Jacob's Ladder

Contents

Title Page

Copyright Notice

Epigraph

Family Tree

  1.   The Willow Chest (1975)

  2.   The Watchmaker’s Shop on Mariinsko-Blagoveshchenskaya Street (1905–1907)

  3.   From the Willow Chest: The Diary of Jacob Ossetsky (1910)

  4.   Closing Chekhov (1974)

  5.   A New Project (1974)

  6.   Classmates (1955–1963)

  7.   From the Willow Chest: The Diary of Jacob Ossetsky (1911)

  8.   The Garden of Magnitudes (1958–1974)

  9.   Admirers (1975–1976)

10.   A Froebel Miss (1907–1910)

11.   A Letter from Mikhail Kerns to His Sister, Marusya (1910)

12.   One-of-a-Kind Yurik: Yahoos and Houyhnhnms (1976–1981)

13.   A Major Year (1911)

14.   A Female Line (1975–1980)

15.   Unaccommodated Man (1980–1981)

16.   A Secret Marriage (1911)

17.   From the Willow Chest: Jacob’s Notebook (1911)

18.   Marusya’s Letters (December 1911)

19.   First Grade: Fingernails (1982)

20.   From the Willow Chest: Jacob’s Letter to Marusya: Volunteer Ossetsky (1911–1912)

21.   A Happy Year (1985)

22.   From the Willow Chest: Letters from and to the Urals (October 1912–May 1913)

23.   A New Direction (1976–1982)

24.   Carmen (1985)

25.   The Diamond Door (1986)

26.   From the Willow Chest: The Correspondence of Jacob and Marusya (May 1913–January 1914)

27.   Nora in America: Visiting Vitya and Martha (1987)

28.   The Left Hand (1988–1989)

29.   The Birth of Genrikh (1916)

30.   Endings (1988–1989)

31.   A Boat to the Other Shore (1988–1991)

32.   From the Willow Chest: Family Correspondence (1916)

33.   Kiev–Moscow (1917–1925)

34.   Yurik in America (1991–2000)

35.   Letters from Marusya to Jacob: Sudak (July–August 1925)

36.   Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (Early 1999–2000)

37.   Uzun-Syrt—Stalingrad Tractor Plant (1925–1933)

38.   First Exile: Stalingrad Tractor Plant (1931–1933)

39.   Yurik Comes Home (Early 2000)

40.   From the Willow Chest—Biysk: Jacob’s Letters (1934–1936)

41.   Letters from the Willow Chest: War (1942–1943)

42.   Fifth Try (2000–2009)

43.   Family Secrets (1936–1937)

44.   Variations on a Theme: Fiddler on the Roof (1992)

45.   With Mikhoels (1945–1948)

46.   Reunion in Moscow (2003)

47.   Theater of Shadows (2010)

48.   Liberation (1955)

49.   The Birth of a New Jacob (2011)

50.   The Archives (2011)

Epilogue

Author’s Note

Acknowledgments

Also by Ludmila Ulitskaya

A Note About the Author and Translator

Copyright