Russian Public Dictionary of the end of the XX century

June 23-29, 2003

"Pe-Ar", from English “PR” (public relations)

Date the term appeared: August 19, 1991
Source: Kommersant, Weekly Edition

The term first appeared (with no translation) in an article by Dmitry Bogdanovich, “PBN Decides to Show Off to the Public — the Soviet Public.”

“For the first time in the USSR, a foreign company specializing in public relations (PR) was officially accredited — the American firm The PBN Company. Its office in Moscow opened on August 13.”

Four years later another term appeared in the media - “black PR.” Said Kommersant-Daily on November 9, 1995, "Alexander Popov, the chairman of the Press and Public Relations Agencies Guild, is convinced that 'things like PR abuse and charlatanism remain common in our country.' Companies conceal the flaws of their products in this way, explaining that PR 'is a flower bouquet, a bottle of champagne, a tie for $150, and so-called black PR — paid media articles.’”

In 1995-1996, with the development of the advertising market and the appearance of many new companies specializing in public relations, the term became widely used.

In the twelve years after the collapse of the USSR, the Russian language has been enriched with new words and expressions. The changed reality resulted in a number of innovations. The fact that media became more open and politicians and other public figures more relaxed played a significant role. Neither journalists nor newsmakers limited themselves in the formation of new words. The most successful neologisms were those that became part of contemporary colloquial language.

"Vlast" introduces a dictionary of new words and expressions which have entered everyday public life in the post-Soviet period. We made an attempt to track the circumstances from which new words arose and each article in the dictionary includes the date a word first appeared and its authorship.

The dictionary is compiled by: Kirill Vishnepolsky, Andrey Mochenov, Sergey Nikulin.

This article used with the kind permission of Vlast magazine.