or carpentry; and, again like the aspen, it is sometimes beautiful. — Leonid Andreyev, Pan-Russian Vranyo

[Russians] lie out of necessity. We lie when it’s convenient. And we lie just to keep in shape. - Vadim Medish.^[1]

Russians lie, a national characteristic called "vranyo". Dictionaries translate vranyo as “lies, fibs, nonsense, idle talk,” but like many Russian terms, it is really untranslatable. Americans might call it “tall talk” or “white lies,” but “fib” perhaps comes closest because vranyo. To these words may be added the Irish "blarney", which comes nearer than any of the others, but still falls pretty wide of the mark. As Russian writer Leonid Andreyev noted, is somewhere between the truth and a lie. Vranyo is indeed an art form, beautiful perhaps to Russians but annoying to Westerners and others who value the unvarnished truth.^[2]

In its most common form today, vranyo is an inability to face the facts, particularly when the facts do not reflect favorably on Russia. Tourist guides are masters of vranyo, as are Russians who represent their country abroad. When ideology or politics dictate a particular position, they are likely to evade, twist, or misstate facts in order to put the best possible spin on a potentially embarrassing situation. As Boris Fedorov, a former deputy prime minister of Russia has put it, “There are several layers of truth in Russia. Nothing is black or white, fortunately or unfortunately.”159

Russians, however, do not consider vranyo to be dishonest, nor should foreign visitors. As Fyodor Dostoyevsky explained:

Among our Russian intellectual classes the very existence of a non-liar is an impossibility, the reason being that in Russia even honest men can lie.… I am convinced that in other nations, for the great majority, it is only scoundrels who lie; they lie for practical advantage, that is, with directly criminal aims.160

When using vranyo, Russians know that they are fibbing and expect that their interlocutors will also know. But it is considered bad manners to directly challenge the fibber, although it can be done with tact. As Hingley advises, the victim of vranyo should “convey subtly, almost telepathically, that he is aware of what is going on, that he appreciates the performance and does not despise his … host simply because the conditions of the latter’s office obliged him to put it on.”161