by Anon. (guest)
7/23/2004, 11:19 AM
I don't think we need to know the meaning of Toptygin to understand why it was chosen for their Olympic bear. It was already used for a bear in the poem 'General Toptigin', written by Nikolay Nekrasov in the mid-19th century (a comic tale about a bear who takes a chaotic ride in a troika). The bear is actually called Mikhailo Ivanovich, but he is mistaken for general Toptigin by the villagers. So it's meaning may not have anything to do with bears...