We (the General Platoff Don Cossack Chorus and Dancers) were in Oklahoma and scheduled to give a concert sponsored by a Native American tribe. We were surprised to find a modern concert hall, filled to capacity, with well-dressed people who applauded the concert generously. After the concert, we were told that they had been forcibly uprooted from their homes in the west and resettled in Oklahoma on rocky, arid, un-farmable land. Later, they found that the land was rich with oil, with made the tribe wealthy. People and the companies were trying to have them removed from the land, but their lawyers were able to fend them off.
This anecdote concerns the Black Sea Don Cossack Chorus. When I lived in Berlin, I had a good friend, Igor Igoroff, who was born in Russia as George Bleicher among people known as Volga Germans. Though not vocally trained, he had a good tenor voice and sang with feeling and passion, and sang with the Black Sea Cossack Choir. There were those in the choir who liked to cook: once before a concert, one of the singers cooked a large, large pot of borscht to eat after the concert. To keep it warm, he put it on the bed and wrapped the pot with blankets and pillows. While at the concert, a cleaning woman entered the room. When she went to make the bed, she upset the pot, spilling all the borscht on the bed. When the chorus returned to the hotel, an irritated manager told them there was no cooking allowed in the hotel, and they should pack their bags and leave the hotel immediately.
The War of 1812 ended with General Platoff and his Don Cossacks chasing the French Army back to France, and entering Paris. The Cossacks bivouacked in the parks, streets, or wherever they wanted.
The French liked to eat slowly, savoring each morsel, bite, and sip of wine. The meal often lasted two hours or more. The Cossacks weren’t so inclined: after ordering their meal, they would wait several minutes. If the meal wasn’t there, they would start shouting “Bistrai! Bistrai!” the Russian word for “quickly”, which the French mispronounced as “Bistro”. When the Cossacks left France, the word bistro remained in the French language, meaning a small cafe.
The General Platoff Don Cossack Chorus 