Quote Originally Posted by Throbert McGee View Post
An especially good detail from the English Wikipedia article:

"The name of the donor of the human implants, an alcoholic and bum, is Chugunkin -- чугун ("chugun") is cast iron-- which can be seen as parody on the name of Stalin -- сталь ("stal′") is steel."

P.S. If you want to get technical about it, I'm pretty sure that чугун refers not only to the most primitive and brittle forms of "cast iron" that are only good for making cook-pots with, but also to certain types of "malleable iron" that are greatly superior to "cast iron" and are suitable for making swords and horseshoes -- but they're not nearly as strong as "steel." So no matter how you look it at, "Chugunkin" is an unflattering parody of "Stalin."
I'm kind of used to that sort of information but still surprised a little bit, although it still shows that learning Russian language is not enough to understand Russian culture. Stalin seems to be everywhere in English-speaking Russia related news or other information resources. Sometimes I think Stalin is so popular in English-speaking resources that they practically beg Russia to resurrect Stalin's cult of personality.

Now some reality check.
Chugunkin -- чугун ("chugun") is in fact originated from the cast iron. But till now I(I guess other Russians too) wouldn't even think it might be related to Stalin in any way(especially considering that the book was published in 1925 when Stalin was nobody). And the reason of it is quite simple: чугун is associated in Russian culture with something simple and heavy. There are Russian sayings: чугунный лоб, чугунные мозги, чугунная голова in relation to a particular person, it means that person is stupid (heavy headed, simple minded).

It's sad that English-speaking media is trying to find something that might have negative political correlation to any Russian in any way. Sometimes creating such BS lies even on Wikipedia. Such Russphobia is depressing. And I only could say to Throbert - Et tu, Brute?