I don’t think there is anybody who was born in the USSR and never read this book. I thought I knew it rather well. I was wrong. Re-reading it recently, I came across the passage from which I only remembered the famous slogan #3.
Старухи, неся впереди себя в обеих руках жестяные мисочки с кашей, осторожно выходили из кухни и садились обедать зa общий стол, стараясь не глядеть на развешанные в столовой лозунги, сочиненные лично Александром Яковлевичем и художественно выполненные Александрой Яковлевной. Лозунги были такие:
«ПИЩА — ИСТОЧНИК ЗДОРОВЬЯ»
«ОДНО ЯЙЦО СОДЕРЖИТ СТОЛЬКО ЖЕ ЖИРОВ, СКОЛЬКО ½ ФУНТА МЯСА»
«ТЩАТЕЛЬНО ПЕРЕЖЕВЫВАЯ ПИЩУ, ТЫ ПОМОГАЕШЬ ОБЩЕСТВУ»
и
«МЯСО — ВРЕДНО»
Все эти святые слова будили в старухах воспоминания об исчезнувших еще до революции зубах, о яйцах, пропавших приблизительно в ту же пору, о мясе, уступающем в смысле жиров яйцам, а может быть, и об обществе, которому они были лишены возможности помогать, тщательно пережевывая пищу.
Holding iron bowls full of porridge in front of them with both hands, the old women cautiously emerged from the kitchen and sat down at a large table, trying not to look at the refectory slogans, composed by Alexander Yakolevich and painted by his wife. The slogans read:
FOOD IS THE SOURCE OF HEALTH
ONE EGG CONTAINS AS MUCH FAT AS A HALF-POUND OF MEAT
BY CAREFULLY MASTICATING YOUR FOOD YOU HELP SOCIETY
MEAT IS BAD FOR YOU
These sacred words aroused in the old ladies memories of teeth that had disappeared before the revolution, eggs that had been lost at approximately the same time, meat that was inferior to eggs in fat, and perhaps even the society that they were prevented from helping by careful mastication.
According to Wikipedia, there were no less than twenty adaptations of this novel. For me, the one and only Ostap Bender is Andrei Mironov in 1976 film directed by Mark Zakharov.
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