Oh, glorious “titushka“!

You now ceased to be.

No Kievan babúshka

Will say it angrily.

       The “vatnik“‘s running Twitter.

       Rejoice, aye, “Putin’s horde”!

       “Titushka“‘s lone, bitter,

       And kind of bored as word.

Them “Colorado beetles” —

#UkraineUnderAttack!!!

Watch out while eating Skittles!

Look! There’s one on your back!

       Ukrainians, beware:

       “Katsap” bloodthirsty mass;

       “Moskals” are everywhere!

       Yea in the looking glass…

Sergey Armeyskov, 30.01.15

Afterword.

I’ve noticed that the use of the term ‘titushka’ (титушка) or ‘titishky‘ which was heavily exploited in 2014 (esp. in the first half of the year) by Euromaidan supporters decreased dramatically. I’ll discuss the titushka/vatnik/moskal social mythology in my next post on Ukraine.

Vocabulary.

• Vatnik (sing., ватник) – a personification of drunk, angry, totalitarian, good-for-nothing Russian (‘vatnik‘ is a warm cotton wool-padded jacket);
• Kolorad (sing., колорад), i.e. Colorado beetle, – a slur (due to similarity between the colors of Saint George’s Ribbon and that of the beetle);
• Katsap (sing., кацап) – a slur for Russians which is derived from Ukrainian ‘kak tsap’ (literally: ‘like a goat’ – that’s how Ukrainians called Russians for their beards);
• Moskal (sing., москаль) – a slur for Russians.

“Yea in the looking glass…” – an allusion to an anecdote:

A Ukrainian is standing in front of the looking glass. Suddenly he says: “What an ugly mug you have! You, freaking Moskal!”