diff --git a/manual/latex.py b/manual/latex.py
index 1035ce8b52..afd9b30b46 100644
--- a/manual/latex.py
+++ b/manual/latex.py
@@ -6,8 +6,6 @@ __license__   = 'GPL v3'
 __copyright__ = '2009, Kovid Goyal <kovid@kovidgoyal.net>'
 __docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
 
-import os
-
 from sphinx.builders.latex import LaTeXBuilder
 from sphinx.util.logging import getLogger
 from sphinx.writers.latex import LaTeXTranslator
@@ -30,14 +28,3 @@ class FixedLaTeXTranslator(LaTeXTranslator):
 class LaTeXHelpBuilder(LaTeXBuilder):
     name = 'mylatex'
     default_translator_class = FixedLaTeXTranslator
-
-    def finish(self):
-        super().finish()
-        info('Fixing Cyrillic characters...')
-        tex = os.path.join(self.outdir, 'calibre.tex')
-        with open(tex, 'r+b') as f:
-            raw = f.read().decode('utf-8')
-            for x in (u'Михаил Горбачёв', u'Фёдор Миха́йлович Достоевский'):
-                raw = raw.replace(x, u'{\\fontencoding{T2A}\\selectfont %s}' % (x.replace(u'а́', u'a')))
-            f.seek(0)
-            f.write(raw.encode('utf-8'))
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py
index 684806dd2d..2a7964e6ec 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py
@@ -531,15 +531,12 @@ OptionRecommendation(name='asciiize',
         recommended_value=False, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
         help=(_('Transliterate Unicode characters to an ASCII '
             'representation. Use with care because this will replace '
-            'Unicode characters with ASCII. For instance it will replace "%s" '
-            'with "Mikhail Gorbachiov". Also, note that in '
+            'Unicode characters with ASCII. For instance it will replace "{0}" '
+            'with "{1}". Also, note that in '
             'cases where there are multiple representations of a character '
             '(characters shared by Chinese and Japanese for instance) the '
             'representation based on the current calibre interface language will be '
-            'used.')%
-            '\u041c\u0438\u0445\u0430\u0438\u043b '
-            '\u0413\u043e\u0440\u0431\u0430\u0447\u0451\u0432'
-)
+            'used.').format('Pelé', 'Pele'))
         ),
 
 OptionRecommendation(name='keep_ligatures',