Must-Read: On central planning, or perhaps simply on bureaucracy:
: Khlopotat’: “Another Teffi, except this is actually a translator’s note on what might be the perfect Russianism:
Here we are translating khlopotat’, a common Russian word for which there is no English equivalent. Elsewhere, in passages where Teffi draws less attention to this verb, we have translated it in different ways: ‘apply for,’ ‘try to obtain,’ ‘procure,’ etc. In ‘Moscow: the Last Days,’ an article she published in Kiev in October 1918, Teffi explains the word: ‘Incidentally, there is no equivalent to this idiotic term khlopotat’ in any other language in the world. A foreigner will say, ‘I’ll go and get the documents.’ A Russian, ‘I must hurry and start to khlopotat’ with regard to the documents.’ The foreigner will go to the appropriate institution and obtain what he needs. The Russian will go to three people he knows for advice, to two more who can ‘pull strings’, then to the institution—but it’ll be the wrong one—then to the right institution—but he’ll keep on knocking at the wrong doors until it’s too late. Then he’ll start everything all over again and, when he’s finally brought everything to a conclusion, he’ll leave the documents in a cab. This whole process is what is described by the word khlopotat’. Such work, if carried out on behalf of a third party, is highly valued and well paid’ (Teffi v strane vospominanii, pp. 167–70).’
from ‘Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea (New York Review Books Classics)’ by Teffi, Edythe Haber, Robert Chandler, Anne Marie Jackson, Irina Steinberg.