Nina Rakhmanina is single.

She does have 10 husbands but she rents them out to other Russian women on their own.

What her "husbands" seek to satisfy, she says, is simply that old-fashioned, Soviet-era yearning to have a man around to put right the things that always needed fixing.

And no, there are no romantic extras on offer.

In the austere communist days, a man about the house usually meant the home had electric sockets that worked, properly hung wallpaper, taps that didn't drip and shelves in useful places.

"It all comes from my own bitter experience," Rakhmanina said. "You come home and you see a socket is coming off the wall, a blown light bulb needs replacing but is stuck and you wish there was a man around, if only for an hour."

And "Husband for an Hour" is exactly what her fledgling business offers.

"First, we advertised as 'home repairs' and...got virtually no response," she said. "Then we changed the name and clients came pouring in." Rakhmanina says the concept touches a nerve with Russia's many single women -- a number fast increasing due to a soaring divorce rate since the collapse of communism 11 years ago. Some 60 percent of Russian marriages now end in divorce.

The capitalist solution of her rent-a-husband business, she says, gives single women a chance to feel they have someone to do "men's work" in the home.

Two months since opening shop, she has 10 "husbands" -- aged 27 to 45 -- and the service is popular enough that bookings have to be made at least a day in advance.

Most callers are middle-aged single women with full-time jobs.

Some have asked if the men might be available to take them out to dinner too, but she says she is not into the escort business.

SOVIET MENTALITY

Her success is rooted in the lingering Soviet mentality which very clearly gave men the do-it-yourself role in homes that eschewed the vulgarities of Western-style comfort and the concept of phoning for a specialist to do repair jobs.

A boy's education would always include how to be a fix-it man, state ideology teaching that for a woman the ideal man was one who could do home renovations without outside help. A man with a PhD in mathematics but no knowledge of how to fix the plumbing would more than likely be told -- to use the Russian expression -- that he had "arms growing from the wrong place."

In theory, these skills are nowadays provided by the local government. But its low-paid staff are notorious for being ill-mannered, shoddy workmen who tend to overcharge.

Anyway, they only work -- if they bother to turn out at all -- if the job is an emergency.

"Our men are different," said Rakhmanina. "They are neat, well-behaved and they come with a smile. Women say that once our man steps into the house it becomes cozier. And they tend to complain about life to him, speak their hearts out."

Clients pay a minimum of 500 rubles ($16.50) for the first two hours, then 200 rubles for each extra hour.

Rakhmanina, forced by competition to give up her previous computer business, says her main headache now is not finding clients but recruiting husbands worthy of that name.

"Many applicants boast they can do anything. But most fail the test. We need people who can work well and fast. And these are few and far between," she complained.

Men, too, occasionally call for her services.

"Sometimes husbands call too," she said with a smile. "Usually to say they are sick and tired of listening to their wives' grumbling that they are good at nothing. What they want is someone to come over quickly and get things repaired."

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