I suddenly remembered Igor Garik’s big, two-page newspaper story “There are women in Russian villages.”

The story, on the whole, is boring (for me!), in which Garik casually spreads about his “casual” acquaintances among Soviet celebrities, telling about a certain authoress who was friends with Raikin, Shuldzhenko, Utesov, Mironova and Menaker and all the other “Soviet rulers of the DUM”.

And Garik wanted, like the Moon, to shine with the light emitted by the author. So there was a long story about her, with a constant reminder of himself as a “friend”, close, and therefore also slightly glowing!

As I just mentioned, I was bored with these glow themes, either by their own or reflected light.

But one microepisod is firmly etched into my memory, for which I am sincerely grateful to Garik.

I am reprinting this entire episode, because this article is dedicated to him.

“Once, for example, they started talking about the poet Tikhonov, and I started babbling like a teapot, spewing out something accusingly pompous (how an excellent poet once fell to a fat official), and in response I heard a tiny comic story.

A young housekeeper lived in Tikhonov’s family there, but she suddenly began to get fat, plump up, and sheepishly asked to be fired: she accidentally became pregnant by some soldier she knew.

«No problem, Klasha (or whatever her name was),” her hosts reassured her, “give birth calmly, we’ll adopt the baby.»

And she gave birth, and he or she was really adopted, I don’t remember the details.

But less than a couple of years later, Klasha began to puff up again, avert her eyes and say that it is time for her to go back to the village.

“Yes, give birth and don’t suffer,” the compassionate owners said again, “let’s adopt this one, don’t suffer so much!»

So, they received Klasha from the hospital with the second child, they recorded this child again as their own, but very little time passed and Klasha started quitting again.

«Did you «get knocked up» again? What is it?” her mistress asked.

«No,” — Klasha said haughtily. –“It’s just that I didn’t get hired into a family with two children, I don’t like so much work, I’m going to the childless!“

Such a “comic” story is quoted by Garik.

And here we actually come to the topic:

HOW to define this behavior in a word or two or three in the great and mighty Russian language??? Or any other language?

Meanness, meanness, rudeness, arrogance, hypocrisy?

That’s right, but it’s too general!

We should have called it something more specific, more definite!

The Russian language is rich in nuances, shades, vague, but at the same time, well–discernible hints, subtle, barely noticeable differences …

And I COULDN’T find in my vocabulary something lapidary that successfully and accurately characterizes this brazen and bestial act of Klasha.

Faciant meliora potentes.

Let whoever CAN do better!

I would be very grateful to the readers who can do this!

11 II 2026