By Ekaterina Janashia | 2025-12-22

What happens when the state rewrites the dictionary? In Russia, the answer now includes praising authoritarian rule, condemning same-sex marriage and granting the government sole authority to decide who qualifies as an enemy -- all in an official reference book mandated for public institutions.

Russia has adopted a new official Explanatory Dictionary of the State Language of the Russian Federation, a sweeping linguistic project that formalizes the Kremlin's political and moral worldview and requires it across government agencies.

Compiled by specialists at Saint Petersburg State University and added to the official list of normative dictionaries in April, the volume goes far beyond standard lexicography.

As reported by The Barents Observer in November, the dictionary's authors said key entries were coordinated with the Russian Orthodox Church's legal department and overseen by the Justice Ministry.

The definitions align with the "traditional spiritual and moral values" outlined in a recent presidential decree on state policy.

The dictionary omits politically sensitive terms such as "Gulag" and "Stalinism," effectively erasing them from the official lexicon. It also excludes fundamental moral concepts, including "faith," "hope," "good" and "truth." At the same time, it expands restrictions on obscenity, adding common low-level words such as "ass," "shit" and "fart" to the list of banned "offensive" terms, signaling a push for linguistic purity in public life.

Observers say the result is a state-sanctioned language guide that reshapes dissent and recasts core political, moral and geopolitical concepts. Experts describe the dictionary as a tool of linguistic statecraft, designed to ensure that official communications follow a single, ideologically vetted narrative.

Editor mocks controls

The dictionary's rollout has drawn skepticism -- and humor -- from Russia's literary community.

Regina, a 44-year-old editor at a Saint Petersburg publishing house, dismissed the attempt to blacklist crude but common words as impractical. She told Kontur the ban reminded her of a famous anecdote involving a Soviet actress.

"This recognition of not very polite but harmless words as unprintable reminds me of the story of our great actress Faina Ranevskaya," Regina said. "Once, she used the word 'zhopa' [ass] and was told it wasn't in the Russian literary language. She was surprised: 'Strange. The ass is there, but the word is not.'"

Regina said her workplace has not received official instructions on how to apply the new dictionary. She added that publishers remain far more concerned with complying with Russia's laws banning LGBT "propaganda."

She said the new linguistic rules are unlikely to change how people actually speak, pointing to a long-standing Russian view of state regulation.

"In Russia already for centuries, they say: 'The severity of the laws is mitigated by the optional nature of their execution'," Regina said.

"These words won't go anywhere, and you won't cancel them with any norms or fines. They will continue to be used by everyone, including the compilers of this dictionary."

Power and enemies

The dictionary's most consequential changes appear in definitions that shape Russia's political identity and foreign policy.

Authoritarianism receives an explicitly favorable description, framed as "the most effective form of governance in difficult times for a country." The entry emphasizes flexibility, tolerance for multiple forms of property ownership and the limited existence of value systems outside traditional norms.

The framing presents authoritarian rule as pragmatic and adaptive rather than repressive.

Democracy, by contrast, is defined as a system in which citizens possess certain rights, but state institutions operate in the interests of "the most influential actors affecting decisions." The entry explicitly opposes "popular rule" and labels the concept a "sham democracy," a formulation that critics say delegitimizes Western political models.

The concept of an enemy is also redefined. The dictionary describes an enemy as someone "whom the sovereign authority has deemed hostile to the people, the government, or the state." The wording places the determination of enmity squarely in the hands of state leadership, shifting the term from a personal or military adversary to an official designation.

Values and borders

Family and sexuality receive similarly prescriptive treatment, reflecting the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church. Same-sex marriage is defined as a homosexual union "condemned by the Russian Orthodox Church and not supported by the Russian state." Marriage itself is defined primarily as a family union between a man and a woman.

Foreign policy terminology incorporates contemporary geopolitical grievances.

The entry for "hegemon" directly targets the United States, stating that it "allows itself to disregard rules in order to always win." A related term, "hegemonic rent," describes the ability to benefit from preserving a neocolonial system, limiting the sovereignty of independent states and strengthening the dollar’s power.

The dictionary also revives the historically charged term "limitrophe," defining it as a buffer state between Western Europe and Russia that is politically, economically and culturally incapable of independence. The entry recalls its use in the 1920s and 1930s to describe states that emerged along the western edge of the former Russian Empire, including Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and Finland.

Definitions of "regime" and "Russophobia" align closely with official narratives on Ukraine. The entry for "regime" explicitly references "the Kyiv regime," described as threatening the rights and interests of Russian-speaking populations. "Russophobia" is defined as a prejudiced and politically motivated hostility toward Russian citizens, language, culture and traditions.