There he proudly exhibits bottles of Zhigulyovskoye beer, a menu from the Yoksel Moksel restaurant in St. Petersburg, and a label from a bottle of Tyoma milk -- all of which bear the '¸' (pronounced "yo"). 
  
Odd Character
 
Since he retired as an engineer, Chumakov has made it his mission in life to save the humble seventh letter of the Russian alphabet from extinction.
 
"My job is to resurrect the letter '¸' in all written works -- in every newspaper, every magazine, every book," he says. "It's high time we did this. There's nothing stopping us." 
 
[ ... ]

Colorful Language
 
Part of the reason for the demise of the letter '¸' could be because of its unsavory associations with Russian 'mat' -- the colorful language within a language that constitutes Russian swear words. Very few words begin with '¸' in Russian, and most of the ones that do would make a sailor blush. 
 
Chumakov, says: "Printing 'e' instead of '¸' is a mistake!"But Chumakov says he is not deterred by the letter's reputation -- he has written three books on the history of the '¸' and a dictionary of words that contain the letter. To date, there are 12,500 ordinary words and 2,500 surnames. And he didn't include a single curse. He says the letter '¸' is expressive and emotive, and others have agreed with him.
 
"[Vladimir] Nabokov, in his autobiography 'Drugiye Berega' ['Other Shores'], gave colors to all the different letters of the alphabet," Chumakov notes. "And he said that he imagined the letter '¸' was orange. So, for example, the expression 'yolki palki!' [Russian expression similar to fiddlesticks] has an orange tinge to it! Do you see what I mean?!" 
 
[ ... ]

Back at his flat, Chumakov is leafing through a newspaper which recently ran an article suggesting that the '¸' was surplus to requirements. He shakes his head. No other country would treat its alphabet so badly, he says sadly; which is why he intends to keep badgering publishers and politicians until every '¸' is given its dots back.