Kuzma's mother

Kuzma's mother or Kuzka's mother is a part of the Russian idiomatic expression "to show kuzka's mother to someone" which means "to teach someone a lesson, to punish someone". It entered the history of the foreign relations of the Soviet Union as part of the image of Nikita Khrushchev, along with the shoe banging incident and the phrase "We will bury you."

In his memoirs, Nikita Khrushchev mentions various "interesting and peculiar situations", including an occasion of him using this expression while mentioning that it was not the first time it confused the translators. ["Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev. Vol. III: Statesman", "Penn State Press", 2007, ISBN 0271029358, [http://books.google.com/books?id=EkFZqlgdzCkC&pg=PA268&dq=%22kuzma%27s+mother%22&sig=MDSkaMYqPuMIIL3K2fjQibUXVvE#PPA269,M1 p. 269] ] The footnote in this volume to this item says that the 1999 Russian edition gave a mistaken "scientific etymology" of the expression derived from the folk name "Kuzka the bug" of a pest insect "Anisoplia austriaca", who winters burrowed deeply under in the soil, so it is hard to uncover it. The editors of the English version claim that it is a guesswork of the annotator.

Viktor Sukhodrev (Виктор Суходрев), a personal interpreter of Khrushchev, in his interview says that Khrushchev first used this expression in public when addressing to a foreigner in 1959 when addressing to Richard Nixon who came at the opening of the first exposition of the USA in the USSR in Sokolniki Park exposition centre, Moscow. During a discussion about communism vs. capitalism Khrushchev boasted that the Soviet Union will "catch up with and outrun" (догонит и перегонит) the United states, and "we shall show you Kuzka's mother". The interpreter was stunned and said something literal about the mother of Kuzma. [ [http://www.peoples.ru/state/citizen/suhodrev/ "Viktor Sukhodrev"] ru icon]

19th century phraseologic dictionaries record other versions of the saying about Kuzka's mother, such as "to let someone know Kuzka's mother name". ["Khodiashchiya i Metkiya Slova" (1896) [http://books.google.com/books?id=jSAUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA326&dq=%22%D0%9A%D1%83%D0%B7%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%83+%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8C%22&lr= p. 326] , digitized version at "Google Books" ru icon]

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