Moskal

{{short description|Historical or pejorative designation for Russians}} {{Italic title}} {{other uses}} [[File:Moskovskiy Kreml pri Ivane Kalite.jpg|thumb|The Moscow Kremlin under Prince Ivan Kalita in the early 14th century, depicted by 19th century painter Apollinary Vasnetsov.]] [[File:Майки1.jpg|266px|thumb|right|Text in Ukrainian on a white T-shirt: "Слава Богу, що я не москаль" (''Slava Bohu, shcho ya ne moskal''), {{translation}} Thank God I am not a Moskal]] '''Moskal'''{{efn|Native words in neighboring cultures:{{bulleted list|Russian and {{langx|uk|москаль}}|{{langx|be|маскаль}}|{{langx|pl|moskal}}|{{langx|ro|muscal}}|{{langx|hu|muszka}}|{{langx|lt|maskolis}}}}}} is a designation historically used for the residents of the Grand Duchy of Moscow from the 12th to the 15th centuries.<ref name="Mikaberidze2011">{{cite book|author=Alexander Mikaberidze|authorlink= Alexander Mikaberidze|title=Ilya Radozhitskii's Campaign Memoirs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RaCJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA10|year=2011|publisher=Lulu|isbn=978-1-105-16871-0|page=10}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Radozhit︠s︡kiī |first1=Ilʹi︠a︡ Timofeevich |title=Campaign memoirs of the artilleryman |date=2011 |location=Tbilisi, Georgia |publisher=Napoleonic Society of Georgia|isbn=978-1-105-16871-0 |page=10}}</ref> It is now sometimes used in Ukraine, Poland,<ref name="Harshav1986">{{cite book |author=Benjamin Harshav |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZYzsjxrtpLsC&pg=PA559 |title=American Yiddish Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology |publisher=University of California Press |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-520-04842-3 |page=559}}</ref> and Romania as an ethnic slur for Russians.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ryazanova-Clarke |first1=Lara |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AECrBgAAQBAJ&q=moskal |title=The Russian language outside the nation |date=2014 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=9780748668465 |location=Edinburgh |page=74 |language=en}}</ref>

The term is generally considered to be derogatory or condescending and reciprocal to the Russian term ''khokhol'' for Ukrainians.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Search for self-definition in Russian literature|volume =27 |first= Ewa Majewska |last=Thompson |authorlink = Ewa Thompson |publisher= John Benjamins Publishing Company|year=1991 |isbn =9027222134 |pages=22}}</ref> Another ethnic slur for Russians is ''kacap'' in Polish, or кацап (''katsap'') in Ukrainian.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Martinek |first=Svitlana |date=2024-08-09 |title=The opposition sviy ‘us (our)’– chuzhyy ‘them (their)’: what has changed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine? |url=https://journals.umcs.pl/et/article/view/17546/pdf |journal=Etnolingwistyka. Problemy Języka i Kultury |language=en |publisher=Maria Curie-Skłodowska University |volume=36 |issue=0 |pages=47 |doi=10.17951/et.2024.36.37 |issn=0860-8032}}</ref>

== History and etymology == Initially, as early as the 12th century, ''moskal'' referred to the residents of Muscovy, the word literally translating as "Muscovite" (differentiating the residents of the Grand Duchy of Moscow from other East Slavs such as people from White Ruthenia (Belarusians), Red Ruthenia (Ukrainians), and others). With time, the word became an archaism in all the East Slavic languages, and survived only as a family name in each of those languages—see below.<ref>Edyta M. Bojanowska (2007) "Nikolai Gogol: Between Ukrainian And Russian Nationalism" {{ISBN|0-674-02291-2}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=0Cefw929Bw8C&dq=moskal+%22ethnic+slur%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA55 p. 55]: "In the 'low', folksy world of the provincial narrators, a Russian is a ''moskal'' ("Muscovite")", a foreigner and an intruder, at best a carpetbagger, at worst a thief in league with the devil."</ref>

The negative connotation in Ukraine came in around the late 18th-early 19th centuries in the form of an ethnic slur labelling all Russians. At that time, since the 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement of Cossacks with Moscow the majority of Russians in Ukrainian lands were soldiers of the Imperial Russian Army (and in fact at that time the term "moskal" was synonymous with the word "soldier"), as well as Russian bureaucrats, Russian nobles that were granted estates there, and merchants. All these categories were disliked by the locals.<ref>Orest Subtelny, ''Ukraine: A History'', pp. 274-275</ref>

==Cultural influence== The "Moskal" is a stock character of the traditional Ukrainian puppet theatre form, vertep.<ref>Прыгунов М. [http://feb-web.ru/feb/litenc/encyclop/le3/le3-5431.htm "Драма Вертепная"], ''Литературная энциклопедия'' 1929—1939, vol. 3. Moscow: Изд-во Ком. Акад., 1930, pp. 543—545</ref><ref>[https://ukrainianjewishencounter.org/en/redefining-traditional-vertep-issue-ukrainian-jewish-relations/ Redefining the Traditional Vertep: An Issue in Ukrainian-Jewish Relations]</ref>

It also gave rise to a number of East Slavic family names: Moskal, Moskalyov, Moskalenko, Moskalik, Moskalyuk, Moskalchuk, Moskalyonok, Moskalenkov.

==Notes== {{notelist}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{in lang|uk|ru}} [http://r2u.org.ua/s?w=%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C&scope=all&dicts=all&highlight=on#info Search query in Russian-Ukrainian dictionaries]

Category:Pejorative terms for European people Category:Anti-Russian sentiment Category:Pejorative demonyms