Moskal
{{short description|Historical or pejorative designation for Russians}}
{{Italic title}}
{{other uses}}
File:Moskovskiy Kreml pri Ivane Kalite.jpg in the early 14th century, depicted by 19th century painter Apollinary Vasnetsov.]]
File:Майки1.jpg on a white T-shirt: "Слава Богу, що я не москаль" (Slava Bohu, shcho ya ne moskal), {{trans}} Thank God I am not a Moskal]]
Moskal{{efn|{{bulleted list|Russian and {{langx|uk|москаль}}|{{langx|be|маскаль}}|{{langx|pl|moskal}}|{{langx|ro|muscal}}|{{langx|hu|muszka}}|{{langx|lt|maskolis}}}}}} is a designation used for the residents of the Grand Duchy of Moscow from the 12th to the 15th centuries.{{cite book|author=Alexander Mikaberidze|authorlink= Alexander Mikaberidze|title=Ilya Radozhitskii's Campaign Memoirs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RaCJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA10|year=2011|publisher=Lulu|isbn=978-1-105-16871-0|page=10}}
It is now sometimes used in Belarus, Ukraine, and Poland, but also in Romania, as an ethnic slur for Russians.{{cite book |title=The Russian language outside the nation |date=2014 |location=Edinburgh |isbn=9780748668465 |page=74|last1=Ryazanova-Clarke |first1=Lara }}{{cite book |last1=Radozhit︠s︡kiī |first1=Ilʹi︠a︡ Timofeevich |title=Campaign memoirs of the artilleryman |date=2011 |location=Tbilisi, Georgia |isbn=978-1-105-16871-0 |page=10}}{{cite book|author=Benjamin Harshav|title=American Yiddish Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZYzsjxrtpLsC&pg=PA559|year=1986|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-04842-3|page=559}} The term is generally considered to be derogatory or condescending and reciprocal to the Russian term khokhol for Ukrainians.{{cite book|title=The Search for self-definition in Russian literature|volume =27 |first= Ewa Majewska |last=Thompson |authorlink = Ewa Thompson |publisher= John Benjamins Publishing Company|year=1991 |isbn =9027222134 |pages=22}} Another ethnic slur for Russians is kacap in Polish, or katsap (кацап) in Ukrainian.
History and etymology
Initially, as early as the 12th century, moskal referred to the residents of Muscovy, the word literally translating as "Muscovite" (differentiating the residents of the Grand Duchy of Moscow from other East Slavs such as people from White Ruthenia (Belarusians), Red Ruthenia (Ukrainians), and others). With time, the word became an archaism in all the East Slavic languages, and survived only as a family name in each of those languages—see below.Edyta M. Bojanowska (2007) "Nikolai Gogol: Between Ukrainian And Russian Nationalism" {{ISBN|0-674-02291-2}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=0Cefw929Bw8C&dq=moskal+%22ethnic+slur%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA55 p. 55]: "In the 'low', folksy world of the provincial narrators, a Russian is a moskal ("Muscovite")", a foreigner and an intruder, at best a carpetbagger, at worst a thief in league with the devil."
The negative connotation in Ukraine came in around the late 18th-early 19th centuries in the form of an ethnic slur labelling all Russians. At that time, since the 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement of Cossacks with Moscow the majority of Russians in Ukrainian lands were soldiers of the Imperial Russian Army (and in fact at that time the term "moskal" was synonymous with the word "soldier"), as well as Russian bureaucrats, Russian nobles that were granted estates there, and merchants. All these categories were disliked by the locals.Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History, pp. 274-275
Cultural influence
The "Moskal" is a stock character of the traditional Ukrainian puppet theatre form, vertep.Прыгунов М. [http://feb-web.ru/feb/litenc/encyclop/le3/le3-5431.htm "Драма Вертепная"], Литературная энциклопедия 1929—1939, vol. 3. Moscow: Изд-во Ком. Акад., 1930, pp. 543—545[https://ukrainianjewishencounter.org/en/redefining-traditional-vertep-issue-ukrainian-jewish-relations/ Redefining the Traditional Vertep: An Issue in Ukrainian-Jewish Relations]
It also gave rise to a number of East Slavic family names: Moskal, Moskalyov, Moskalenko, Moskalik, Moskalyuk, Moskalchuk, Moskalyonok.
See also
Notes
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References
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External links
- {{in lang|uk|ru}} [http://r2u.org.ua/s?w=%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C&scope=all&dicts=all&highlight=on#info Search query in Russian-Ukrainian dictionaries]
{{Ethnic slurs}}
Category:Pejorative terms for European people