The year is 1959. This is Nikita Khruschev, then leader of the Soviet Union. And this is Richard Nixon, then Vice President of the United States of America. And during a conversation between the two, Khruschev made a promise to Nixon. “We will catch up and surpass the United States, we have funds at our disposal that will have dire consequences for you. We will show you Kuzka’s Mother!” The translator was of course confused by the last statement, as was everyone else. It was literally translated as the Soviet Union promising to show the Mother of Kuzka to the United States.
What showing Kuzka’s Mother actually means is basically to harshly teach a lesson. To the Americans it instead became a euphemism for atomic bombs, and two years later it would become a direct nickname for a certain nuclear weapon in particular – the largest bomb ever created by man. Today this weapon has acquired a very different nickname – the Tsar Bomba.
