Faux Cyrillic, pseudo-Cyrillic, pseudo-Russian[1] or faux Russiantypography is the use of Cyrillic letters in Latin text to evoke the Soviet Union or Russia. For example, R and N in RUSSIAN may be replaced by Cyrillic ? and ?, giving "?USSIA?". Other examples include ? for W, ? for U, ? for r, ? for O, ? for A, and ? or ? for Y.
This effect is usually restricted to text set in all caps, because Cyrillic letter-forms don't match well with lower case Latin letters.[2]
Not all examples of typography with mirror-imaged Latin characters are Faux Cyrillic. For example, Toys "R" Us (Toys "?" Us) and Korn use a backwards letter R (similar to Cyrillic Ya, ?), in the former to embody childlike innocence, in the latter to evoke an ironically grim crudeness. The "NI?" wordmark of Nine Inch Nails uses a reversed capital N to create a formalistic symmetry.
The film Red Heat (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Belushi), of which a great part takes place in Soviet Russia and concerns a partnership between a Russian and an American officer, has faux Cyrillic in its end credits.[5]
The poster for international releases of the Russian film Night Watch features a faux Cyrillic transliteration of the original Russian title ?????? ?????/Nochnoi dozor: "?OCH?OI DOZOR". This graphic effect reinforces at a glance the film's Russian origin and serves as a guide to pronunciation of the original title for English speakers. It does not, however, represent a meaningful phrase in Russian.
Frank Zappa's "I don't wanna get drafted" single features the text I? ??I? ??IP ?E???? ?E?E????? ? (IS THIS TRIP REALLY NECESSARY ?)
Franz Ferdinand's music video for "This Fire" features "?"s instead of "N"s as well as the phrases "???AKING N???" (Breaking News) and "?HE?O????" (Phenomena) on a Russian news station.
The gothic/doom metal band Type O Negative's 2007 album 'Dead Again' features Faux Cyrillic writing for both the band's name (???? ? ??G???V?)and the album title (D??D ?G???).
In Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, the backdrop of the level briefings is a book which is written in Cyrillic; but the language is actually English. The letter che (?) is used to write the letter H.
The website Exquisite Corpse uses it in their letterhead (i.e. C??PZe).
The early seasons of the television series Mission: Impossible used faux Cyrillic signs to indicate an "Iron Curtain" location.
The Airfix model kit of the standard Russianlaunch vehicle included a decal for the display base, bearing faux Cyrillic designations for the Sputnik, Vostok and Soyuz programs, and for the USSR itself, even though the correct Cyrillic spellings (???????, ??????, ???? and ????) are all fairly common knowledge in the West, and particularly among those with an interest in space exploration.
The Khachaturian CD Piano Concerto; Dance Suite; Waltz; Polka[6] features an egregious example of Faux Cyrillic, including upper-case lambdas and a lower-case upsilon (both recognizably from the Greek alphabet) and a reversed i kratkoe (nonexistent in Cyrillic).
In the Nicktoon El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, the opening card of the episode El Tigre, el Jefe, which literally translates as "El Tigre, the chief", is written in faux Cyrillic (EL TI??E EL JEFE) because, in this episode, Manny, the main character, decides to help his schoolmates to the point of unknowingly establishing a Stalinist-like dictatorship at the school.
Russian attitude
The inscriptions using faux Cyrillic are normally perceived by native Russian language speakers. While being used by Western media in the context of actions taking place in Russia, faux Cyrillic prompts the feeling of an arrogant attitude towards Russia and a superficial, inattentive and distorted depiction of Russian culture.
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