Единоличник

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

Hello!
When the word единоличник/единоличница is used in the meaning "individualist", is it pejorative, or can it be neutral or positive as well?

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Comments

[orie.livejournal.com]

This word is very rare, I don't use it.

I think it relates to early soviet times and is definitely pejoratve, part of totalitarian manipulative language

[pro100-petrov.livejournal.com]

>totalitarian manipulative language
:))))))

[surkova.livejournal.com]

I can't think of a use case with a positive meaning of this word.

[ingwall.livejournal.com]

It can be neutral if used as an official descriptive term (a peasant/villager who is not a member of the collective farm), but outside of that context, it means a person is "not a team player", and implies that such a person is self-centered and egotistical. It is never positive.

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

Yep, the word is typically used to describe someone who is part of some group and is supposed to share in one way or another within that group, but doesn't.

[scarletinblue.livejournal.com]

you are not quete right, i think.
it's common word.

[scarletinblue.livejournal.com]

+1

I would not agree...

[lion-casserole.livejournal.com]

.
Единоличник - (in the political economics) is one who would not hire a worker outside of his own family. (The person described above could be referred as "жмот".)

единоличный: единый, личный; свой, собственный, индивидуальный, находящийся в личном владении, находящийся в частных руках, являвшийся личной собственностью, самостоятельный, самоличный, находящийся в личной собственности.

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

http://www.gramota.ru/slovari/dic/?word=%E5%E4%E8%ED%EE%EB%E8%F7%ED%E8%EA&all=x:
Неодобр.
Об эгоистичном человеке, заботящемся только о себе и своём благе.

http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/efremova/161667/%D0%95%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA:
Член какого-либо коллектива, действующий обособленно, в одиночку.

That's an echo of soviet-style political slang

[lion-casserole.livejournal.com]

.
I would rather say: "Тетради лишней жалко, жмот ты несчастный!" In this context "единоличник" is an antonym for "колхозник", a kind of contumely or unfounded accusation, similar to "кулак", "кулачок", "частный собственник".

"Единоличный" - that is not "эгоистичный", e.g. "единоличное решение" - that is not a selfish decision, that is a decision made with no attention to the public or team member's opinion. It could be pretty valid and professional.

My point is, in the Soviet time's Russian some words were used as a brand of shame. For an example, there is a word "спекулянт"...

[orie.livejournal.com]

what exactly do you mean by "common"?

[icamel.livejournal.com]

it can't be used as a term, it,s a vulgar form derivedfrom the term ведущий единоличное хозяйство.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Why, it not only could, it _was_ used massively, and exactly as a legal term - in statystics, for instance. Look up any demographical data from the late 1920s - early 1930s: a significant partition would be крестьяне-единоличники.

[konstkaras.livejournal.com]

This term came from Collectivisation times and used now, as I heard it, just ironically (so, only very slightly pejorative - for instance, asking to share something:).

Re: That's an echo of soviet-style political slang

[4px.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's an echo, but 'единоличник' is not 'единоличный'.

Not the term...

[lion-casserole.livejournal.com]

.
I would say: A negative connotation of term came from Collectivisation times and used now, as I heard it, just ironically (so, only very slightly pejorative - for instance, asking to share something:).

+1

[lion-casserole.livejournal.com]

.
The world eдиноличный was used above in this branch, there is "единоличное хозяйство", "единоличное решение", etc. The word had no negative connotation prior to Soviet times.

[konstkaras.livejournal.com]

Other meanings are completely forgotten, and I'm not sure they did exist. ruscorpora.ru dates first uses of the word to about 1928, and in almost each context till 1930 the word meant a self-employed farmer and nobody else.

That is wrong, the term was used in Stolypin's documents

[lion-casserole.livejournal.com]

.
http://www.strategplann.ru/razvitie-v-xix-xx-vv/agrarnaja-reforma-p-a-stolypina.html

http://www.sarist.narod.ru/tema50.htm

>>
5.3. Землеустройство. Организация хуторов и отрубов. В 1907-1910 гг. лишь 1/10 крестьян, укрепивших свои наделы, образовали хутора и отруба. После 1910 г. правительство осознало, что крепкое крестьянство не может возникнуть на многополосных участках. Для этого необходимо было не формальное укрепление в собственность, а экономическое преобразование наделов. Местным властям, прибегавшим подчас к принуждению общинников, не рекомендовалось больше искусственное поощрение укрепительного процесса. Главным направлением реформы стало землеустройство, которое теперь само по себе превращало землю в частную собственность крестьян.

Теперь процесс пошел с ускорением. Всего к 1916 г. 1,6 млн. единоличных хозяйств (хуторов и отрубов) были образованы приблизительно на 1/3 крестьянской надельной (общинной и подворной) и купленной крестьянами у банка земли.

Это было начало. Важно, что в действительности потенциальный размах движения оказывался шире: заявления о землеустройстве подали еще 20% крестьян Европейской России, но землеустроительные работы были приостановлены войной (май 1915 г.) и прерваны революцией.

[marsianka-selma.livejournal.com]

I second that. "Not a team player" - that's a really good explanation.

[konstkaras.livejournal.com]

This seems to be too indirect argument for existence of the term that time. The documents you link are modern researches and the order of 1909 in question (http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB:%D0%A3%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B7_9_%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%8F%D0%B1%D1%80%D1%8F_1906.djvu#file) seems not to contain the word. But I can agree with you.

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

Thank you all very very much, very intresting to read your ansers. In my dictionary there were two meanings: A farmer that works his own land (but no reference to time, so I assumed it was during czar or before the 1930, because The collectivization was total, wasn't it?), and the second meaning was just самовольный, самочинный человек (egenmäktig in Swedish). In the book I read a neighbor in the kommunalka is called that for not helping out in the system they have for taking turns in the bread queue.
So it was interesting to hear just how negative it was and if the second transferred meaning is now the more common. Seems so!

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

It is intressting how history shapes language: a Swedish person with no knowledge of Soviet history would fail to se the clear link between the first and the second meaning. We had two kinds of farmers: the ones who owned their land and the ones who rented it (from church, aristocrat or crown). Or, we still have those two kinds... Exept the church don't own any land and nobody pays their rent by labor... Many very poor farmers owned their own land. But now we have only big farms left, I guess, only Kulaki:). Most of my ancestors were poor farmers and farmworkers, they moved to town a century ago. So I am a lawyer, but I could have been a доярка:).

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

Actually, my praprapradedusha on the maternal side was a rich farmer, it is his daughter that got married an moved to town. So my vosmiyurodnye brothers and sisters actually still live on that farm, but it is some kind of recreational centre now, not a farm.... :-).
So you see - I feel insulted that edinolichnik is a negative word, it insults my family!:)

[konstkaras.livejournal.com]

The direct meaning is used now just in historical context, individual farmer is called now фермер.
The collectivization was formally voluntary, and, as far as I know, was not even completed in some regions, where all farmers lived in isolated homesteads. Actually, remaining individual farmers suffered heavy suppression, but even in 1940 there were still 640500 individual farms (http://you1917-91.narod.ru/vylcan.html).

now we have only big farms left, I guess, only Kulaki:)

I guess, you actually have some kind of Kolkhozy too, grown by other, economical means. Rapid urbanisation in XX century made farmers increase productivity and hence cooperate, both in Socialist and Capitalist countries.

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

Oh, i didn't know there were so many individual farms then!
But you are guessing wrong about the farms in Sweden:). The successful farmers simply bought up the land of the less successful. The others became farm laborers och moved in to town. Urbanization was fast, now only 2% of the population live on the country side.