True Guest, but one might still try a few variants since Russian has sometimes been transliterated a few ways, and some notable Russian literati had their own pet versions--like Nabokov's "Anna Karinin" sans the feminine -a, or Gogol's Inspector General which comes out a few ways I think.

I've heard the Mel Brook's quote, but had forgotten it, thanks.

I seem to be incapable of addressing the topic of this thread.