It is difficult to find a politician in modern Russia who at least once has not uttered the magic phrase about Russia on his knees in one way or another. But for some reason, few people have pondered since that memorable day when this metaphor was first voiced - why is Russia suddenly on its knees? What a weird pose for one-sixth of the land?
An entertaining metaphor, sounded in a speech after the inauguration of Boris Nikolevich Yeltsin in 1990, has since become a resounding Internet meme. Both famous and popular performers and amateurs began to devote poems and songs to her: the reflection of this meme can be found in the works of Yegor Letov, Igor Talkov, Zhanna Bichevskaya. Politicians of all stripes - from pro-Kremlin to opposition - no, no, and they will resort to this capacious image. Why did he become so attractive and explaining a lot for various reasons?
History of the issue
As noted above, for the first time, in a recognizable version, the phrase sounded in a speech after the inauguration of Boris Yeltsin in 1990.
Eight and a half years later, the current President of the Russian Federation, and then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, uttered it, somewhat rethinking, in his usual popular Gulag vocabulary: "Russia can rise from its knees and whack it properly." Actually, as time has shown, this expression briefly and succinctly formulated a summary of the concept of his entire domestic and foreign policy.
Sociological reflections
The image of a kneeling person involuntarily draws in the imagination several mutually exclusive pictures, and if you conduct a sociological survey, in which respondents are asked to choose a picture that matches this image, then, most likely, the audience of respondents will be divided both by age and by degree awareness and involvement in the life of social networks.
In principle, it is easy to assume that the older generation will more often choose from the proposed pictures a weakened person who does not have the strength not only to stand, but simply to stand up, but he still does not allow himself to finally fall.
The generations of respondents born in the mid 70s - 90s are likely to be divided in percentage terms by the level of education and Internet advancement: from a weakened or humiliated person to a person using kneeling position as one of the hundred poses of the art of sex - Kamasutra, i.e. a person who is not just physically strong, but energetically strong, who finds pleasure and pleasure in this particular position.
That is, it becomes obvious that over the past years the image has changed its direction and its use only indicates the aging "catchphrase", which, over time, most likely in the dictionary of "Winged Phrases" will have the footnote "outdated." - obsolete. True, there is one small condition for this - by that time Russia must "rise" from the very knees to which tired citizens of the older generation - those who are generally over sixty - have knocked it over.
Modern sounding of the question
Probably the question “when Russia will rise from its knees” could have remained a rhetorically semantic, convenient word formation for many years, if not for one joyful event - on July 2, 2014, RIA Novosti issued a special message with an informational title: “Security Council of the Russian Federation: US hegemony in the world is over, Russia has risen to its feet."
That is, the question of getting off his knees was completed by the decision of both the executive and the legislature. Now it remains to wait for the catch phrase to enter the appropriate dictionaries.
However, not all eloquent speakers have grasped the insistent recommendations of the Security Council, therefore, various political strategists still have reservations in the media space. But, obviously, they are mistaken only because the announcement of a complete rise from their knees was carried out in the summer, during vacation time. It is expected that after returning from holidays, Russians will feel with all their hearts such a joyful historical event.
