I've heard that from Russians, and I don't think anybody could make anything like that up. Aside from the problems of communism, Russia had just thrown off serfdom around the same time we outlawed slavery and there were medieval customs and usages left lying around which a modern democracy would have gotten rid of but which thrived under communism.
The language still contains medieval usages. Something like "A tui menya naKARkal" = "You jinxed me!" is basically crow/raven language ( "karrr, karrr....") and not Russian, and arises because humans cannot pronounce real curses (according to Russian custom) so that a wizard (volshebnik) wishing to put a serious curse on somebody would need to have his pet raven pronounce the curse (or jinx).
Cute, huh?
Cincinatus is the Russian expert in this family - speaks it a bit too.
I know they had to (may still have to) stand in line to get a ticket to get in another line to get things like toilet paper.
Very superstitious too.