Transl. & English-speaking prisoners

[Svetlana Grenier]

For what it's worth, when I visited Russia in 1988, and customs officers 
told me to open my suitcases and looked through them with some (not 
exhaustive) thoroughness, my (intelligentnye) relatives referred to this 
as "ee polchasa shmonali na tamozhne".  Not brutal, no strip search, but 
there you have it.  What would the American equivalent for this be?

Sincerely,
Svetlana Grenier <greniers at georgetown.edu>

Edward M Dumanis wrote:

>I does not seem that "shake down" will be a nice fit for "shmon."
>"Shmon" is just a slang substitution for "obysk," i.e. any thorough police
>search of any room, house, vehicle, or person. There is no hint in the
>meaning of this word on whether it is brutal or not, or whether any
>extortion was involved.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Edward Dumanis <dumanis at buffalo.edu>
>
>
>
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