"Triuki" -Reply

[Anna Rakityanskaya]

>The attached file gives the context in which I found this word.
>
 >------------------- TR follows --------------------
>The word "triuki" appears as one of several inscriptions on the
>base of a polychrome statuette entitled "Shansonetka NEP" and
>sometimes referred to as NEPmachka (1923) made by Natalia Dan'ko
>in Petrograd/Leningrad.  It depicts a young woman with black
>eyebrows, blond hair (as if it's bleached?) eyes thickly rimmed
>with liner.  She wears lacy anklets, high heels, and a black
>corset over a low-cut pink dress.  (The overall effect is
>startlingly like that of the American pop singer Madonna).  The
>figure's left hand is on her hip.   The base of the statuette has
>several trompe l'oeil pieces of paper painted on it.  In front of
>the young woman is a green placard marked in Russian: "Kabare
>NEP/Triuki/Eksuentriki" (tricks and eccentricities?)   On a small
>white placard on the back of the base is the phrase "kurs
>chervontsa" and a smaller slip of paper saying "vnosite
>podokhodnyi nalog" with the figure 1,000,000.  A small blue 25
>ruble note is also painted on the ground.


Karen,

It was a good idea to give the context. Based on it I came to the following
conclusions:

1. This woman most likely is not any prostitute. New riches who emerged due
to NEP liked to dress this way.             .

2.  THE WORD "TRIUK" HERE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE DEPICTED WOMAN. It
appears merely in one of the fragments of publications of that epoche. All
three fragments have nothing in common and present simply the  HISTORICAL
AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND for the statuette :

"Kabare NEP/Triuki/Ekstentriki" is an ad for a cabaret featuring circus
tricks and comics.

"Kurs  chervontsa" is a line that could be found in any newspaper of that
time (considering that chervontsy had just been introduced and were hot).

"Vnosite podokhodnyi nalog" with the figure 1,000,000 is most likely a
fragment of a poster  and a small blue 25 ruble note simply shows another
new bill recently introduced.

Hope this helps.

Anna Rakityanskaya
University of Texas, Austin
Internet: RAKITYA at MAIL.UTEXAS.EDU