March 15, 2021

Equus Asinus Asinus


Equus Asinus Asinus
Sorry, this story has nothing to do with actual donkeys.  TS Sergey | unsplash.com

Everyone loves giving insults in foreign languages, but sometimes it can land you in hot water. And cost you R3,000  ($41) if you insult the wrong person: in this case, a former FSB officer.

This story begins back in 2019 with a particularly rowdy WhatsApp group chat among residents of Novosibirsk. This particular group of people was composed of shared equity holders in a several-year-long project to renovate an old unfinished building.

Emotions became heated and insults began to be thrown about, particularly targeting one individual in the group who happened to be a former FSB agent. Typical insults in the Russian language, such as a "clown," a "blabbermouth," or even a "donkey" are to be expected, but apparently, tensions ran so high that one participant felt that the Russian language couldn't do the argument justice anymore and resorted to using the Latin language instead. 

For some reason, this individual felt that the phrase "donkey" in Russian alone just didn't have the same ring to it, so they added their one and only contribution to the disparaging: "Equus asinus asinus" (the scientific, Latin name for "donkey"). This comment, despite being out of context and not immediately directed at anyone, still earned this individual a R3,000 fine in court when the former FSB agent sued for "moral anguish."

Legal suits for online insult or defamation such as this one have become increasingly more common in Russia in recent years. The other participant who made a majority of the insults, albeit in Russian, was fined R7,000 as well.

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955