Last week I chaired a panel discussing Russia at the annual symposium of the Canadian Association of Security and Intelligence Studies. In keeping with the intelligence theme, this week’s Friday object is a t-shirt I picked up at the airport in Moscow with the logo ‘I work in the KGB. And you?’ ‘No blabbering’ says the back of the shirt.
IRRUSSIANALITY 
Haha, I love it. I want one too!!!
LikeLike
The picture on the back and the caption is an old poster from the Great Patriotic War. I always thought it said “Don’t Gossip”, but I guess the sense is much the same. There is a great cafe in Vladivostok, downtown right across from the central bus terminal, which was tricked out like a wartime worker’s cafeteria. It had plain furniture and bare-bones cutlery, and featured plain but wholesome fare in generous portions for – comparatively speaking – wartime prices. The walls were papered with vintage wartime posters, and that one featured prominently.
LikeLike
‘Don’t gossip’ would be an equally good translation, maybe better, but as you say the sense is the same. The British equivalent from WW2 is ‘Careless talk costs lives’. I did go to Vladivostok once, but missed that cafe – it sounds interesting.
LikeLike