"Upper Volta with rockets": what does it mean, who said?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:55

In the information space, sonorous sticky names sometimes appear, tenacious due to their figurativeness. They are not related to the worldview features of individual countries or nations. That is, the world perceives them unambiguously. For example, there is a saying: "Upper Volta with rockets." Oddly enough, it is now associated with Russia. Even the President of the Russian Federation used this expression in his interviews. Let's see what it means and where it came from.

Let's deal with the words

If everything is clear with missiles, no one will interpret this term in two ways, then "Upper Volta" requires clarification. The fact is that this name survived the formation that it denoted. It was a small West African country. From the sixtieth to the eighty-fourth year of the last century, it was called Upper Volta. With missiles, by the way, it was not only bad, but nothing. The poorest state, and even unstable. Today we can find it on the map under the name Burkina Faso. With the change of name in the state, little has changed.

In special editions you can get information about life there. She is depressing. There is no economy in the country, the laws are more reminiscent of those established in the jungle. There is no question of science and more or less acceptable education in general. The country can be safely described as the edge of civilization, which is quite enough for our reasoning. This is how it was and remains now - the Upper Volta. With rockets, she never seems to be.

Author of the statement

Due to the mega size of the information space and the same number of interpreters and "insiders", there was some confusion. In one thing, everyone is in solidarity. For the first time, the USSR was called the Upper Volta with rockets. Some defend the authorship of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain. In fact, this is a uniform "slander". This venerable lady could think so, even agree that the USSR is the Upper Volta with rockets, but her upbringing did not allow her to say it out loud.

Aristocrats in those days were strictly taught not to show their contempt to the public through "loud" expressions. Helmut Schmidt, Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (until 1982), called the superpower that had already sunk into oblivion the Upper Volta with missiles. Some inquisitive researchers decided to find the original source. Now we do not particularly imagine what life was like in Germany. And the Germans hardly remember the nuances. But some information still managed to get.

The results are even more confusing

As it turned out, West Germany only seemed veryfree country. In fact, everything was, to put it mildly, somewhat different. Schmidt could not pronounce the expression “Upper Volta with missiles” aloud to the USSR. As they say, if this really happened, then only late at night, under a thick blanket. The Federal Chancellor, far from being stupid, clearly realized what a powerful army was at his side.

He wouldn't tease Brezhnev. The consequences could be dire. In any case, there was no evidence of his authorship (serious). By the way, this phrase has been attributed to him since 1993. The book was written by a group of American Sovietologists. Maybe it was they who coined the term "Upper Volta with rockets"?

Different version

If you look for traces of this expression in printed sources, you will stumble upon an article published in the Financial Times. It is called "Soviet Technology Export". Author: David Buchan. Publication date 1984-14-09 Perhaps this is the first non-verbal mention of this loud and offensive nickname. In the article, Buchan criticized the superpower for building up military power without paying attention to the needs of the population (maybe rightly).

What does "Upper Volta with rockets" mean

Who was the first to say such a phrase, in the end, is not so important. She scattered around the world, becoming generally accepted. They use it today in the address of the Russian Federation, when they want to emphasize the underdevelopment of its economy, backwardness, inferiority. And if some time ago the offensive nickname was practically forgotten, now it has surfacedagain. The reason for this is a propaganda campaign directed against the "aggressor country". It goes on in the West without stopping, and not just as a raging storm, but as tsunami waves, covering the consumer of information. Given the fact that the Russian Federation constantly conducts military exercises, which, by the way, are very successful, the term has found its second life.

Today, its use is associated with the idea of suggesting to Western (and not only) peoples the idea of the complete collapse of Russia as a state, its lack of chances for stability and return to world politics. If in the eighties this expression showed the level of civilization of a power that actively influences processes that are vital for all mankind, now they want to “lead them away from the real state of affairs.”

Why was the expression put into circulation again?

Let's start with the fact that in 2014 the world began to change rapidly. Perhaps the process started earlier, only to mankind it was presented from the Maidan events. This is a kind of visual reference point in the process of toughening the confrontation between the Russian Federation and the West. It can also be considered the beginning of the "restructuring" of the world order. So, anyway, experts say. The West is trying by all means to prove to its citizens (and to the rest of the world) the inferiority of the Russian Federation, its failure as a leader. Hence the revival of the expression "Upper Volta with rockets." What it means in the mouths of critics is not particularly worth guessing. It can be interpreted literally. They present the Russian Federation as an extremely backward country with the most terrible weapons. If you follow thislogic, we come to a disappointing conclusion: it must be neutralized. Separation and deprivation of the "nuclear button", as it seems to these caring propagandists. What is Russia's response to this? Yes, our bloggers and journalists did not stand aside. Now on the net you can find a lot of materials about the "Upper Volta". But in them she finds herself not only with missiles, but also with new technologies, formidable weapons, gold, and so on. Others, acting in the vein of Western propaganda, add "with loans", "with debts" and so on. This is how you like it. Or, if you dig deeper, who has what Motherland.