>>>>
>>>>I don't know; I had to think a minute about who you meant; very funny <g> This selection will make a lot of very heated discussions. And mostly not on facts but on emotions <g>
>>>
>>>I give up. Who is Kolya? Must be an in-joke between you two escapees ;-)
>>
>>If I tell you I have to kill you. And I can't do that, I like you too much <g>.
>
>Ah drop that line... it's too obvious to anyone who had two lessons of Russian. Kolya is a nickname for any Nikolai - Nicolas - Nick, except the Hungarian one, who is Miklos (mik-losh) and nicknamed Miki.
>
>Along the same lines:
>
>Stepa (styopa) - Stepan - Stevan - Stephen (except the Hungarian Istvan (isht-vahn) - Pista (pish-ta))
>Volodya - Vladimir, also shortened as Vova; on a side branch is Vladislav, which may have the same nickname but also has a parallel variant Ladislav, which then has a Hungarian version Laszlo (lahs-lo), nick Laci (lah-tsy)
>Vasya - Vasiliy, Vasilije, Vassili, Basil; Serbian nick Vasa/Vaso
>Sasha - Aleksandr - Aleksandar- Alexander - Iskandar (Skender) - (Hung. Sándor (shahn-dor) nick Sanyi (sha-nyi)). Serbian version also has Sale (sah-leh).
>Petya - Pyotr (Petr) - Petar - Péter, Peter, Serbian nick Pera/Pero
>Pavka - Pavel - Pavle - Paul (hu: Pál); Serbian nick Paja (pah-yah, but you can hear it properly sung at the end of the second line in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_CZzhO2c3g )
>
>You still alive? :)

Gragan,

You sure know Russian names very well. You outed me. Now I feel like Valery Plain <g>.

N_CZzhO2c3g