Tovarish

Instead of addressing them according to revolutionary etiquette as Tovarish (comrade), he asked them their Christian names and that of their fathers, while telling them his own.

Touching one of them on the shoulder, she said, “Tovarish, these tovarishes want to know who you are.”

Jensen laughed, “My wife complains: ‘All day long they ring our door bell. Tovarish here, tovarish there. They come from Moscow, from Leningrad, from Berlin and Hamburg. They don't speak one word of Danish. Comrade Jensen, they say, fix us up with Danish passports.’ So it goes.″

His Russian was derived from a fortnight's crash course. "You'd better see what this ah tovarish thinks he wants."

The tovarishes bring along their harmonicas and balalaikas, their good voices and their good humor.