Books: SOVIET JOKES

In his Main Street, U.S.S.R., Irving Levine relates the jokes told in Moscow by and about Russians. Some of them:

A Russian, meeting an American tourist carrying a transistor radio, says: "We have those too.'' and then adds: "What is it?"

Asked whether gum is manufactured in the Soviet Union, a Russian grins and replies: "No, we Communists consider that to chew without swallowing is unproductive."

The newspaper Pravda is running a contest for the best political joke. First prize: 20 years.

Lenin is supposed to have remarked that there could be any number of political parties in the Soviet Union but only on one...

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