>From: "Chris Doss" <itschris13 at hotmail.com>
>
>RE: "Chyornyi"(black):
>
>BTW as a derogatory epithet for someone of Caucasian nationality (or
>"chelovek kavkazskoi natsional'nosti") this word is of relatively recent
>coinage, going back as far as I know to the 60s and 70s when Caucasian
>shuttle traders started appearing in European Russia.
Forgot too mention it's mostly a post-Soviet phenomenon. In the tsarist era, Georgians and Armenians were mostly looked at as traders (which is what they historically are; I remember playing Monopoly with an Armenian economist who insisted on adding VAT to every transaction, I kid you now) and the Dagestanis and Chechens as noble bandit-warriors, kind of the way Apaches are traditionally viewed in US popular culture. (The Chechen-Ingush word "dzhigit," which has been imported into Russian, has approximately the same connotations as "brave," as in an Indian brave -- it implies martial and rading prowess and horsemanship.)
In the Soviet era, the state and media (same thing, really) portrayed Caucasians as happy-go-lucky bohemians who were close to nature but nevertheless cultured and always knew how to have a good time.
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