"Special military operation"[a] (also "special operation", and abbreviated as "SMO" or "SVO", orRussian:спецопера́ция,romanized: spetsoperatsiya,Ukrainian:спецопера́ція) is the official term used by theRussian government to describe theRussian invasion of Ukraine.[1][2][3][4] It is widely considered aeuphemism intended to minimize the invasion and obfuscate the war's original objective of annexing allRussophone regions of Ukraine.[5][6][7][8] Russia bans the use of the terms "war" or "invasion" in referring to its invasion of Ukraine,[9][10] as well as discussion of the censorship itself.[11]
The term "special military operation" has been used inUkrainian media in specific contexts, generally inscare quotes, to mock or criticise the Russian intervention.[5]
The use of euphemisms to describe military activities was common in theSoviet Union and in theRussian Federation after the collapse ofcommunist rule prior to the invasion of Ukraine; this includes:
Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989); at first officially named "the introduction of a limited contingent of Soviet troops intoAfghanistan",[e][14] then later called "combat operations in Afghanistan"[f][13]
First Chechen War (1994–1996) as the "operation on the restoration of the constitutional order inChechnya",[g][16] and then afterwards as "an armed conflict in theChechen Republic and in the adjacent territories of the Russian Federation, assigned to the zone of armed conflict"[h][13]
Russo-Georgian War (2008) as a "special peace enforcement operation"[j] for "ensuring the security and protection of citizens of the Russian Federation living in the territories of the Republic ofSouth Ossetia and the Republic ofAbkhazia"[16][14][13]
In 2014Little green men, masked soldiers of theRussian Federation who appeared during theRusso-Ukrainian War carrying weapons and equipment, but wearing unmarked green army uniforms and called "polite people" in Russian media.[17]
According to some observers, such as Russian journalistKsenia Turkova [ru], the purpose of this terminology is mainly to create a perception that war is more benign than it actually is, by softening the wording in official reports and in the media.[14][18]
InRussian propaganda, the term "special military operation" is the main designation for aggression against Ukraine and is used to replace the definition of "war", which the Russian authorities and state media carefully avoided.[16][19] On 24 February 2022, 6 hours after the start of the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine, the Russian government tightened censorship by officially requiring the media to use only materials provided by Russian government sources. Subsequently, under pressure from the authorities, many organizations left the country or were closed. The Russian authorities blocked access to a number of Internet resources that refused to comply with the requirements.[20]
Certain internationally distributed news agencies, such asAl Jazeera English (AJE), have also used the term in instances with quotation marks applied and details provided about the war's conduct. For example, a March 2022 report by AJE stated that the terminology of having a "'special military operation' should be used to describe Moscow’s assault on Ukraine" according to Russian officials because "the Kremlin has been working hard to promote its version of events in the face of widespread indignation and an anti-war movement at home".[23]
Social anthropologistAleksandra Arkhipova [ru] noted that as of September 2022, the abbreviation "SVO" was more commonly used instead of "special operation". According to Arkhipova, this is due to the length of the full term, which is inconvenient in speech, and the concealment of the essence of the term in the abbreviation.[27]
Strictly speaking, a "special operation" (as defined by organizations likeNATO) is amilitary term for a task that requires specially trained units for an unconventional operation.[28][14] However, the meaning of the Russian "Special military operation" in Ukraine is different.[29] This ambiguity was used to hide and distort the true meaning of what an "SVO" would entail,[30] and has been described as an example of "doublespeak" and "doublethink".[16][31]
Konstantin Gorobets, an associate professor at theUniversity of Groningen, argued that, unlike "war", the term "special military operation" positioned Ukraine as acolony of Russia, denies it equal standing as a sovereign state, and uses the "language of policing". Gorobets says that the implication of the term is imperialistic, "because it assumes that Russia is using force within its own domain, of which Ukraine [in their view] is but a part."[16]
In popular culture
Due to its nature as an overt euphemism, the term has become an Internet meme that satirizes Russian propaganda.[32] At the end of 2022, the euphemism won in the nomination "Expression of the Year" of Russia's "Word of the Year" competition (with the Russian word forwar (война) being the overall winner).[14][19] It was also selected as the 2022Euphemism of the Year by the American Dialect Society.
TheTurkish invasion of Cyprus is often referred to by the Turkish and their supporters with the words "peace operation", "holiday" and "intervention" as euphemisms.
^North Atlantic Treaty Organization (13 December 2013). "Allied Joint Doctrine for Special Operations".NATO Standard Allied Joint Publication. AJP-3.5 (Edition A, Version 1). Brussels: NATO Standardization Agency: 1.
^Chudá, Lucia (30 November 2022). "Precedentné výrazy V. Putina v mémoch a ich funkcia v politickom diskurze" [Vladimir Putin's Precedent Expressions in Memes and Their Function in Political Discourse].Language and politics. On the border between linguistics and political science (in Slovak) (VII ed.).Comenius University in Bratislava: EKONÓM.ISBN9788022549875.
