MOSCOW — The war between lice and men cost a Soviet minister his job yesterday.
V. P. Ivanov was a deputy minister for the oil refining and petrochemical industry, but he was in charge of something more basic: soap.
And about said soap he had an "irresponsible attitude," the Soviet Council of Ministers said in giving him the pink slip.
It came down to a simple equation: Too many people plus too little soap equals lice.
Give everyone a single bar of soap every three months, said one newspaper yesterday, and it's no wonder there are outbreaks of lice.
Children in Volgograd seemed to be suffering particularly, the weekly newspaper Sobesednik reported.
"This is not strange because soap is rationed and so is washing powder," said the newspaper, a weekly supplement to the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda. ''Not every mother has time to search the whole town for soap."
The council of ministers issued a warning to Ivanov's boss, minister Nikolai Lemayev.
"It was pointed out to (Lemayev) that it was necessary to undertake urgent measures to develop production of washing means and insure the full satisfaction of the population's demands in the near future," Tass said.
In other words: more soap, if you please.
