That uniquely Russian amalgam of the intimately affectionate and the patrynomically deferential was the way that Tchernichova addressed Inna Zubkovksaya when they conversed in my presence.
Nothing is ever totally what it seems with Russians.
Both Tchernichova and Zubkovskaya knew how to extract from the Soviet/Kirov Ballet system what they wanted, yet neither was a member of the Communist Party.