Welcome back, friend!

It’s funny you ask this because I think someone else asked me this too a while ago and I just.... forgot to answer..... Welp. Or I lost the answer....

Alright, time to break Christophe down. The Russian version is Христофо́р (Khristofór). Pull the diminutives from kurufin.ru (bless), and...

Diminutives: Khristya, Tonya, Khrisya, Istochnik, KhristikPet names: Khristoforka, Khristonya, Kristosha, Khristoforushka

Aaaah thank you so much! I’m going to save this everywhere and look it up when I need it. You’re an angel Vasilek (I F*CKING LOVE YOUR NAME).

Omg ok, this can get kinda complex and if you need further clarification feel free to message back but I’ll try to be as straightforward as possible. I’ll cover both Soviet & modern era just in case.FN=first name, P=patronym, LN=last name.I’ve seen a few different Soviet AUs within the fandom, they seem pretty popular. In which case we’re going to see a few different terms. Zemlyak is one and translates to “countryman”, basically used for two soldiers from the same city/country while abroad. I’ve heard of davarish too, which I’ve seen translated as “friend”, but I haven’t seen it that much and can’t personally confirm. These are informal and can stand alone without a person’s name. If you want to pull from this section, I honestly suggest just saying “countryman”; it’ll give you the historical tint without sounding odd in English. ie “Countryman, you dropped your bag.” These terms are pretty old-school, though; I’ve only seen them in the context of the Soviet era.

And then, there’s tovarisch, which you would have seen especially in military life. The reason behind this one is because titles like “Mister” were seen as too capitalistic, so everyone was supposed to call each other as tovarisch (товарищ). Nowadays it translates out to “comrade”, but I’ve also seen it as “citizen” (re: Ayn Rand). Literally, it should be “friend”. For simplicity’s sake, because this is how we know it in English, I’m just going to say “comrade”, but if you ever see “citizen” being used, that’s why, and it gets more complicated the further in you go - you’ll see below. Between the 30s-80s, not using comrade would have been disrespectful among Party members, so if your fic has some of these not in the military they’re still going to be called comrade with or without their LN, it was a generic term like Mr/Ms. It could also be used when addressing others your character doesn’t know (so again, ie Comrade, you dropped your bag.). This should be especially stressed in the military because of its formal setting. Now, this has obviously been dropped in modern life, no Russian would use “comrade” seriously - except in the military.

Here’s a basic idea on how you should be addressing people in the military for the Soviet & modern era (exception for Citizen, that belongs to Soviet era):

For a prisoner/ex-spouse/basically a Bad Person to you, like the waiter that just fucked up your order & apparently deserves no respect: Citizen (it’s like saying “the Citizen”, rude)For some rando in the military: Comrade + rank (ie Comrade Private) / also used in general (ie Comrade General)For someone known in the military: Rank + LN* (ie General Nikiforov)* Comrade + LN is a formal address for people in the military, it shows distance or conduct, and it would’ve been used during meetings.

Other notes:- if a superior & lower rank were talking casually, they’d drop to FN+P with each other, so your general and lieutenant can address each other like this in a casual setting. ie Viktor and Georgi could do this in your fic.- if the superior is praising/admonishing an inferior, Comrade + LN would be used. ie “You messed up, Comrade Popovich, stop crying.”- obviously once the military setting is dropped you’re not going to keep using all these; Yakov wouldn’t have taken Lilia out on a date and called her “Comrade Baranovskaya” in the old days. refer to the masterpost when the military formal setting is dropped & two friends/lovers/etc. are talking; ie you could use just first names or diminutives or FN+P when two privates are talking during downtime, depending on how close they are/etc.- if you really want your narrative to be correct in the Soviet era you could use Comrade + LN, so constantly referring to Viktor as Comrade Nikiforov, though that might sound funny to English-speakers so that’s up to you.

Historical note: if you want to get as accurate as possible, just know Soviet/Russian life in the military is different than in the American. Ever heard of portyanki? Those didn’t go out of use until 2013. Just make sure to do your research or be vague, there’s going to be differences you never even thought of, especially the farther back you go.