"Special military operation"[a] (also "special operation", and abbreviated as "SMO" or "SVO"[b]) is an official term used by the Russian government and pro-Russian sources to denote the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[1][2] It is widely considered to be a euphemism created to minimize and obfuscate the true nature of the full-fledged war started by Russia.[3][4][5][6]
The term "special military operation" has been additionally widely used in Ukrainian media. Yet it is generally written in quotation marks, which highlight the psychologically artificial nature of the expression, and applied in the context of describing Russian actions negatively.[3]
Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989); at first officially named "the introduction of a limited contingent of Soviet troops into Afghanistan",[f][10] then later called "combat operations in Afghanistan"[g][9]
First Chechen War (1994–1996) as the "operation on the restoration of the constitutional order in Chechnya",[h][12] and then afterwards as "an armed conflict in the Chechen Republic and in the adjacent territories of the Russian Federation, assigned to the zone of armed conflict"[i][9]
Russo-Georgian War (2008) as a "special peace enforcement operation"[k] for "ensuring the security and protection of citizens of the Russian Federation living in the territories of the Republic of South Ossetia and the Republic of Abkhazia"[12][10][9]
According to some observers, such as Russian journalist Ksenia 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.[10][13]
In Russian 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.[12][14] 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.[15]
In early November 2022, the "rule" was first violated by TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov during a radio broadcast; later on, the events in Ukraine were publicly called "war" by Vladimir Putin,[4]Sergey Lavrov and Margarita Simonyan.[16] In general, Russian authorities and media have tried to avoid the term "war" in the context of Ukraine, instead using it in terms like "gas war" or "information war".[15]
Applications in other media
The term "special military operation" has been additionally widely used in Ukrainian media. However, it is generally written in quotation marks that highlight the psychologically artificial nature of the expression, particularly in the context of describing Russian actions negatively.[3]
Certain internationally distributed news agencies, such as Al 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".[17]
In colloquial speech
Social anthropologist Aleksandra 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.[18]
Strictly speaking, a "special operation" (as defined by organizations like NATO) is a military term for a task that requires specially trained units for an unconventional operation.[19][10] However, the meaning of the Russian "Special military operation" in Ukraine is different.[20] This ambiguity was used to hide and distort the true meaning of what an "SVO" would entail,[21] and has been described as an example of "doublespeak" and "doublethink".[12][22]
Konstantin Gorobets, an associate professor at the University of Groningen, argued that, unlike "war", the term "special military operation" positioned Ukraine as a colony 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."[12]
In popular culture
Due to its nature as an overt euphemism, the term has become an Internet meme that satirizes Russian propaganda.[23] 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 for war (война) being the overall winner).[10][14] It was also selected as the 2022 Euphemism of the Year by the American Dialect Society.
^Russian: операция по восстановлению конституционного порядка в Чечне
^Russian: вооруженный конфликт в Чеченской Республике и на прилегающих к ней территориях Российской Федерации, отнесенных к зоне вооруженного конфликта
^Russian: контртеррористических операций на территории Северо-Кавказского региона
^Russian: специальная операция по принуждению к миру
^North Atlantic Treaty Organization (13 December 2013). "Allied Joint Doctrine for Special Operations". NATO Standard Allied Joint Publication. Brussels: NATO Standardization Agency. AJP-3.5 (Edition A, Version 1): 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.
