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I heard both versions, which one is correct? 'Гнать' or 'Катить'?
If I want to say:
"не гони бочку на китайцев, падла. кто бы нам пособил электронику и одёжку, если не их пацаны на тех жутких круглосуточныx заводах?!"
is the sentence correct, or should i use 'Катить'?
is the sentence correct, or should i use 'Катить'?
It is difficult to say if it is correct or not, because this can be considered as author's creativity.
Authour mixed two different idioms in one.
Idiom #1. [Гнать]
Means [врать] = [to lie].
It is used with [гнать про что-то]
Чё ты гонишь? = [Чё ты врёшь?]
Just if you don't know: [Чё] = colloquial [Что]
And therefore
не гони про китайцев, падла. кто бы нам ... = [не ври про китайцев ...]
Idiom #2. [Катить бочку]
Means [разжигать конфликт] = [to escalate conflict].
It is used with [катить бочку на кого-то]
Чё ты на него бочку катишь? = [Чё его задираешь?] = [Чё ты разжигаешь с ним конфликт?]
And therefore
не кати бочку на китайцев, падла. кто бы нам ... = [не задирай китайцев ...]
Total author's creativiy
не гони бочку на китайцев, падла. кто бы нам ...
means [не гони про китайцев] = [не ври про китайцев] + [не кати бочку на китайцев] = [не задирай китайцев] - these both meanings at the same time, which results into [do not escalate conflict with Chinese by lying about them].
Anyway [не гони бочку на кого-то] is strongly colloquial form and official publications do avoid using such phrases.
Гнать на + Gen. is used without any бочка. It is colloquial and can sound very rude if you say in to a person about their actions.
Катить бочку на + Gen. is a set expression. It is also colloquial, a bit less rude, though.
Бочку гнать нельзя, гнать можно волну, если очень нужно дополнение.
"Гнать бочку" and "катить бочку" are completely interchangeable and 100% equivalent, there's no semantical difference at all, it's just that "гнать бочку" is comparably rarer.
Neither Google n-grams search nor Russian corpora search show evidence of «гнать бочку» being used. As a native speaker I have never heard this phrase, and it sounds unnatural1 to me. I would say «катить бочку» is the correct phrase.
1 -- Here's how I parse it: One can гнать something that is capable of moving on its own (гнать лошадей), or at least somewhat independently, having received an initial impulse (ветер гнал волны). Катить, on the other hand, one can 1) something that is round, and therefore rolls (one cannot катить коробки or волны), and 2) by continuously and immediately applying force to it -- once you stop катить smth., the subject will not proceed by itself. Subsequently, бочки one can only катить.
"гнать" here is short for "гнать порожняк" or "гнать волну". Or more rarely "гнать пургу" (not the best choice, because "нести пургу" is used more often). It cannot be interchangeable with barrel.
The both expressions are identical, but "гнать бочку" is rougher. And "катить бочку" is more common.
