The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #143731   Message #3465864
Posted By: GUEST,Grishka
14-Jan-13 - 08:17 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Olga from the Volga
Subject: RE: lyr req: words to Olga From The Volga
To be sure, shmel'chik or shmyel'chik (шмельчик) is a Russian word, and still in use for big bumblebees and for male persons, though not mentioned in dictionaries. From the texts I googled, I could not deduce the meaning for persons either.

My wild guess is that shmel'chik here refers to a man who persistently woos or pesters a young woman - similarly to the Italian word "pappagallo" (= parrot). The fictional urban Olga may have had a swarm of such wooers - whereas a muzhik (= boorish person) belongs to a different sphere. Sado-masochism requires a certain level of style.

The author of the song seemed to address an audience who knew those Russian words, presumably from some popular English novels, plays, or films of that time. It is such fashions - rather than the clichés themselves - that lend themselves to good parodistic comedy.