Right, just got to think about an expression the Russians used to say in one of my favourite spy books, and realised I never really knew what it meant, so please, if you know Russian, and know what it means, please enlighten me. Also, I have no idea if the spelling is correct, and obviously I won't use the keryllic alphabet. The word is: Nekulturnij And I've always thought it means uncultural bastard, or something similar, but I don't really know. :-D Mowgli? Roman? Anyone?
I can't be bothered to go and dig out my copy of Robert Heinlein's "Expanded Universe" to check the exact Western spelling, but indeed it does mean "uncultured", and according to Heinlein, at the time he was travelling in Russia, it was one of the worst insults you could use - practically guaranteed to make any Russian official (usually part of Intourist) do their best to prove that it wasn't true by actually starting to be helpful and provide the services that the visitor had paid for - remember that this was in the latter part of the 20th century when the Cold War was still in full force.
Heh... Thanks for filling me in on a blip about my own culture I honestly didn't know the word had such potency - unless it acquired it during the time I was an expatriate, or it only works when uttered by a foreign dignitary!
I'm not sure that Heinlein would have been considered a dignitary - science fiction writers rarely are - but he was describing his experience with Intourist in the 50s, 60s and possibly into the 70s, when their main aim was to get as much foreign currency into the Soviet Union as possible, while providing as little of the promised service as possible - this was on the same principle as such things as Russian photographic equipment at that time (of which I owned quite a bit) - it was good equipment sold in the West below production cost simply to get foreign currency. He found that the "uncultured" comment was very effective. Now, if only someone could come up with something similar which would work with British banks........
