Durov responds to Musk, says slavs never invaded Western Europe

Telegram founder Pavel Durov has responded to Elon Musk’s post about the origins of the word “slave,” stressing that Slavic countries never invaded Western Europe unprovoked.

The debate began with a tweet from the American entrepreneur, who shared Grok’s explanation of the English term. The chatbot noted that “slave” derives from the Medieval Latin sclavus, which originally meant “Slav.”

In his reply, Durov confirmed the etymology, pointing out that the word also entered Old French as esclave. According to him, the term came to mean both “Slav” and “slave” because Western Europe had enslaved large numbers of Slavic peoples during the Middle Ages.

No Slavic country ever invaded Western Europe unprovoked, while the opposite happened many times.

Durov holds a degree in philology, having graduated with honors in English philology and translation from St. Petersburg State University.

In its explanation, Grok also noted that the word “Slav” originates from Proto-Slavic roots related to “word” and “glory.” The association of the term with “slave” in some languages, the chatbot explained, stems from the historical enslavement of Slavic peoples.