Russian, noun and & adjective

Origin:
Unknown; but see Venter quotation 1977.
A. noun Usually in pl.
1. In historical contexts. A member of a blanketed gang of Sotho men which terrorized townships in the Johannesburg area from the 1940s. Also attributive.
1951 Drum Oct. 8A favourite device of the Russians is to use a woman to attract their victim.
1952 Drum May 37Russians wear black blankets with white stripes and a white or black hat with an ostrich feather, and gaberdine trousers...They carry sticks, which are hollow in the centre for screwing an axe, which they call a ‘re-inforcement.’...Most Russians are Basutos but many other tribes are to be found among them.
1960 C. Hooper Brief Authority 293Worse than Russia-gangs. [Source Note: Gangs of Basuto, mostly in the urban areas round Johannesburg, who attacked Africans of other tribes, driving them from their homes, and popularly known as ‘Russians’.]
a1977 K.M.C. Motsisi in M. Mutloatse Casey & Co. (1978) 103To the south of Western Native Township vibrates Newclare, home of the faction fight-happy blanketed Basutos, known as ‘Russians’.
1982 Pace Nov. 16We..fear the police and ‘Russians’. If it is not the police who raid us we are attacked by the ‘Russians’ who drink our liquor and rape us.
1984 M. Mthethwa in Frontline July 30There is one name which brings cold fear to their spines. The name is ‘Russians’, but you do not have to travel as far as Russia to see these Russians. They are the blanket-clad Sotho men who carry decorated sticks, which they use with great dexterity and without any hesitation or regret.
1988 Daily Dispatch 29 July 23‘The Russians’ are a gang of blanket-clad men who habitually carry knobkerries.
2. transferred sense. In these townships: any Sotho person.
1974 Sunday Times 20 Oct. (Mag. Sect.)The South Sotho, known in Soweto as the ‘Russians’ because of their distinctive blanket dress, have built a reputation for wild parties.
1977 P.C. Venter Soweto 184He says my mother’s parents were real Russians. That is what we call the South Sotho people, because of the way they wear their blankets.
1989 Reader’s Digest Illust. Hist. of S. Afr. 390Evaton’s desperately poor Basotho group — called the ‘Russians’.
1987 M. Melamu Children of Twilight 275Hlalele was a member of a notorious gang of Basuto men who were known as the ‘Russians’. It was not quite clear how they had acquired that name, but it had stuck to Basuto men working in Johannesburg...We came to associate the name ‘Russians’ with violence.
1990 P. Garson in Weekly Mail 8 Feb. 7The ANC supporters allege..that various black policemen living in Uptown have aligned themselves with Azapo and have recruited the Basothos or ‘Russians’ to protect them.
B. adjective historical. Of or pertaining to the Sotho gangs of the townships in the Johannesburg area.
1963 L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 115The way a Native goes ‘Russian’ is simple and yet disturbing.
1963 L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 116The ‘Russian’ movement started originally among the Rand Basuto — especially among the mine boys — somewhere about 1948, and it has been growing in strength ever since.
1971 Post 24 Oct. 2Russian gang battle leaves 3 dead. Three men were shot dead and two others wounded at Delmore Station, East Rand when two rival gangs of blanketed ‘Russians’ fought it out yesterday.
A member of a blanketed gang of Sotho men which terrorized townships in the Johannesburg area from the 1940s. Also attributive.
In these townships: any Sotho person.
Of or pertaining to the Sotho gangs of the townships in the Johannesburg area.
Derivatives:
Hence Russianism  noun, the gangster lifestyle adopted by some of the Sotho youth; Russianized  adjective, transformed into a ‘Russian’.
1952 Drum May 39Treat the Basuto well and fairly in all walks of life and you will put an end to Russianism.
1963 L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 115Natives who are normally quiet and peace-loving have been known to become ‘Russianised’ in an instant, once the order has been given by the gang leader.
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Russianism
Russianized

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rusper, nounn.rysmier, nounn.
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