#maidan

For context: Ukrainians took to the streets in 2013 to oust pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych and restore 2004 amendments to their constitution that weakened presidential power over their parliament. They blocked up the streets of Kyiv with tires (as well as bricks and anything else they could get their hands on), building barriers that prevented the military from removing protestors.

In many places it is well known that Russia has tried to appropriate Ukrainian national cuisine, especially borscht, in order to blur the line between Ukraine and Russia as two different countries with their own cultures. When UNESCO officially recognized borscht as a Ukrainian dish and added it to the intangible cultural heritage list, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova justified claims about “Nazism and xenophobia” in Ukraine by saying that cookbooks call borscht a Ukrainian dish. She also claimed that some cookbooks are banned in Ukraine, but provided no evidence.

A similar situation exists with many Ukrainian dishes, except for one — salo (cured pork fat).

Even in Russian articles they speak specifically about “Ukrainian salo,” without trying to turn it into “Russian salo.”

But why?

– Damn, Taras, you dropped the salo into the bone marrow transporter! – How are we supposed to tell now what’s salo and what’s brain?

This is a fragment from a YouTube video by the Russian movie-review blogger and fan of USSR – BadComedian. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, he has said he is “for peace” and does not support any side of the “conflict.” After that, he financially supported the Russian army in occupied territories and claimed that both countries have equally hostile narratives in their films, yet he failed to find anything similar in Ukrainian films compared to Russian films directed against Ukraine.

In the video he is dressed in a stereotypical mocking image of a Ukrainian — moustache, vyshyvanka shirt, and a Cossack hat. He also takes the name Taras, which Russians often use as a kind of slur toward Ukrainians, similar to calling a Chinese character “Ching Chong”. It also references Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, but in mocking contexts it usually carries a tone of treating Ukrainians as “stupid.” Characters named “Taras” are always naïve and foolish, just like in the video.

And what he drops is salo...

Salo is also used in Russian mockery of a well-known slogan created during the Revolution of Dignity (the Maidan): “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!” (Слава Україні! Героям слава!)

Because of a phonetic similarity in Russian, the word slava (“glory”) is replaced with salo, making jokes like “Salo to Ukraine, salo to the heroes,” used to mock Ukrainian revolutionary actions and their struggle.

A related joke often uses the phrase “Salo was dropped” (сало уронили), which plays on similar sounds in Russian to twist even the name of Ukraine into a pun, continuing the same kind of mocking wordplay.

But why does salo carry this meaning?

For centuries, salo has been used in mocking portraits of stereotypical Ukrainians, who were always shown as poor peasants who had nothing “great” about them — neither in mentality nor culture. And one element of culture is national cuisine. So Ukrainians in such images were always drinking horilka (a symbol of laziness) and eating salo.

In addition, salo has been used — and still is — to create a mocking association between Ukrainians and pigs. Ukrainians are often depicted in caricatures and memes as pigs in Ukrainian clothes, continuing the idea that Ukrainians are lazy, dirty, and stupid.

So in this way, salo as an element of Ukrainian cuisine becomes a symbol of shame and oppression in Russian mockery, where eating it automatically stereotypes Ukrainians and reinforces those same images.

At the end, I’m adding a few “memes” with these same captions from Russian spaces across different years (this didn’t start only in 2022, so you can see a certain “evolution” of the images).

Among them are phrases like “Salo was dropped,” “No matter how you dress up a pig, it’s still a khokhol (a slur against Ukrainians),” and “Soon we’ll be rolling in European mud,” as well as a screenshot of an explanation from a Russian blog on a Tumblr-like platform about why they call Ukrainians that.

(By the way, the Shevchenko poem there is fake, just like the proverb “My hut is on the edge” — meaning “It’s none of my business,” which Russians often use as an example of Ukrainian cowardice and willingness to betray — while the original phrase is “My hut is on the edge — I’m the first to meet the enemy”.

You can also see a psyop moment there, where they repeat the Russian narrative that Kyivan Rus’ was Russia, and that Ukrainians were just slaves under the Mongol yoke, with Ukraine’s trident supposedly being a slave mark.).

Transition (svino = pigs):

Why are khokhly associated with pigs?

Svino-khokhly (svinokhokhly) is an alternative, humiliating (contemptuous, abusive, insulting) but supposedly the most accurate and correct name for stupid khokhly/Ukrainians. In principle, any conscious khokhol is considered a svinokhokhol by definition.

Khokhly are constantly compared to pigs because the pig is a symbol of everything khokhol-like. For example, khokhly make their salo from pigs. The pig simply personifies Ukrainianness, just as the bear is associated with Russians.

Many seriously think that the pig is the national animal-symbol of Ukraine, because when hearing the word Ukraine/Khokhland (and its derivatives), a pig immediately comes to mind, and vice versa. Pig = Ukraine, Ukraine = pig. This association is supposedly embedded in most people’s subconscious. When people talk about pigs, the first thing that comes to mind is Ukraine, and vice versa.

Why does this happen? Because Russians always stand for truth and justice, so they call things by their real names without unnecessary lies. Things are called as they are. A negro is a negro in Africa, not an Afro-American, and there’s no need to embellish anything here. In truth, there is no offense.

Khokhly are called khokhly because they supposedly used to wear Mongolian forelocks (khokhly) on their heads. And they are called svino-khokhly because they are strongly connected with pigs, since their forelocks supposedly breed pigs the most in order to make their national salo from them. Therefore, khokhol and pig are basically synonyms in a certain context.

Whenever people talk about khokhly, it’s impossible not to mention pigs as well. Russians and Russia are often depicted as bears, because there are many bears in the snowy Russian forests, while Khokhland is always drawn as a pig farm, since pigs are the most common animal in Ukraine and, with their carefree lifestyle (the khokhol saying “my hut is on the edge — I know nothing”) and well-fed build, supposedly look very much like khokhly. And khokhly supposedly always behave in a piggish way: first they swear loyalty, brotherhood, and friendship, and then shamelessly betray. Everyone supposedly knows this filthy pig-like khokhol nature, and it is even reflected in poems/verses by famous people:

The cunning Jew, though blind; The Pole from Kishinev is worse than a whore; But a khokhol will share his bread with you, And then shit in your soup.

(an excerpt allegedly from the work “Khokhly” by T. G. Shevchenko, 1851)

Often in humorous caricatures, khokhly and Khokhland are depicted as pigs, and Russia as a bear. From this come all the names for khokhly connected with pigs: svinokhokhly, svinokakly, etc. Supposedly khokhly resemble pigs both in type and behavior, because wherever khokhly live, they supposedly turn everything into a pigsty. Many people even seriously wonder why Ukraine has still not officially recognized the pig as its national animal.