You say that young Russians are “often referred to as ‘Generation P’ for having lived only under Putin’s presidency” (‘He couldn’t wait to join’: thousands of young Russians die in Ukraine war, 29 May). However, the phrase was coined in the title of a Russian novel published in 1999 – a year before Vladimir Putin first became president. Its author, Victor Pelevin, says the P referred to Pizdets, sometimes translated as the generation who were “screwed”.
Paul Moss
London
• On a recent trip to the Musée d’Orsay (Letters, 3 June), I was so fed up with people standing in front of paintings taking selfies that I started photobombing. There must be people over the world wondering: who is that mad old woman with hair like an explosion in a mattress factory?
Lillian Adams
Hereford
