'Dictionary' of Tass words and phrases

Across the ocean: code-phrase for the US, as in, "Those across the ocean who want . . . ." Aggravated: what the arms race is, because of "those across the ocean. . . ."

Aggression: the foreign policy of the US, China, Egypt, South Africa, Britain , Australia. Usually "naked" or "unrestrained."

Bases: what Americans have around the world. The Soviet Union in Cuba, Aden, Vietnam, and elsewhere has only "friends."

Champions: those who support peace, Soviet-style (see "peace" below). As in, "Helsinki peace champions held a rally today. . . ."

Consistent: Soviet policies. American ones are inconsistent.

Counterrevolutionary: anyone who favors a government Moscow doesn't. Western equivalent: "rebel," "guerrilla."

Democracy: one-party rule. Party selection of candidates for office, followed by ratification by the citizen by "voting" for one pre-selected candidate per post.

Detente: an easing of the prospect of global shooting war, so that Moscow can get on with fighting capitalist states for influence by all other means (see "peace" below).

Don't you see?: parenthetical phrase to denote irony. As in, "The United States, don't you see, thinks it can lecture the USSR. . . ."

Facts are stubborn things: favorite Tass headline on its own version of events.

Farce: event "staged" by the West to criticize Moscow or its allies.

Good neighborliness: Soviet relations with its friends. The US only exploits.

Gunsights: what the imperialists have trained on peace.

Helsinki Final Act: document signed in 1975 to approve the postwar Soviet sphere in Europe. Also used by US and others to "interfere" in Soviet internal affairs.

Heroic: Soviet actions.

Hopeless: trying to threaten the Soviet Union. Suggesting Soviet troops leave Afghanistan.

Hullabaloo: much-loved Tass word. Any statement in the West construed to be anti-Soviet (Tass does a lot of construing). As in, ". . . The supporters of Bangkok raised a hullabaloo over these actions . . . ." (Vietnamese troops had just attacked Thailand from Cambodia.)

Independence: freedom from US influence, thus openness to Soviet influence.

Instigator: the US, also Egypt, China, etc.

Interference: any statement criticizing the Soviet Union or its friends. Anti- American statements by Moscow are the wise pronouncements of a great power.

Irreversible: what "detente" is (see above).

Liberation: freedom from US influence (see "independence"). It is predetermined by historical "laws."

Lies have short legs: favorite Tass headline attacking the West.

Nobody: the USSR, as in, "Nobody threatens Japan [or Yugoslavia, or Western Europe, or detente]."

Nonaligned: anti-US, potentially pro- Moscow, as in Cuba.

Outrage: any action opposed to Soviet interests.

Peace: the absence of shooting war, in which Moscow can use all other means to dominate other countries.

Principled: a favorite word. Refers to all actions of the USSR, but none of the US.

Quill-drivers: the Western press.

Racism: how the US treats blacks, and South Africa as well. Only found outside the Soviet Union.

Reaction: as in forces of imperialism and reaction." (Also, what Tass spends a lot of time doing; some Westerners call Moscow the "reaction capital of the world" for the way it reacts to even the smallest events abroad.)

Rebuff: administered by Moscow or its friends to any critic. Usually verbal. Almost always "resolute" or "firm."

Revolutionary: Soviet ideas, and others based on them.

Righteous: Soviet. Marxist. Leninist. Formerly also: Stalinist.

Rights: what the 1977 Soviet Constitution guarantees. What the US tramples underfoot.

Slander: criticism of Moscow or its friends.

Telegram: method of Tass propaganda. Separate items are devoted to even the most routine telegrams to other governments -- and to the replies, no matter how formal or meaningless. As in: "A telegram has come in to Andrei Gromyko, minister of foreign affairs of the USSR, from Hans Dietrich Genscher, who expresses gratitude for the congratulations on the occasion of . . . ."

Threat: what the US is to the world.

Vital interests: what the Soviets have around the world. What the US do es not have in the Persian Gulf or in Cuba.