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I have never seen an english speaker use “white Russians” for Belarusians – the only uses I know of this idiom are (i) for the non-red/non-green participants to
by shakow 1y ago
I have never seen an english speaker use “white Russians” for Belarusians – the only uses I know of this idiom are (i) for the non-red/non-green participants to the Russian civil war, and, by extensions, their diaspora, and (ii) the cocktail, which of course, is by far the most common occurence nowadays.
- throwaway3060 1y agoMany of the Russian speakers I know do this when speaking English - I'm guessing that's how they think of the phrase in Russian and want to translate it literally.
- m4rtink 1y agoYeah - the group that eventually lost the Russian civil war is first that comes to my mind for this term: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_movement https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_movement
- Wildgoose 1y agoI know both usages, and as an Englishman I am a native English speaker. However, I would agree that the most common usage would be the non-Red opponents of the communistic takeover of Russia in the early 1920s. Isn't the cocktail named as a direct reference to these people?
- shakow 1y agoI don't think so, they're Belgian IIRC? I think “Russian” is just for the vodka base, and black/white for without/with cream.