Smychka (russian: смычка) was a popular political term in

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

and

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. It can be roughly translated as "collaboration in society" "union", "alliance", "joining the ranks". The generic meaning of the noun " смычка", derived from the verb "сомкнуть", is joining of two things: contact, joint, linkage, coupling, like joining the two opposite branches of a railroad whose construction was started from both ends. The best known example of the usage of the term was the

motto A motto (derived from the Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of an individual, family, social group, or organisation. Mot ...

and the Soviet politics of "smychka of the city and the village" ("смычка города и деревни"), which was understood as the alliance of proletariat and the poor

peasantry A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...

."The Economic Organization of War Communism 1918-1921", by Silvana Malle, 2002, , section 8.1: "Military Emergency and Smychka
p. 396
/ref> Another example was "smychka of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

and social revolution", see "

Voskresenie The ''Voskresenie'' (''Resurrection'' or ''Sunday'') was a left-leaning, quasi-Masonic sect, which existed in Petrograd between 1918 and 1928. The group, which consisted of philosophers, professionals, and members of the Religious Philosophical ...

References

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External links

1924: Scissors Crisis
- "Smychka and the Scissors Crisis", at ''Seventeen Moments in Soviet History'', an essay by Lewis Siegelbaum Soviet internal politics Soviet phraseology