Often times world events can help to change the way a word is used in several different languages and that use can be twisted and confused to the point where no one knows what anyone is talking about anymore. The word comrade is a great example of a word that has taken on multiple meanings over the years and has also taken on a life of its own. Comrade can mean a friendly term to one person but a threatening term to another person and sometimes that change in meaning can happen in the same conversation! The power of words to change perception is strong and comrade is a great example of changing perceptions and the strength of the spoken word.

Comrade is a term meaning friend or ally that, at its roots, had a strong military connotation. It was used during the French Revolution as a political greeting but it was made famous after the Russian Revolution. Comrade was used among members of the Russian Communist party as a term of social greeting between party members. Comrade has always had a very specific use especially associated with people that have been in the military together and when the Russian’s altered that use to include Communism the entire usage of the word Comrades changed completely. Today it is still part of Russian greetings and can still be a term of endearment but in countries such as the United States the word comrades has taken on a completely different meaning.

During the 1950’s and the Cold War there was what was referred to as the ‘Red Scare” in the United States and a fear that the Soviet Union was trying to infiltrate the United States through the United States’ political process. As a result there became a large mistrust of Soviets and there also became a fear that Soviets were trying to take over the United States through the political process so a weeding out process began and a new big bad wolf was created in the United States. Communism became the new boogeyman in the United States and anyone that was branded a Communist was instantly investigated by the FBI and sometimes even jailed. To be a Communist in 1950’s America was a very dangerous things and soon celebrities were losing their careers over mere rumors that they were Communists. Since this mass hysteria was tied to a fear that the Soviet Union was trying to take over the United States, and the Soviet flag was red, many people gave this new wave of fear the name “The Red Scare.”

In the Soviet Union the members of the Communist party would greet each other with the term comrades. This was picked up on in the United States and soon people that were labeled as Communists were called comrade by the public and this had a very sinister ring to it. So while the word comrade was a term of friendly greeting in the Soviet Union it became a feared term to be called in the United States. If you were publicly called a comrade in the United States your very freedom could be threatened.

Today the “Red Scare” is gone and the term comrade does not bring the stigma with it that it used to bring. People in the United States still associate the word comrades with Soviet Communists and that is very strange when you consider the fact that there is no longer a Soviet Union.