![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
red is beautiful
Apr. 10th, 2009 07:27 amOK, so green is by far and away my favourite colour, but I was reading a passage about Russian history this morning, and I learned something new.
The passage was relating to the history of an Imperial Russian military unit, and a passing mention was made of its appearance in Red Square. Wait, "red" Square, during the time of the czars? I ascertained that this was a 2002 translation of a Russian text, so maybe the translator had decided to adapt the wording because he knew the readers would recognise Red Square? But how far back did the name go?
Turns out that the "red" has nothing to do with communism, or the colour of the walls surrounding the square, but because 'krasnaya' ('red' in Russian) can also mean 'beautiful'. And the name didn't come about with the Revolution--it's been there since the 1600s.
OK, so![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
soccer_fox or poliscidiva probably knew this a long time ago, and my mum could probably have told me too, being the big czarophile she is. But I thought it was cool. :-)
The passage was relating to the history of an Imperial Russian military unit, and a passing mention was made of its appearance in Red Square. Wait, "red" Square, during the time of the czars? I ascertained that this was a 2002 translation of a Russian text, so maybe the translator had decided to adapt the wording because he knew the readers would recognise Red Square? But how far back did the name go?
Turns out that the "red" has nothing to do with communism, or the colour of the walls surrounding the square, but because 'krasnaya' ('red' in Russian) can also mean 'beautiful'. And the name didn't come about with the Revolution--it's been there since the 1600s.
OK, so
soccer_fox or poliscidiva probably knew this a long time ago, and my mum could probably have told me too, being the big czarophile she is. But I thought it was cool. :-)
