ABSTRACT
At a festive dinner in the Moscow apartment of Andrei Kabanov, the specialist on Cossack folk singing, Ol’ga Nikitenko, leader of Stanitsa, the professional Cossack ensemble from Volgograd, told the following joke. A Cossack is lying in his yard while his wife is bustling about, mending the fence and seeing to the animals and the garden. He just lies there and lies there while she toils and labors. His neighbor peeks his head over and sees the Cossack lying in his yard and says, ‘Grisha!’ – ‘What!’ – ‘What are you doing lying in your yard while your wife is working?’ – ‘Well, what if war suddenly comes, and I’m tired!’23
