PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION
  
  
  
   Throughout the history of Russia, with the exeption of a
  brief period around the beginning of the present century, it
  has been the official policy of the govenment to forbid the
  appearance in print of a large body of words used in the
  everyday speech of many Russians and known to virtually all.
  These words are considered too obscene for inclusion in
  dictionaries, even through some of them have existed in the
  language from its beginnings (e.g. perdet', Common slavic
  *perdeti, c.f. Sanscrit pardati, English 'fart').
  Unfortunately, the compilers of most Russian reference works
  outside Russia have also deemed these words unsuitable for
  inclusion.
   A Short Dictionary of Russian Obscenities is a modest
  attempt to fill this gap. It has been compiled from various
  lists which have circulated for some time but have not been
  avalable to a wide public, from Baudouin de Courtenay's
  edition of Tolkovyi slovar' zivogo velikorusskogo jazyka by
  Vl. Dal', and from material