Some westernization of language is probably a grassroots phenomenon. For example, in computer science (at least from my Russian perspective) the original Russian terminology pre-dated the introduction of superior western technology. With things like Apple II and IBM PC came simpler, shorter and more relevant vocabulary. So "печатающее устройство" (printing device) became "принтер" ( "printer" in Cyrillic letters); "дисковое запоминающее устройство" contracted to "диск" (disk). That was salutary, and in any event, inavoidable.
There is a natural aversion in Russia to Russian participles. They are long, mumbly and unsonorous. From somewhere (probably soemone's autobiography) I remember this episode. An aspiring author brings his manuscript to some big cheese for critique. The big cheese opines: "nice enough, but you have lice crawling all over it". Lice? What he meant was the annoying overuse of past continuous participles with their distinctive "вши" suffix, which is alos Russian for "lice".
But indeed there was and is the militant Left's redefinition of language. Just like in English it is now near impossible to remember what "justice" or "compassion" or "normal" means, something similar was occurring in the 1920's in the Soviet Union. Both art and language were redefined, often by people of considerable talent such as Mayakovsky or Malevich.
Talk to you later.
So "печатающее устройство" (printing device) became "принтер"
If it were the Americans they they would have simply reduced it to "ПУ" rather than seek a shorter foreign word. While English is not free from borrowed words, the borrowed words are borrowed usually to distinguish something as foreign, and not as a matter of replacing existing English words.
Among the Serbs (and probably to a large extent among Russians), the opposite is the rule. Foreign words are used to replace domestic words as an impression of greater "sophistication."
After their reform, the Serbs dropped the traditional word "печатати" and replaced it with a corrupt Germanism "штампати" (from schtampfen, to press). So, naturally, the printer became "штампач." (NB the word "печат" is still used to mean a seal, as in "royal seal").
So, here we have one word, easy to pronounce, a neologism based on domestic vocabulary, stampach, but soon everyone started to use the Anglicism "принтер" because it sounds more sophisticated. (the Serbs also genuianly believe, silly as it may sound, that if they use borrowed words and Latin alphabet, the foreigners will understand their language!)
Even outside the computer world the trend is similar precisely it seems because it is not driven by a need but by vogue. For instance the word "значка" means a badge, pin. That was replaced with "беџ" ("Џ" is an old Romanian letter that was introduced with the orthographic and alphabet reform in 1868, and corresponds to English "J," as in John, or to Russian "ДЖ" or DZH in transliteration; it is considered a single sound, since there are words where "д" and "ж" must be pronounced separately, such as in "надживети" (to outlive), which in Russian orthography would have been solved, I suppose, with a Ъ, as in "надъживети")
At any rate, going from "значка" to "беџ" is clearly trendiness. The same can be said about some other terms such as "млазни" (реактивный in Russian), which is now referred to as "џет"!
Russian, of course has show similar trends. Russian words for "state" (штат, Ger.), storm (as in attack, штурм, Ger.), flag (флаг, Ang.), etc. obviously are all words that replaced Russian or Slavonic terms for some reason.
On the other hand, English words such as samizdat or samovar are borrowed from Russian because there is no equivalent English word literally or conceptually. So, English borrows foreign words out of necessity, while our respective cultures do so as a matter of imitation, vogue, and a rather pathetic attempt to be more "sophisticated."