Friend or Foe?

This fall, U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney termed Russia America’s “main geopolitical foe” – «геополити́ческий враг но́мер оди́н». Whatever the outcome of the election may be (this was signed to press on October 15), the comment offers an excellent pretext for a discussion of friends and enemies.

Russian is not short of words for “enemy” – such as вражи́на. There are also a couple of words meaning adversary: неприя́тель (a term that dates from Generalissimo Suvorov’s time) or the more folksy супоста́т. Other derivatives from враг include вражда́ (hostility) and вражде́бность (animosity).

There are also important enemy-related proverbs: Е́сли хо́чешь врага́ нажи́ть, так дай в долг де́нег! (If you want to make someone an enemy, lend him money) and За́втрак съешь оди́н, обе́д раздели́ с дру́гом, а у́жин отда́й врагу́ (Eat your breakfast alone, share your lunch with a friend and give your dinner to an enemy).

Yes, we Russians know how to hate our enemies, but we can also be merciful (милосе́рдны). After we endure horrible atrocities, we say – тако́го и врагу́ не пожела́ю (I wouldn’t wish that even on an enemy). There is also the popular phrase relating to one’s mother-in-law (тёща): Тёща, ми́лая, пойми́, мы с тобо́ю не враги́. It is based on the lyrics from a humorous song by Soviet singer Yuri Bogatikov, in which a husband, abandoned by his wife, asks his тёща for help:

Слу́шай, тёща, друг родно́й, помоги́!
Ты пойми́, что мы с тобо́й не враги́

По зако́ну е́сли брать, мы – родня́,
Ты ж почти́ втора́я мать для меня́.

Listen, tyoscha, dear friend, please help me!
You and I, we’re not enemies, are we?

We’re all but relatives, so says the law,
In fact you’re almost my second mom.

But back to Мит Ромни… It was far from the first in his series of foreign policy faux pas, though it was an огро́мный one (pun intended). And our common reply to such malapropisms is “Язы́к мой – враг мой” (“My tongue is my worst enemy.”) Yet was his statement, reviving the о́браз врага́ (image of the enemy) really не в ка́ссу (“not into the cash box”) and ми́мо де́нег (“off the money”) – two colloquial idioms denoting clumsy statements? Or might this holder of offshore bank accounts попа́л в са́мое я́блочко (hit the apple, i.e. nail on the head)?

In politics (let alone quotidian life) it is rather difficult to распозна́ть настоя́щего врага́ (to discern a true enemy). Even if you use a state-of-the-art “friend or foe” identification system (as developed during WWII; in Russian it is known as систе́ма опознава́ния «свой-чужо́й»). And often your long-time friends (e.g. Georgia and Bulgaria) can turn on you. As Pushkin put it:

Враго́в име́ет в ми́ре всяк
Но от друзе́й спаси́ нас, Бо́же!

Everyone has enemies in this world
But Lord save us from our friends!

So, it’s perfectly fine to have Mitt Romney call Russia геополити́ческий враг но́мер оди́н. It means he fears us. And even though we are surely not as scary as it may seem from across the ocean, there is a kernel of truth in the Russian saying, бои́тся – зн ачит уважа́ет (who fears you, respects you). Or, to quote Martin Luther King, “it’s better to have an enemy you respect than a friend you despise.”