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Hello, class. Today I would like to tell you why “Yasha” is not a good thing for you to call Bucky in fic while he is the Winter Soldier.
It’s not “James” in Russian. It’s not. “Yasha” is the diminutive of “Yakov,” which is obviously Jacob. And yes, I know they have the same Aramaic? (I think) root, but like, here’s the deal – neither I (immigrated from the former Soviet Union as a child) nor my parents (lived in the Soviet Union for a good chunk of their lives) have ever met anyone named Yasha who wasn’t Jewish.
Don’t come at me with some exception you found on the internet – it’s a name that carries strong signifiers of Eastern European Jewishness. And we all know how the Soviets felt about Eastern European Jews (in case you don’t know – hint: really fuckin’ not great). It’s really unlikely that they would give a name with those signifiers to their super-weapon, especially in order to give him a name that’s etymologically close to his given name.
Now, what should you call him instead?
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