Where did the name garbage come from? Where did the offensive nickname "garbage" come from?

One of the most famous slang names for police officers (in the recent past - militia) is "garbage". It is impossible to call this word respectful. However, it was born in a criminal environment, and one should not expect respect for the servants of the law from these people.

Sometimes the name "garbage" is compared with the English phrase "my cop" - "my policeman": if you take it not as Latin, but as Slavic, you can really read it as "garbage". But to take such a popular "etymological theory" seriously, of course, is impossible. Borrowing a slang name from another language is possible (it is enough to recall the custom that has been established in Russia to call the American dollar “bucks”), but such borrowings occur through oral speech, and not through writing.

No less doubtful is the version of borrowing from Yiddish, where the word "muser" means "reporting".

The origin of this slang word should be sought in Russian, and you can point to a specific source of an offensive nickname.

The emergence of the name

The custom of calling the police "garbage" was born before the October Revolution.

Everyone knows the abbreviation MUR - Moscow Criminal Investigation. But not always the name of this department was like that. From 1866 until the abolition in 1917, the Russian police service, which carried out investigations, searches for criminals and missing persons, was called the Criminal Investigation, and in Moscow, respectively, the Moscow Criminal Investigation. The abbreviation of this name looked like "MUS". It was from this abbreviation that the word "garbage" was formed.

V Soviet times other departments were created with different names and abbreviations, but the language retained its former name.

Other police nicknames

"Garbage" is not the only slang term for employees law enforcement.

No less popular is the name "cops", the origin of which dates back to the same era. Employees of the Moscow detective wore a special distinctive sign - with the image of a hunting dog of the cop breed.

In a more complicated way, the Russian criminal word "ment" came to the Russian. Borrowing occurred at a time when Poland was still part of Russian Empire, the Poles called the "cop" of the prison guard.

The Poles themselves borrowed this word from the Hungarian language. The word "ment" is translated from the Hungarian language as "cloak, cape." So nicknamed the police in Austria-Hungary, because they really wore capes.

Despite the latest reform of domestic law enforcement agencies, you can still hear the word “garbage” on the screens or in ordinary conversation, which is used to refer to police officers with disdain. Popular films made him famous among ordinary citizens who had nothing to do with the underworld.

An offensive nickname is not used in a conversation with a representative of the authorities. It is used in conversation when you want to emphasize the incompetence of police officers. Where did this nickname come from?

Historians' version

Specialists involved in the study of the criminal environment in Russia argue that the derogatory nickname used to be the usual official name for criminal investigation agents. The abbreviation MCC stands for Moscow Criminal Investigation. His agents were simply called MUSor. Such a name did not carry any disparaging connotation.

The criminal investigation department existed in Moscow from 1866 until the Revolution itself. The Soviet government considered his work unnecessary and disbanded. Unfortunately, the number of crimes at that time increased significantly and it was necessary to re-create a similar body. The new structure received a different name - the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department. The last word changed, but the term "garbage" has already taken root in the criminal environment, so it remained.

In the USSR, many concepts have changed their meaning. The word "garbage" began to be applied to employees of the criminal investigation department, capable of the most vile deeds. There are always such people in any law enforcement agencies. They curry favor with management and can commit any meanness in order to move up the career ladder. The synonym of this term denotes household waste, so the association with them is obvious.

Odessa version

No wonder at one time this “pearl” by the sea was considered the most criminalized place in the country. This was facilitated by a good location, the presence of a port, a mild climate and the presence of a large Jewish community.

Many slang words and phrases originate precisely from the southern "Palmyra". There were many criminal gangs that "worked" not only in the city and the region, but had an impact on the whole country.

Due to the characteristic ethnic composition, the criminal environment used a certain number of foreign words in everyday life. Most are of Yiddish and Hebrew origin, such as "nishtyak" or "shmon". Now they are known far beyond Odessa.

In the Hebrew language there was a word muser (moser). It denoted a person who cooperates with the authorities and denounces his acquaintances and neighbors. The offensive expression took root in Odessa and began to be used as a curse.

Another synonym

In modern Russia, there is another expression for the designation of a policeman - "cop". It has Polish roots. Most of the country was part of the Empire, so many words from the Polish language got into the Russian language. Wardens in local correctional facilities wore "mentiks" - special raincoats made of dense fabric. This is where their nickname “cop” came from, which, together with convicts, ended up in native Russia and took root here.

• Bobby is what they call a police officer in England. This word appeared on behalf of one of the country's prime ministers - Robert Peel. Robert is Bob, or Bobby for short. The merit of this prime minister is that at the end of the 19th century he transformed the institution of the police, making this public institution much more efficient and successful.
• “Cop (cop) is perhaps the most famous nickname for police officers in the world. And besides, it's not that old. According to the compilers of Webster's Dictionary, the most authoritative explanatory dictionary of the English language in the United States, this word in the meaning of "police officer" appeared in 1859. The dictionary does not explain the etymology. There are several versions of how this word appeared. The most common is that cop is short for copper (copper), and the first American policemen had eight-pointed copper stars. Another version: cop is just an abbreviation of the expression "patrol policeman" (Constable on Patrol).
• The most common police nickname in France is flic. The French are still arguing about the origin of the word. It appeared in the middle of the 19th century. Initially, the police were called flies (mouche). Then, experts say, the French “fly” was replaced by the Dutch fliege, which then turned into flic. Much later, the French came up with the idea of ​​deciphering the word flic as Federation Legale des Idiots Casques (literally "Legal federation of idiots in helmets").
• The French policemen are also called poules - chickens (the Parisian police department on the Orfevre embankment occupies a place where poultry used to be traded). Finally, the world-famous name for French police officers is “azhan” (agent), that is, simply “agent”.
• In Germany, police officers are called bulls (Bulle), in Spain, perhaps the most decent nickname for police officers is poly (poli), in Italy, sbirro (Latin birrum - “red cloak”), according to the original color of the police uniform.
• In the Netherlands, the most popular police nicknames are Jewish. They are called smeris (perhaps from the Hebrew for “watch”) and klabak (from Yiddish for “dog”).” It is assumed that the word "dog" was used in the meaning of "hound".
• “In Australia, police officers have long been called jacks. Unlike the story with the British bobbies, this has nothing to do with the founder of the Australian law enforcement forces. At first, the Australians called their policemen gendarmes, and the average policeman was called, respectively, John Darme. At some point, John's last name disappeared and he was renamed Jack."

Who is this "policeman"?

The word "polizei" means a local resident of the occupied territories, serving in the fascist auxiliary police. And it is associated with the words "punisher", "traitor", "traitor", "fascist". In a country that survived the Great Patriotic War, such a name, used not only for a police officer, but for anyone, is clearly an insult.

WHO IS TAKING THE GARBAGE TO THE PRESIDENT?
Entertaining etymology

REMEMBER, ONE OF OUR SATIRS READ FROM THE STAGE a humorous dialogue between two townsfolk about the life of President Gorbachev:
- And who takes out the garbage to Gorbachev?
- Take out the trash!

That is, the policeman, who is also called "garbage" by the people, takes out the garbage to the president. Moreover, "garbage" are of various kinds. A police officer is called "garbage of color", separating him from the general environment of "garbage", which also includes employees of places of detention and guards.

Of course, the emergence of the word is easiest to associate with real rubbish and garbage, with which the criminal world compares its enemies, called upon to protect the law. But the question is: why exactly garbage? There are many other suitable words in the Russian language: trash, trash, junk, scum, trash, vomit, etc. What determined the choice of the criminal community?

According to one version, "garbage" is a slightly distorted Jewish moser, which in Hebrew means - an informer, a traitor, a spy. True, in Hebrew, the stress falls on the second syllable - mosEr. But, according to Jewish researchers, at present "muser" in the meaning of "informer" is pronounced with an emphasis on the first syllable. So let's drop this objection.

However, there are other objections as well. Most researchers attribute the emergence of the words trash-muser-moser to the period of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. However, IN ANY DICTIONARY OF CRIMINAL JARGON, published before the revolution, we will not meet either "garbage", or "muser", or "moser"! That is, in general. These words do not appear in works of art that time, in the newspaper chronicle or in any other sources.

You say - so what? You never know what words do not fall into dictionaries. It doesn't prove anything. Well, how to say ... "Cop", for example, for some reason got into these reference books, and very often. It is also found among famous authors - for example, Alexander Kuprin in "Kiev types" (1895-1897). But about the "garbage" - not a word. Although logically: A POPULAR slang word for police officers or specifically agents of the detective police SHOULD have been clearly reflected ANYWHERE!

Meanwhile, perhaps for the first time it was inserted into the dictionary by S.M. Potapov "Thieves' music" (M., 1927). There is also moser, and garbage, and musar ... In any case, I could not find earlier references. "Moser" is not mentioned in Vasily Trakhtenberg's 1908 dictionary "Thieves' Music" - in any form (although some "experts" like to refer to it). Even in the dictionary of the same Potapov "Thieves' music" of 1923 (published by the Criminal Investigation Department of the Republic) there is neither rubbish-musser, nor moser!

Another objection: there is a huge distance between the "informer" and the policeman ("policeman"). "Communication" is clearly far-fetched.

But here we will not quibble. After all, the Russian detective police of that time actively used a wide range of agents from among the members of the underworld. This form of obtaining information for the first time began to be widely used precisely in security (political) and detective (general criminal) departments. Here, for the first time in Russian practice, the concept of "agent" appeared (now more popularly - "tacit element").

No less popular was another way of collecting evidence, facts, compromising evidence on criminals - the introduction of an experienced detective into a criminal environment. The employee of the detective department was prepared a legend, provided cover, communication, exit from the development in case of failure. Detective agents to the smallest detail studied the customs, traditions, laws, customs of criminals, their jargon, demeanor, and so on. So in a certain sense they could also be called "musers".
Note that these are fairly common practices in the work of law enforcement agencies around the world; from the tsarist secret police, they also moved to the Soviet criminal investigation department.

AND STILL THERE IS A SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "MUSSER" AND "GARBAGE". Of course, the Hebrew "moser" or the Yiddish "muser" could become "garbage" as a result of phonetic "Russification" - to make the word more familiar to the Russian ear. Such examples can be found. For example, the German "messer" (knife) in many dialects of Russian slang has turned into "mesar", "koknar" - into "kitchen", etc.

However, in the case of "garbage", a number of researchers suggest more compelling reasons for phonetic metamorphoses. A significant part of experts contrast the "Jewish" etymological version with the "historical" Russian one. These linguists deduce the word "garbage" from the abbreviation MCC, which means Moscow Criminal Investigation.

True, adherents of such an interpretation sometimes go too far in their constructions. One of the volunteer "linguists", a LiveJournal user tsaritsa_makosh, for example, states:

“The word ‘garbage’ traces its history back to Moscow in the 1920s. When the Cheka was disbanded, on its basis the Moscow authorities created an organization called the Moscow Criminal Investigation. Abbreviated as MUS. The guys worked there responsible, faithful to their work, because. most of them at one time worked in the tsarist secret police, and almost fanatics served there. And the gangs that were running wild in the first years after the revolution had a hard time. And the ICC was successfully renamed the MUR in the 50s.”

Well, first of all, in the 1920s there was no “criminal investigation” in the Republic of Soviets. He was indeed replaced by the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department, but not in the 1950s. The Soviet threat arose on October 5, 1918 in accordance with the "Regulations on the organization of criminal investigation departments" issued by the NKVD of the RSFSR. And the assertion that the detectives of the first years Soviet power the majority were recruited from former employees of the tsarist secret police. Quite the contrary, the “former” were purged with all revolutionary principles. But we will talk about this a little later.

There are also more exotic speculations. Alexander Melenberg spoke about one of them in the publication “Where did the “garbage” come from” (“Novaya Gazeta”, October 30, 2008):

“One uncle from Odessa, a veteran of organs since 1944, even told a curious correspondent that ICC operatives wore reverse side badges on the lapel of the jacket, “so small, round, with the letters “MUS”. And introducing themselves, instead of a “red book”, “they so casually turned away the lapel”, saying: “MUS OR such and such”, that is, the Moscow Criminal Investigation Worker.”

Of course, stories of this kind are ridiculous in their very essence. It's wild to even imagine that there was such an idiot who would present himself as "garbage". This can only be attributed to the quirks of "folk" etymology. Without even reminding once again that the "Moscow detective" in the Land of Soviets did not exist as such.

MOST RESEARCHERS attribute the emergence of the abbreviation MCC (Moscow Criminal Investigation) to an earlier period. And here we can not do without a brief digression into history.

For a long time, “investigation” and “search” as legal terms in Russian legislation were actually synonymous. In the middle of the 17th century, the terms “detective” and “detective” still dominate (which, for example, is enshrined in the largest code of laws - the Cathedral Code of 1649, which has been in force in the Russian state for over two hundred years). And by the end of the century, the frequency of using “investigation” and “search” in the same meaning (search for criminals, investigative trial and criminal court) levels off.

So, at the end of the XVII - beginning of the XVIII centuries. the term “search” is assigned the meaning of an investigative, inquisitorial trial by combining the functions of a court and an investigation in one state body, with the use of torture as the main method. This is recorded in the Nominal Decree of 1697 "On the abolition of confrontations in court cases, on being interrogated and searched for instead of them, on witnesses, on the removal of them, on the oath, on the punishment of perjurers and on duty money." The first article of this document reads: “And instead of trials and face-to-face confrontations, on the petition of all sorts of ranks, people in insults and ruin should be searched for in battle and in dishonor or in battle and in mutilation and in all kinds of insults and ruin.” In other 13 articles of the Decree, the term "search" is synonymous with the lexeme "search". In the XVIII century, we meet both the decree of 1711 "On the unimpeded search and prosecution of thieves and robbers and their accomplices by detectives in all provinces", and the "Instruction defined for the investigation and eradication of thieves and robbers to the chief detective" of 1756.

Both the Investigative Order (1682, 1730 - in Moscow) and the Investigative Expedition (1729 - in St. Petersburg; 1763 - in Moscow) were bodies of the state apparatus for detecting and capturing criminals, conducting inquests, and investigating and criminal and political courts.

From the end of the XVIII to the first half of the XIX centuries. the terms "search" and "search" practically disappear from legislative documents on the police.

They are revived only in the second half of the 19th century and already differ significantly in meaning. It was from this time (more precisely, from 1866) that special units for combating ordinary crime appeared as part of the general police of the Russian Empire. These units - the Detective Police - first operated in St. Petersburg (1866) and Moscow (1881), and then - throughout the country as Detective Departments (since 1908). The content of their activities was the disclosure of crimes on the traces left, the detection and capture of criminals, their transfer to the hands of the judicial and investigative authorities with all the evidence found and recorded and material evidence collected during the investigation of crimes.

At the same time, "investigation" is interpreted in a broad sense - as a type of law enforcement activity aimed at protecting the interests of the state, society and individuals from criminal encroachments.

But the term "search" acquires a narrower special meaning in comparison with "investigation" - an activity of an unspoken nature, necessary component detective. This type of criminal procedural activity precedes inquiry and investigation.

It is in Article 61 of the said Instruction that the concept of "criminal investigation" is fixed as an official term.

TRUTH, ALREADY MENTIONED ALEXANDER MELENBERG in his article “Where did the garbage come from” categorically opposes the version that “garbage” comes from the old-mode ICC. He remarks ironically:

“Any Internet visitor who is interested in the etymology of the word “garbage” in its popular sense will very quickly find out that such “garbage” is derived from the abbreviation MCC - Moscow Criminal Investigation. About a dozen users will explain to him that the employees of this institution, first the punks, and then the entire Russian, then the Soviet and again the Russian people, with genuine voluptuousness, began to call this word, soon broadly transferring it to all other policemen.
But after all, the criminal investigation department in Moscow before the revolution had a stable name - the Moscow detective police (SME), and after the revolution, the no less stable abbreviation MUUR (MUR). Where did the ICC come from? Users ... do not explain this.

Melenberg also recalls that “Trachtenberg does not have the word “garbage”. Although there is a "muser", in the sense of a traitor, an informer. To be honest, Trachtenberg does not even have the word "muser", but let's forgive his comrade for his delusions.

Objections, to put it mildly, are not entirely correct. First of all, about the stable name of the Moscow detective police (SME). The word is right, if we have a “sustainable name” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, does it cancel the term “police bodies”? Note: the “official term” “police” practically did not exist in our documents! Everywhere - the department of internal affairs, the department of internal affairs, the Ministry of Internal Affairs ... Well, we did not have a "ministry of police"! But the "Law on the police" existed.

In addition, since 1908, it was not the DETECTIVE POLICE that operated in Russia, but the detective police departments. 89 detective departments arose in major cities empire under the law "On the organization of the detective unit" of July 6, 1908.

Since that time, the terms "detective departments" and "criminal investigation" existed on an equal footing. As I already mentioned, the term "criminal investigation" was also used in official police documents. So there is no "contradiction" here.

As for Trachtenberg, his dictionary was published in the same 1908. That is why there could not be any "garbage" there.

"Instruction to the ranks of the detective departments" comes out even later - on August 9, 1910. As we have already mentioned, it is in it that the term "criminal investigation" first appears. Structurally, the criminal investigation was part of the Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire. With the introduction of this term into circulation, a stable expression of the Moscow Criminal Investigation also arises. Before that, the ICC did not really exist as an official term.

EVEN IF IT IS ASSUMEED that the word "garbage" is derived from the abbreviation ICC, the question arises: why did the criminal world mark specifically Moscow, and not any other detectives? There is a fairly convincing version. In 1908, just after the release of the law "On the organization of the detective unit", the Moscow detective police was headed by an amazingly talented and active person - Arkady Frantsevich Koshko - "Russian Sherlock Holmes".

In the shortest possible time, Koshko made the Moscow criminal investigation the best in the empire. It was then that “garbage” appeared - that was the name of the Moscow detective agents. Speaking on the Vesti TV program, Andrey Chumakov, an employee of the press service of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, proudly recalled this in 2008:

“It was precisely thanks to its creation that the nickname “garbage” was subsequently assigned to the police officers. On the lapel of the jacket, the employees of the Moscow detective police wore a sign with the inscription “MUS” - Moscow Criminal Investigation.

To be honest, about the icon - the usual bike. No one has ever seen this mysterious badge; there is no mention of him and even hints in memoirs. The same kind of tales exist about the badges of hunting societies with the image of a setter dog, which were allegedly worn by detectives either in Tsarist Russia, or, according to other sources, Soviet detectives of the 20s of the last century. Hence de and insulting nickname - "cops". In fact, again, no confirmation of this information, except for rumors and gossip, could be found. True, in the Moscow Museum of the Ministry of Internal Affairs they even show a couple of badges with pointing dogs; as an SUGGESTATION, the guides suggest that these signs were screwed from the outside of the collar, and the MUR badge from the inside to the same “rod”. But this is complete nonsense, since the contemptuous name “cop” has been recorded in relation to the royal detectives since at least 1908 - in the already mentioned dictionary of Vasily Trakhtenberg as a synonym for the word “borzoi”: “Detective police agent. Persons related to the detective police also use the nickname "jumps", "bitches" and "cops".

As for Koshko, he soon headed the entire criminal investigation of the empire, thanks to which, at the International Congress of Criminalists in 1913 in Switzerland, the Russian detective police in the nomination "crime detection" was recognized as the best in the world. Accordingly, the nickname of Moscow detectives spread to all subordinates of Arkady Frantsevich.

However, let's make a reservation: the badge with the abbreviation ICC still exists! True, it appeared not so long ago and is awarded exclusively to police officers of the Republic of Belarus. Yes, and it is deciphered a little differently - the Ministry of Inner Sprau (Ministry of the Interior). But, at least, the Belarusian policemen can call themselves "garbage" with every right...

BUT WE CONTINUE TO QUOTE MELENBERG. Without denying the connection of "garbage" with the ICC, he, however, refers the appearance of the word "garbage" to the revolutionary and post-revolutionary years:

“After the February Revolution, and even after the October Revolution, the Moscow detective police continued to function as before. Unlike other police, legal and prison buildings, no one stormed or burned her premises. Perhaps for the reason that, acting for the most part autonomously, it was located separately from other institutions of this kind.

Hidden in the depths of Maly Gnezdnikovsky Lane, this colorful mansion was destroyed a couple of years ago during the construction of a modern office complex in its place.

And the detective police itself was formally destroyed on December 4, 1917. On this day, the NKVD board decided to liquidate the criminal investigation department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Provisional Government and its subordinate institutions.

But this is in Smolny, and in the localities, the Bolshevik authorities, seeing the growing gangster lawlessness (after all, according to the amnesty on March 18, 1917, all criminals were at large), were not at all inclined to abolish the detective departments, losing valuable specialists. The cook will be able to manage this state, and it is weak for her to be a seasoned opera, forensic scientist or fingerprintist, however ...

The entire staff of the Moscow detective police, exemplary in the country, as we already know, led by its chief Karl Marshalk, after the forceful seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, remained in their places and recognized the new owners. The Soviets appointed a commissar to the "detective room", under whose signature all the orders of its chief were henceforth valid. The former detectives remained in the service until January 1918, gradually squeezed out by new cadres. The Moscow Council even paid Marshal for a business trip to ... Riga occupied by the Germans. In recognition of his services."

True, Melenberg himself admits that Alexander Kerensky, when he came to power in March 1917, replaced the word “police” with “police”, and instead of the old-mode word “detective”, which cut the revolutionaries’ ears, he introduced the concept of “criminal investigation”. But further, in order to prove that the word “garbage” did not appear BEFORE, but AFTER the revolution, the author states: the transformation of “investigation” into “wanted” occurred only in St. Petersburg, but in Moscow and the provinces, not only were the former local employees of the detective departments left , but even the former name was not touched. Although the Bolsheviks formally destroyed the detective police on December 4, 1917:

“In the country, this change was not accepted immediately and half-heartedly, trying to cling to the familiar, native sound. So the Moscow detective police began to be called the Moscow Criminal Investigation. Moreover, the ICC was practically not mentioned in official papers. It was replaced by the extended abbreviation MUSiR - Moscow Criminal Investigation and Search. She, of course, provoked a similarity with the notorious "garbage" to an even greater extent.

In this story, the holy and the sinful are mixed up.

First of all, the assertion that "after the February, and after the October Revolution, the Moscow detective police continued to function as before" is absolutely untrue. Firstly, the Moscow detective police never existed in nature at all, but a detective department operated, which was located in the same building as the security one. Second, immediately after February Revolution the building of the Moscow security and detective departments in Gnezdnikovsky Lane was raided and set on fire. To be precise, this happened on March 3 (16), 1917, although some researchers call February 1917. Yes, it could not be otherwise: at that time, the corps of security and detective departments were blazing throughout the country. Okhrana agents sought to destroy the compromising evidence that gave them away, the criminals fired their "track records". But in the St. Petersburg Department of Criminal Investigation, a fire broke out only after the October Revolution, on October 29, 1917. Almost all the documents relating to the criminal world of Petrograd were burned in the fire.

Now about the mysterious term "MUSiR". There was no MUSiR! And the ICC did not exist during the period of the Provisional Government. On March 11, 1917, the militia was established by the Decree of the Provisional Government. Its activities were regulated by the “Temporary Regulations”. The new government in relation to the tsarist law enforcement agencies took an extremely tough policy (in this it did not differ much from the subsequent Bolshevik one): “The continuation of the police service turned out to be impossible in the vast majority of cases. Old employees and their families became victims of political squabbles, as a result of which stable anti-police sentiments" ("Essays on the history of the internal affairs bodies of the Russian state". V.A. Demin, V.E. Ivanov, A.V. Luchinin, V.P. Lyaushin)

An exception was made only for employees of the detective police.

The former detective departments were renamed the CRIMINAL-SEARCH POLICE. Here it (and not the ICC and not the MUSR) was headed by the former collegiate adviser (which corresponded to the rank of colonel) Karl Petrovich Marshalk, who worked for a long time with Arkady Frantsevich Koshko himself.

Again, let's decide on the ICC and the "muses". We have already seen that the Provisional Government has dealt with any mention of "investigation". The Bolsheviks were not going to return to the "investigation" either. On October 5, 1918, the NKVD approves the "Regulations on the organization of criminal investigation departments." In accordance with it, criminal investigation bodies were established in the cities of the RSFSR with at least 45 thousand people "to protect the revolutionary order by secretly investigating crimes of a criminal nature and combating banditry."

Karl Marshalk now headed the criminal-investigative police of Moscow. But after the “Red Terror” unfolded in the country, fearing for his life, at the end of 1918, Karl Petrovich fled to the West during a business trip to Petrograd and settled in Berlin.

Yes, the old specialists made statements about their readiness to cooperate with the new leadership of the country - both in Moscow and in St. Petersburg, and in other large cities that were under the rule of the Bolsheviks. For example, on November 2, 1917, a meeting of the operational staff (of course, from among the old regime “specialists”) was held at the Criminal Investigation Department of Petrograd, where the question of working in the new conditions was discussed. Here is the meeting's resolution:

“... Keeping in mind that the employees of the criminal investigation department, by their vocation, have as their task and duty only the fight against criminal crime, that this institution is non-partisan and helps every victim, and its work has not been suspended during all changes in government, despite the double defeat of the administration interested criminals, the general meeting decided to continue their criminal investigation work under the current authorities and to fulfill their heavy civic duty to the population of Petrograd in the fight against the ever-increasing criminality.

However, the new government did not need the defiant non-partisanship of the former detectives. The suspicious wording about the CURRENTLY EXISTING power and the fulfillment of duty not to it, but to the POPULATION looked offensive to the Bolsheviks.

In general, after the creation of the MUR, frank persecution of the "former" begins. In October 1918, the Petrograd Criminal Investigation Department appealed to all local Soviets:

“The case of the criminal investigation in the Russian Federative Republic, which was under the tsarist regime in the harsh grip of the gendarmerie and the police, of course, could not be raised to the desired height at which this activity, which is extremely important for any civilized state, should be ...
The time has come to put the matter of detective work on a scientific level and create a cadre of truly experienced employees, scientific specialists.
As a legacy from the accursed tsarist regime, we have left a dilapidated, useless detective apparatus with employees who, for the most part, the general population looked at (and often rightly) as elements of dubious morality, doing their personal business with the underworld. This situation cannot be tolerated any longer...

Former CID ALL OVER THE COUNTRY have been disenfranchised. They were strictly forbidden to be involved in the activities of the new, worker-peasant law enforcement system.

True, the ban on attracting old detectives was often violated locally: in the Petrograd Criminal Investigation Department, for example, more than a hundred old "specialists" worked. Of these, a special task force was created to develop tactics to combat professional crime. Moreover, a scientific reference, registration and fingerprinting bureau was created, which was headed by a detective specialist with pre-revolutionary experience Alexei Andreevich Salkov. The bureau had an excellent photo laboratory, a scientific forensic examination room, developed methods for searching for criminals and identifying dead criminals by tattoos ... But all this was done at your own peril and risk.

The absurd decision on specialists was canceled only by the 3rd All-Russian Congress of Heads of Departments of the Departments of Internal Affairs of the Executive Committees, which was held from January 20 to 31, 1920 in Moscow. At the congress, it was officially recognized that without people who know the subtlety of the detective business, it is impossible to achieve high results - no matter how enthusiastic amateurs are.

Why such a deep excursion into history? Yes, to make it clear: the word "garbage" in the sense of "an employee of the criminal investigation, wanted" could not appear after the revolution from the abbreviation ICC. Because there was no such abbreviation itself.

SO, SO, IT APPEARED BEFORE THE REVOLUTION? It seems to be like that. It is even possible to determine with a sufficient degree of accuracy that it arose after 1910, with the advent of the official term "criminal investigation". Let's say it was the employees of the Moscow criminal investigation department (the most successful at that time) that the punks began to call at first GARBAGE - indeed, in this way, comparing with garbage, rubbish, unnecessary rubbish.

A similar method is quite typical for "thieves" word formation: this is how, for example, the word "murka" arose (from MUR - Moscow Criminal Investigation Department; "murks" in the 20s and early 30s were called employees of this organization). Already today, the word "vichik" has appeared in the prisoner's jargon - a convict who is a carrier of HIV infection.

Alas, there are some doubts here.

The first is the same as in relation to the Jewish "moser" - "muser": BEFORE THE REVOLUTION, this word was not recorded.

The second is no less profound. In tsarist Russia, there was practically no tradition of designating certain institutions with abbreviations. Abbreviations in the Russian Empire, of course, existed, for example, in the names of the reigning persons:
E.V. - His (Her) Majesty, H.I.K.V. - His Imperial and Royal Highness, etc. However, it was government institutions that, as a rule, were not designated by abbreviations. This tradition appeared just under Soviet power and acquired hypertrophied, ugly forms. However, under the Soviets THERE WAS NO LOOKING FORWARD! Moreover, the abbreviations MCC - Moscow Criminal Investigation.

However, I specifically make a reservation - "as a rule." Because abbreviations, abbreviations still met. Including for the designation of law enforcement agencies. For example, such a dissonant abbreviation as J.P.U. For example, badge 9858 “Kremenchug Zh.P.U.Zh.D.” - that is, the gendarmerie-police department of the railway.

Well, you see! the reader will exclaim. If there was J.P.U., why couldn't there be M.U.S.? Yes, for one simple reason: the gendarme-police department was an OFFICIAL INSTITUTION, but the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department did not OFFICIALLY exist! Officially, there were detective police departments. That is, if they had been reduced, then S.U.P. would have come out.

By the way, let's note an interesting fact. If, according to unfortunate “researchers”, before the revolution, “garbage” appeared from the mythical abbreviation of the ICC, then why didn’t such a sharp-tongued punks “beat” the abbreviation J.P.U., much more famous? In any case, we have absolutely definite MATERIAL evidence about it. "Zhepeushnik" or "asshole" sounds much more offensive than "garbage". However, it seems that just because of the unpopularity of abbreviations in imperial Russia, illiterate criminal people did not pay any attention to them at all.

SO WHAT DOES WE REMAIN IN THE DRY RESIDUE? One thing can be said for sure: before 1927, the word "garbage", as well as "musser" and "moser", was unknown in the domestic criminal jargon. For the first time (at least, I could not find anything else), it appears in print in 1927 in the reference book “The Dictionary of Criminal Jargon. Thieves' music "S.M. Potapova: "Muso (a) r is an agent of the criminal investigation department." Not a detective, but a search. In the 1930s and 1940s, "garbage" and "muser" coexisted, although they were interpreted more broadly. Jacques Rossi, who spent more than 20 years in the Stalinist camps, notes in the “Handbook on the Gulag”: “garbage or waste (rare; from other Hebrew) - a policeman; warden; operative; snitch." In the end, the "muser" completely disappeared from the horizon.

Today, the most reasonable assumption is that the word really has Jewish roots, where "muser" means an informer. But the borrowing did not occur until the mid-1920s. It was in the 20s of the last century that a mass exodus of shtetl Jews to Central Russia took place as a result of the abolition of the so-called "Pale of Settlement". This was also facilitated by the fact that among the Bolshevik leadership, a significant part (if not the majority) were Jews.

The settlers rushed in their bulk to settle in large and small cities of the republic, but especially its capital. The indigenous population responded with a surge of everyday anti-Semitism. But this is a somewhat different topic. We note that this Soviet "exodus" could also contribute to the expansion of the influence of the language of small-town Jews on Russian criminal jargon.

Blatnoy "garbage" gave life to other similar kind of words: "garbage", "garbage", generalizing "garbage", a wonderful apparatus "mentwinged garbageschmidt" ... The police station in the slang of urkagans is called "musarney". There is even a saying, almost according to grandfather Krylov - "The wolf, thinking to get into the kennel, ended up in the trash" ....

ILLUSTRATION:
badge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus.

Reviews

I heard from one old camper that the word comes from the word guard in Hebrew. It seems to be pronounced "musaget". the usage known to me was very close to this. The word "garbage" denoted precisely the guards and members of the security structures of the police. it did not apply to investigators, operatives, etc. appeared in Odessa in the 1920s in connection with mass arrests of the Jewish criminal world.

Well, and what is common in this interpretation between moser and garbage? I have a special article on the page about idiotic bindings of slang words to Hebrew and Yiddish.

You have not read the essay itself, which you are reviewing :)).

There is also about moser, and about changing the form of this word, and about the unsubstantiated versions with origins from the Moscow Criminal Investigation.

In summary, I conclude:

“Today, the most reasonable assumption is that the word really has Jewish roots, where “muser” means an informer. But the borrowing did not occur earlier than the mid-1920s. It was in the 20s of the last century that a mass exodus of shtetl Jews to Central Russia as a result of the abolition of the so-called “Pale of Settlement.” This was also facilitated by the fact that among the Bolshevik leadership, a significant part (if not the majority) were precisely Jews.

The settlers rushed in their bulk to settle in large and small cities of the republic, but especially its capital. The indigenous population responded with a surge of everyday anti-Semitism. But this is a somewhat different topic. We note that this Soviet "exodus" could also contribute to the expansion of the influence of the language of shtetl Jews on Russian criminal jargon.

For me, it was more important to determine the time of the appearance of the word. That it could not appear in jargon BEFORE the revolution.

As for the answer to your first remark, I had in mind the need to formulate the connection more precisely. Moser - informer, informer - here the principle of transferring meaning is clear. When it comes to phraseology with the verb - "hand over", you must admit, the thought is not expressed very clearly. Even if it were - to betray, it is still more reasonable to associate the borrowing of a word not with a verb, but with a verbal noun.

But, in principle, the conclusion we have with you is the same.

It's not about being "obvious" at all. In fact, everything is not so obvious, as you have seen. Because, if we are talking about an ordinary statement, it is easy to “fall into the prodigal” here, as with the pseudo-Hebrew origin of “raspberries”, “freebies”, “slops”, etc., which, in fact, have no Jewish roots. With moser, as you can see, not everything is simple either. There are a number of versions, quite smooth, that needed to be refuted. To substantiate the conclusion, it is necessary not only to say - "it's clear, it's all about so and so!" :))) Why all of a sudden? Need to prove. When it happened, how it happened. "What fashi tokazatelstva?" - as one character from the movie "Red Heat" used to say :).

So in our case - if you do not substantiate the HISTORICAL connection of moser with garbage, do not show when, how and why this happened and why garbage could not come from the mythical MUS, no expressions in Yiddish will be in any way conclusive.

Well, it sounds like something like that - so what? Much more convincing is the version with the Moscow Criminal Investigation and Operational Investigation :))). Here is a direct abbreviation for you GARBAGE, and not some vague "moser" - especially with a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MEANING. After all, now in the slang there is no meaning "informer" at all. Therefore, first you need to make sure that it existed and was recorded, then show that stories with abbreviations are just myths, and this requires a historical digression with a refutation of ridiculous theories...

Etymology is a serious science, not reasoning at the level of "I knew because I heard."

Nothing like this. as you can see, most of the assumptions can be refuted with the help of facts. with the help of facts, historical data and other arguments, the circle of searches is narrowed. thus, even if there is no 100% CERTAINTY, there are reasons to consider one version as unlikely or unbelievable at all, the other more plausible and reliable. For example, it can be considered unreliable, at first glance, a convincing version of borrowing the word "loh" from Yiddish (or from German through Yiddish) on the grounds that there is an expression "loh in der kopf" (according to other sources, in der kop ) - that is, a hole in the head. I don't know why "in der" and not in dem (im) kopf, as it would sound in German.

But the thing is that the word lokh in the meaning of a simpleton, a fool, a fool existed in the Russian language long before the shtetl Jewish Yiddish (especially Hebrew) began to influence the slang. And this meaning is enshrined in dictionaries (as well as the derivative - sucker - fool). And it comes from Russian dialects, where, for example, in the North they called salmon a sucker - salmon after spawning, which could be caught almost with bare hands.

Dahl, for example:

Salmon, salmon, blazing along the caviar mark: for this, the salmon rises from the sea along the rivers, and having spawned, it goes even higher and becomes in the whirlpools to get sick; the meat turns white, the splash turns from black to silver, a cartilaginous hook grows under the mouth, all fish sometimes lose weight by half and lose their name. sucker. She goes to sea in the autumn, and having prolonged (overwintered) there, takes a walk and again turns into a salmon. Loch is also called: pan, walchak, walchug.
Lol, psk. lokhoves, razinya, shalapai (in Offensky: peasant, peasant in general).

Fyodor Glinka's
Karelia, or the imprisonment of Martha Ioannovna Romanova
1830

That son of Karela is silent
Careless suckers camp drowsy
Anxious with a sharp mark.

With a note: Lochs are called here fish from the genus of salmon; these same fuckers, having been
several months in the waters of the White Sea, get the taste and name of salmon,
which is caught in abundance in the Arkhangelsk province and, it seems, in
features near the town of Onega.

That is, the word passed into Russian jargon from the secret Ofen language (feni, jargon of peddlers, peddlers).

And "by ear", connections pulled out of the nose can be found in huge quantities. For example, in Yakutia, a sucker is a newly born deer calf. And build assumptions as much as you want :).

The daily audience of the Proza.ru portal is about 100 thousand visitors, who in total view more than half a million pages according to the traffic counter, which is located to the right of this text. Each column contains two numbers: the number of views and the number of visitors.

On March 1, the law "On Police" comes into force. The law, in particular, provides for the renaming of the militia into the police, as well as the reduction of personnel by 20%. All employees will be withdrawn from the state, and after passing an extraordinary recertification, they will return to the service already as police officers.

The word militia is traditionally used in Russian in two main meanings: a) an administrative institution in charge of protecting public order, state and other property, the security of citizens and their property; b) voluntary military squad, people's (zemstvo) militia (obsolete).

Historically word "police" goes back to Latin militia - " military service, army", as well as "military campaign, campaign" (according to the verb milito - "to be a soldier, infantryman", the same root as in the word militarism). literary language the word militia came most likely through French or Polish mediation (see the old French form milicie; Polish milicija).

The term "militia" was used in ancient Rome, where it meant the service of infantry soldiers. V medieval Europe(mid-15th century), militia were called militia units from the local population, convened during the war.

In Russia, the militia was called the zemstvo army, which existed in 1806-1807, and at the end of the 19th century, the troops put up by the indigenous population of the Caucasus and the Transcaspian region (permanent mounted police). The main difference between the militia and the regular troops was that it was recruited not on the basis of military service, but on a voluntary basis.

The origin of the militia as a public order service body is associated with the Paris Commune of 1871, where the police prefecture was liquidated, and the responsibility for ensuring order and security of citizens was assigned to reserve battalions. National Guard. In Russia, during the February Bourgeois-Democratic Revolution (1917), the Provisional Government abolished the Police Department and proclaimed the replacement of the police by "people's militia with elected authorities subordinate to local governments." Its legal basis was the government decree of 30 (17 old style) April 1917 "On the establishment of the police" and the Provisional Regulations on the police. However, these solutions have not been fully implemented.

In Soviet Russia, the Workers' and Peasants' Militia (RKM) became the executive body for the protection of revolutionary social order. The foundations of the RKM were laid by the NKVD decree of November 10 (October 28, O.S.) 1917 "On the workers' militia."

According to Ozhegov's dictionary, police- "in tsarist Russia and in some other countries, an administrative body for the protection of state security, public order."

In Russian, the word police has been known since the beginning of the 18th century, and it entered the dictionaries in its first third. (Dictionary of Weismann, 1731).

The word "police" itself goes back to the German polizei - "police", which comes from the Latin politia - " state structure, state". The Latin word politia itself has its origin in the Greek word politeia - "state affairs, form of government, state" (it is based on the word poliz - originally "city", and then - "state").

As one of the main instruments of state power, the police appeared along with the formation of the state.

At one time, Karl Marx emphasized that the police is one of the earliest signs of the state: for example, in Ancient Athens "... public power originally existed only as a police force, which is as old as the state" (K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 21, p. 118).

In the Middle Ages, the institution of the police was most developed: it was the period of its heyday, especially in the conditions of the police states of the era of absolute monarchy. The bourgeoisie, having won political power in its turn, not only preserved but improved the police, which (like the army) became the bulwark of the state.

In Russia, the police was established by Peter the Great in 1718. It was divided into general, keeping order (its detective departments investigated criminal cases), and political (information and security departments, in the future - the gendarmerie, etc.). There were also special police services - palace, port, fair, etc. City police departments were headed by police chiefs; there were also district bailiffs (guards) and police officers (police guards). (Military Encyclopedia. Military Publishing. Moscow, 8 volumes, 2004)

In Russia, the police was abolished on 23 (10 old style) March 1917.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources