a possibly minority position

[John Dunn]

I think that in fairness to Gorbachev it ought to be pointed out that what he actually said (in his post-putsch press-conference of 22 August 1991) was:

Мы знаем что такое, как говорил один, кто есть ху [My znaem chto takoe, kak govoril odin, kto est' khu]

This is rather different and shows that he knew exactly what he was doing (which is why infamous is not perhaps quite the right word).  But what I would like to know is this: who is the mysterious 'odin' whom Gorbachev considers to be the real originator of the phrase?    Any ideas?

John Dunn.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jerry Katsell <jerry3 at ROADRUNNER.COM>
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2008 07:47:49 -0800
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] a possibly minority position

God bless you, Michele and Kim,

I happened to be in Tbilisi in 1986 in our hotel bar where there was a
television broadcasting Gorbachev's speech after his meeting with Reagan
in Iceland. Gorby referred to Reagan as: "Meestir Prezeedent Ray Gun!" I
found it charming. Of course, Gorby is infamous in Russia for trotting
out his version of English "Who's who?": "Khoo--ees--khoo?"! 

Jerry Katsell


John Dunn
Honorary Research Fellow, SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
University of Glasgow, Scotland

Address:
Via Carolina Coronedi Berti 6
40137 Bologna
Italy
Tel.: +39 051/1889 8661
e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk
johnanthony.dunn at fastwebnet.it

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