Platonov joke

[Robert Chandler]

Dear all,

This has proved more complicated than I had imagined!  Since there have been some interesting off-list replies, I think I should forward some of the information.

One person has written:
> Check out Kratkii kurs istorii VKP(b), Chapter 9 supchapter 3, where Stalin says that "osvoenie"  follows "rekonstruktsiia". In the official translation (which I found on marxists.org) they translate osvoenie as utilization, see the Russ and the Engl version below. In English it's Chapter 12.2

> And someone else has written:
> Osvoenie doesn't really mean 'exploitation' but rathr 'bringing into use'.
> In the Birmingham contribution to the OECD report on 'Science policy in the USSR', Paris, 1969 we translated it 'assimilation' and I wrote a short paragraph on its translation on p.544. (para 1255)
> 
> The term "osvoenie" has been translated "assimilation" throughout. It can be used in two main senses: (a) the "assimilation" or "mastering" of the production of a new product; (b) the "assimilation" of new production capacity or a new factory that is achieving planned capacity. A distinction is sometimes made for new factories etc. between "production assimilation" - reaching the planned level of output and "economic assimilation" - reaching the planned levels of cost, productivity of labour and other economic criteria.

Natasha Perova also suggested "assimilation."

The translation now reads:
Zhenya (removing her deep blue raincoat):  Look what we’ve got – a ready-made son, we can move straight from the era of construction to the era of adjustment and assimilation.

Bezgadov makes a hiccupping sound. 

Puts Stepan down. 

Shakes himself.

 – We’d have done better to start with construction activity – and only then move on to assimilation.

Stepan:  Mama!  That’s enough silly talk!  Stop now, or I’ll leave you.

					*****

Bezgadov is promiscuous, so I am assuming that there is a sexual joke here (construction activity = making love).  So as not to confuse this, I have decided to omit the "tyazheloe i legkoe".  Or have I failed to understand something here too?!

Женя (снимая синий плащ): Ну, вот у нас с тобой сразу готовый сын, сразу эпоха освоения.
Безгадов издает икающий звук. Ссаживает Степана с рук. Отряхивается.
— Лучше б сначала было строительство — тяжелое, потом легкое, потом уж освоение.
Степан: Мама! Довольно вам глупости говорить, а то я вас брошу.

MY THANKS, AS ALWAYS, TO EVERYONE WHO HAS HELPED!

R.


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