Eastern Slavic Naming Customs - Early Soviet Union

Early Soviet Union

During the days of revolutionary enthusiasm, as part of the campaign to get rid of "bourgeois culture" (and, specifically, of religious heritage, manifest in many Russian first names), there was a drive to invent new, "revolutionary" names. This produced a large number of Soviet people with bizarre names. Commonly the source were initialisms, as "Vil", "Vilen(a)", "Vladlen(a)" and "Vladilen(a)" for Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. A common suffix was -or, after the October Revolution as seen in "Vilor(a)" or "Melor(a)" (Marx Engels Lenin). Sometimes children were given names after aspects as Barrikada ("barricade") or Revolutsiya ("revolution"). Some of these names have survived into the 21st century.

This tendency was referenced in Polar Star, the second book of the Arkady Renko series by Martin Cruz Smith. The character Dynama (from dynamo) was so named by her father to celebrate the 1950s electrification of her native Uzbekistan. By the 1980s, however, this name was colloquially used refer to opportunistic women who cultivated serial lovers for financial gain - a practice utterly alien to the faithfully married and traditionally-minded Dynama of the novel.

A number of books about this tendency mention some other unusual names such as Dazdrapertrak for Da Zdravstvuet Pervy Traktor ('Hail The First Tractor!'), Dazdraperma Da Zdravstvuet Pervoe Maya ('Hail May Day!') (May Day - International Workers' Day), Revmir(a), for Revolutsiya Mirovaya ('World Revolution') and Oyushminald, for Otto Yulyevich Shmidt na Ldine" (Otto Schmidt on the ice floe').

Some parents called their children the German female names "Gertrud(a)" (Gertrude), reanalyzing it as "Geroy/Geroinya Truda" ('Hero of Labour'), "Marlen(a)" (Marlene), reanalyzing it as "Marx and Lenin", or "Sten" (Stan), reanalyzing it as "Stalin and Engels".

A number of Russians with the name "Kim", were not of Korean descent, but rather were named after the "Kommunistichesky International Molodyozhi" ('Youth Communist International').