Forbidden Words. Linguists' Notes on Russian Swearing

In 2020, in a humorous April Fool's selection, we invented a book titled "The Art of Swearing." The joke turned out to be so convincing that readers began writing and asking when the book would be released. The interest did... not fade away – and we decided: it must be published!

How did Russian swearing permeate literature – from classical to contemporary?
Why are some curses tabooed while others become euphemisms?
How does obscene vocabulary change under the influence of laws and the internet? And why, despite all the prohibitions, Russian language without swearing is no longer quite Russian?

How is this layer of language structured and why is it so firmly woven into our speech,
explained by Doctors of Philological Sciences Anatoly Baranov and Dmitry Dobrovolsky.