Were they raised in a barn?
A New York Times article on the stalled bailout plan has Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts dipping into his Russian vocabulary book:
Mr. Frank blamed a “troika” of conservative House Republicans — Jeb Hensarling of Texas, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, and Eric Cantor of Virginia — for pushing the alternative proposal.
I knew a troika was Russian word meaning a trio of people wielding power. The OED, in the second definition for the word, defines it as “a group or set of three persons (rarely things) or categories of people associated in power; a three-person commission or administrative council.”
What I didn’t know is what the word’s original meaning in Russian. The first definition in the OED: “A Russian vehicle drawn by three horses abreast.” The American Heritage Dictionary’s definitions are similar: “1a. A Russian carriage drawn by a team of three horses abreast. b. A team of three horses abreast. 2. See triumvirate.”
Frank surely meant the second definition, but it sounds like he’d be happy associate the trio with a particular end of a team of horses too.
Posted on September 26, 2008 10:00 am, in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.
The association is probably more historical than lexical, from a Cold War incident:
[ A] temporary thaw in the Cold War began in the spring of 1959. . . Vice President Richard M. Nixon visited the U.S.S.R. and met with Khrushchev. Two months later, Khrushchev visited the United States. . . Khrushchev was so friendly that observers spoke of the “spirit of Camp David,” recalling the earlier “spirit of Geneva.” Eisenhower and Khrushchev discussed a summit (top-level) conference to be held in Paris in 1960. The president accepted Khrushchev’s invitation to visit the Soviet Union after the summit meeting.
The U-2 incident abruptly ended the thaw. An American U-2 spy plane was shot down in the U.S.S.R. in May 1960. The Soviet Union captured the pilot, Francis Gary Powers, who confessed he was a spy. Eisenhower accepted personal responsibility for the flight. He admitted that U-2 planes had been flying over the U.S.S.R. taking photographs for four years.
When the summit conference began on May 15, Khrushchev demanded that Eisenhower apologize for the U-2 incident. Eisenhower refused, and Khrushchev angrily canceled his invitation for the president to visit the U.S.S.R.
The Cold War struggle moved to Africa in July 1960. Premier Patrice Lumumba of the Congo asked the UN to deal with a revolt in his newly independent nation. He charged that the Belgians were aiding the rebel Katangans. The U.S.S.R. sided with Lumumba against a group led by Congolese President Joseph Kasavubu. The UN intervened in the dispute, keeping the U.S.S.R. and the West from direct military action. The Soviet Union charged that the UN favored the West.
The troika proposal. In September 1960, Khrushchev went to New York City for the meeting of the UN General Assembly. He again criticized the United States for the U-2 flights. The Soviet leader showed his anger by taking off a shoe and pounding his desk with it.
Khrushchev tried to destroy the power of the UN to send troops into trouble spots. He called for three secretaries-general—a troika (a Russian term for a vehicle drawn by three horses)—to replace the UN secretary-general. One of the secretaries-general would be a Communist, one from a neutral nation, and one from the West. The General Assembly defeated the proposal.*
Barney Frank being an old guy, the insult inherent here is probably a reference to Krushchev rather than to the barnyard.
*Kaufman, Burton I. “Cold War.” World Book Online Reference Center. 2008. [Place of access.] 26 Sept. 2008 .
Sometimes you need an encyclopedia instead of a dictionary, even the OED. (Okay, maybe I’m jealous that you can get to it online and I can’t).
I got the above from [product endorsement coming] the Free Library of Philadelphia databases.
Take your vitamins. Love, Mom
Wow, is that some excellent analysis!
Although I was perfectly happy to envision the whole thing coming from a team of three horses leading the carriage where they would.
Hey Brian’s Mom.
Clare – actually, the word was used long before the Cold War in Russia to refer to what we usually used the word “triumvirate” for in English – Russia does not have the Latin base that English does, and uses Latin words sparingly. In Tsarist times, troika was used to refer to a clique of ministers.
Lenin used the word as long ago as 1912 to refer to the liberal alliance of Cadets, Progressives, and Trudoviks who were trying to outmaneuver the Bolsheviks.
After Lenin’s death, Stalin had not yet consolidated his hold on power, and shared top honors with Zinvoviev and Kamen’ev. This power block was rounely referred to as a “troika” in both the Soviet and Western press of the 1920s. This is probably the most famous Russian troika of modern times, and is when the word entered widespread usage among educated English speakers.
The Soviets routinely used the word aside from the usage you noted by Krushchev, including it in press releases about subjects as varied as politics and spacecraft.
I’ve studied Russian for too long to remember where I first heard the word, but I do remember that I heard it as a child long before I started studying Russian.
True story: In high school, my choir sang a song about “riding high upon the troika/to the village far below.” Or something. I was all poised to bust in here with my knowledge until I saw your mom’s comment. Now I’m going to slink off to the internets with my figurative tail between my legs.
Sorry! I’ve just been around long enough that I actually remember Krushchev banging his shoe and the whole troika thing.
Jeez, now I sound like McCain.