levsha Tee

Have you heard anything about the Russian writer Leskov and his The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea? What I can add to this is that Leskov was a lefty himself. In that time when he wrote his story about the Levsha (Lefty) the word “levsha” (Rus. left-handed, lefty) was used in reference to a bad, unskillful and poor craftsman and one of the implications of the tale was that even a bad Russian craftsman was better that an English one. But, lefty Leskov played some kind of a trick with the word “levsha” because very soon after the tale had been published and read, the word “levsha” changed its meaning absolutely radically!!!! Ever since then, it has meant a skillful, artful, experienced, trustful craftsman. Nowadays a lot of workshops are called Levsha (Lefty) to attract more customers/clients because it means that very professional guys work there! 🙂 So, at least we have some positive meaning of the word “lefty” thanks to Nikolai Leskov.