Yes..Sting quotes Kije in “Russians”
But it was Greg lake who quote Kije in “I believe in Father Christmas”.
Was Lake also a member of BST? I know he was part of ELP.
Did BST quote Kije as well?
You might have trumped me! LOL!
The word "kije" (pronounced kee-ZHAY), means "however" in Russian. The original story is by Pushkin, titled "The Czar Never Sleeps". In the story, some generals write a report of a battle with a sentence beginning, "The lieutenant, however..."
The czar doesn't see the comma and believes that a brave act was committed by a Lieutenant However, and the generals don't dare tell the czar he has made a mistake. They then invent a Lieutenant However, and the story is about his brilliant military career and death, all told to the czar.
It was made into a Soviet movie in the Thirties, and Prokofiev wrote the soundtrack.