Popular Phrases
Показать Кузькину мать. (Pokazát' Kuz'kinu mat'.)
"To show one Kuzma's mother", see above.
Есть человек, есть проблема. Нет человека, нет проблемы. (Yest' chelovék, yest' probléma. Net chelovéka, net problémy.)
"If there is a person, there is a problem. If there is no person, then there is no problem."
"Скандинавии это дерьмо России" English "Scandinavia is shit Russia"
This is commonly incorrectly attributed to Joseph Stalin, the political leader of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953. In fact this phrase was used by Soviet writer Anatoly Rybakov in his novel Children of the Arbat.
Read more about this topic: Russian Sayings
Famous quotes containing the words popular and/or phrases:
“But popular rage,
Hysterica passio dragged this quarry down.
None shared our guilt; nor did we play a part
Upon a painted stage when we devoured his heart.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The Americans ... have invented so wide a range of pithy and hackneyed phrases that they can carry on an amusing and animated conversation without giving a moment’s reflection to what they are saying and so leave their minds free to consider the more important matters of big business and fornication.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)