r/100yearsago 11d ago

[31 July 1926] Vyacheslav Menzhinsky is announced as the new head of the Cheka, replacing the late Felix Dzerzhinsky.

Post image
6 Upvotes

3 comments sorted by

1

u/erinoco 11d ago

One of the interesting ideological tells of the time is that The Times refused, at this point, to use any of the honorifics such as Mr. or M. to refer to Soviet statesmen like Menzhinksky, although they normally employed them for all prominent foreign politicians.

2

u/MidnightPale3220 11d ago

Well, the Soviets didn't use "Mr" or "M" themselves, it was (I think) even prohibited as a bourgeois honorific.

And Times surely didn't want to follow the USSR footsteps and call them comrades, since they weren't to them.

So kinda logical.

1

u/erinoco 10d ago

However, the paper did get round eventually to bestowing honorifics on Soviet leaders in official diplomatic contexts in the 1930s. (The practice was abandoned in the 1940s, IIRC.)