This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
  1. KudoZ™ Top
  2. Russian to English
  3. General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters

пустить в расход

English translation: execute

12:33 Aug 5, 2006
Russian to English translations [PRO]
General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
Russian term or phrase: пустить в расход
put to use?

Multitran has "dispatch prisoners" for , but I've seen this elsewhere.



Sigh...
Deborah Hoffman
Local time: 12:33
English translation:execute
Explanation:
It's more of a slang expression than standard Russian. I believe it means "execute" here. In your sentence, people were either executed (by shooting, undoubtedly) right away or sent to a prison camp.

Selected response from:

Sophia Hundt (X)
Local time: 11:33
Grading comment
thanks - I'll think of something accounting-related in English to render it
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +6execute
Sophia Hundt (X)
5 +2shoot
Vitaly Kisin
5 +1to kill prisoners
Khoumayun Kari-Yakoubov
4 +1who had been taken out and shot
Alexander Demyanov
4to do away with
julls
3 +1eliminated
David Knowles
4summarily dispatch
Dorene Cornwell
4 -1waste/whack
Kalaus
3 -1terminate
Libero_Lang_Lab
3 -1to remove
Umutay Midinova


  

Answers


10 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
to kill prisoners


Explanation:
it is a slang expression

Khoumayun Kari-Yakoubov
Russian Federation
Local time: 19:33
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Marina Aleyeva
19 mins
neutral  Vitaly Kisin: it was slangy in 1917 onwards until criminal code was written - now a "historical term" about the period
20 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

13 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +6
execute


Explanation:
It's more of a slang expression than standard Russian. I believe it means "execute" here. In your sentence, people were either executed (by shooting, undoubtedly) right away or sent to a prison camp.



Sophia Hundt (X)
Local time: 11:33
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian
PRO pts in category: 8
Grading comment
thanks - I'll think of something accounting-related in English to render it

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  dmitry_pal: This expression comes from the 30th of 20th. cent., time of Stalin's repressions. The word "расход" sounds to me like a bookkeeper's or accounter's term, and the phrase itself describes executing people, as if people were assets, making them impersonal.
15 mins
agree  Marina Aleyeva
16 mins
neutral  Alexander Demyanov: 1. It does mean "execute" but a slang expression is better translated with a slang expression. 2. why "by shooting, UNDOUBTEDLY?//Oops, you are probably right about "shooting", sorry!//Why not just "shot", then?
57 mins
  -> Thank you for your coment! They shot them those days, no? I am not suggesting that Deborah actually uses "by shooting" in her translation, though - it's just an explanation I wanted to add.
agree  Сергей Лузан: executed by shooting
1 hr
agree  Vanda Nissen
5 hrs
agree  Vladimir Dubisskiy: execute (and not necessarily 'shot' - hanged, drowned, etc.
14 hrs
agree  Alla Tatyants
18 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

25 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
to do away with


Explanation:
.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 29 мин (2006-08-05 13:02:34 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

given that "пустить в расход" is a russian slang expression, i think an english slang expression should be used as an equivalent

julls
United States
Local time: 12:33
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in BelarusianBelarusian, Native in RussianRussian

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Dorene Cornwell: Yeah, I'm trying to decide whether this one is clinical and euphemistic enough, and I think not quite
1 hr
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

49 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): -1
waste/whack


Explanation:
.

Kalaus
Local time: 19:33
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Libero_Lang_Lab: if it was a Schwarzennegger cop movie it would be perfect... as it refers to the purges under Stalin, possibly not quite the right tone...
1 min
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

39 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): -1
terminate


Explanation:
I think you want to have something equally clinical sounding and euphemistic.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 53 mins (2006-08-05 13:26:13 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

or perhaps, bearing in mind dmitry's note....

'dispensed with'



Libero_Lang_Lab
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:33
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 12

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  dmitry_pal: I doubt this one, terminate is too heavy, too personal. This expresion sounds for russian ear more casual or negligent - you terminate public enemy No.1 but write off some 10 000 people, which you don't even know.
7 mins
  -> maybe you've been watching too many Schwarzenegger movies - you can also terminate a contract or a project
neutral  Kalaus: But "пустить в расход" DOES sound slangy and contemptious. It is not at all "clinical". "Terminate" is much more neutral and sounds more like "ликвидировать".
1 hr
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +1
eliminated


Explanation:
Another suggestion.
The Russian is not very slang: the ORD has вывести в расход as: to shoot (coll.)
I also thought of "sent to their deaths" but that's probably too standard.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2006-08-05 14:13:57 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Given my reply to Sophia below, maybe "disposed of" would be a good euphemism.

David Knowles
Local time: 17:33
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 160

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Libero_Lang_Lab
0 min
  -> Thanks Dan!
agree  Alexander Demyanov: //Why not "shot"?
10 mins
  -> It's too bald. If possible you need some colloquial euphemistic expression.
disagree  Sophia Hundt (X): I guess it is just still sounds vague to me cause the original sentence is not as specific as your example, where "eliminate" fits better than into the original sentence.
17 mins
  -> Not at all vague! I searched on '"political opponents" eliminated' and got 330,000 google hits, and it's clear what happened to these opponents - most of them were shot or otherwise disposed of.
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
которых пустили в расход
who had been taken out and shot


Explanation:
It's not quite an equivalent expression but there examples of very close usage:

http://www.google.com/search?q="taken out and shot&hl=en&lr=...

Alexander Demyanov
Local time: 12:33
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian
PRO pts in category: 84

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Zoya Askarova
13 mins
  -> Thank you, Zoya.
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +2
shoot


Explanation:
You lot seem to be too young to feel the meaning. This contemptuous turn of phrase belongs in the post-revolutionary years of complete lawlessness and was applied to whoever was considered by the "reds" and bolsheviks as "contra" and "old regime" (контра, контрики). Пустить в расход = расстрелять, "поставить к стенке", при чём это всегда самосуд. Этот термин очень скоро устарел и выжил только в послереволюционной литературе, прославляющей революцию и победу. Даже устно применялся только для описания периода революции и гражданской войны. "Врагов народа" уже не "пускали в расход" - их "расстреливали как бешеных собак"

Vitaly Kisin
Local time: 17:33
Works in field
Native speaker of: Russian
PRO pts in category: 28
Notes to answerer
Asker: This was also very helpful!


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Zoya Askarova
11 mins
  -> thank you!
agree  Alla Tatyants
16 hrs
  -> thank you
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
summarily dispatch


Explanation:
I think Multitran is not terrible here for a change and about the right level of clinical euphemism would read something like

...parents who either had been summarily dispatched or had been sent to the camps

Dorene Cornwell
Local time: 09:33
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 24
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): -1
to remove


Explanation:
...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 21 час (2006-08-06 10:21:57 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

what about "to send to glory" as another variant

Umutay Midinova
Kyrgyzstan
Local time: 22:33
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian
PRO pts in category: 2

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Libero_Lang_Lab: removed a little too vague i suspect... as for send to glory, i think that will have to be sent to glory....
1 day 4 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.

You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs (or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.

Return to KudoZ list

KudoZ™ translation help

The KudoZ network provides a framework for translators and others to assist each other with translations or explanations of terms and short phrases.

See also:
ProZ.com term search
Search millions of term translations
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search