Hurrah for the Tractor
Sir: Christopher Hitchens's article about manners and identities (`Mischievous Aza- nia', 21/28 December) reminds me of what a Russian academic told me about the first names of children in the USSR who were born in the early years after the Revolu- tion. The old saints' names were not in vogue at that time (so that such children could not be named Boris or Natasha): they were instead called 'Hurrah for the Tractor' or 'Five-Year-Plan' or some other improving name.
Later those children who had been so named generally assumed more conven- tional names: but even now they are still required to fill up official forms with their original first names, which can be an embarrassing experience for mature citizens.
Thus 'praise-God' Barebones has his descendants in a later, and more secular, revolution.
The Revd James Owen
King's Head House, Whissonsett, Dereham, Norfolk
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