Novels, Tales, Journeys

Notes

THE MOOR OF PETER THE GREAT (1827–1828)

1 Yazykov: The poet Nikolai Mikhailovich Yazykov (1803–1846) was an acquaintance of Pushkin’s. The epigraph is from his historical tale in verse Ala, published in 1826. “Peter” is the tsar and later emperor Peter I, known as Peter the Great (1672–1725), who carried out major political, social, and ecclesiastical reforms in Russia, mainly following European examples.

2. Dmitriev: Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev (1760–1837), poet and statesman, was minister of justice under the emperor Alexander I (reigned 1801–1825).

3. the military school in Paris: Pushkin’s error: the École militaire de Paris was founded only in 1750, thirty years after Ibrahim’s service. Ibrahim attended the school of artillery in La Fère in Picardy.

4. the Spanish war: The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) pitted England, the Dutch Republic, and Austria against the France of Louis XIV and ended with the Treaty of Utrecht. Conflict broke out anew in 1718, when England and France joined in war against Spain, leading to the defeat of Spain in 1720.

5. The duc d’Orléans: Philippe d’Orléans (1674–1723) was the nephew of Louis XIV and regent of the kingdom of France during the minority of Louis XV.

6. Law: John Law (1671–1729), Scottish economist, moved to France, where the duc d’Orléans, during his regency, made him general controller of finance. His monetary theories, put into practice, caused enormous speculation quickly followed by panic and total collapse. Law fled Paris in 1728.

7. the duc de Richelieu…Alcibiades: Armand de Vignerot du Plessis (1696–1788), marshal of France, grand-nephew of Cardinal Richelieu, was a notorious womanizer. Alcibiades (ca. 450–404 BC), of the distinguished Athenian family of the Alcmaeonids, was an orator, politician, and general during the Peloponnesian Wars, in which he changed allegiances several times.

8. Arouet…Chaulieu…Montesquieu…Fontenelle: François-Marie Arouet (1694–1778) wrote under the pen name of Voltaire; Guillaume Amfrye de Chaulieu (1639–1720) was a poet and wit, prominent in French high society; Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron Montesquieu (1689–1755), lawyer, writer, and philosopher, was one of the major figures of the French Enlightenment, as was Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657–1757), a member of the French Academy, who wrote on a wide variety of subjects.

9. on leaving the convent: i.e., on leaving school; aristocratic girls were sent to convents to be educated, as there were no secular girls’ schools in Russia before the mid-nineteenth century.

10. Derzhavin: Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin (1743–1816) was one of the greatest poets of the generation preceding Pushkin’s. The epigraph is from his ode “On the Death of Prince Meshchersky” (1779).

11. Poltava: The battle of Poltava, fought on July 8, 1709, was a major victory of the forces of Peter the Great over the invading army of Charles XII of Sweden, during the Great Northern War (1700–1721).

12. Menshikov…Dolgoruky…Bruce…Raguzinsky: Prince Alexander Danilovich Menshikov (1673–1729) was a close associate and friend of Peter the Great; of humble origin, he rose to great eminence but died in disgrace and exile. Prince Yakov Fyodorovich Dolgoruky (1639–1720), of old Russian nobility, was also close to Peter; his ancestor, Yury Dolgoruky, was considered the founder of Moscow in the twelfth century. Count Yakov Vilimovich Bruce (1669–1735), born James Daniel Bruce, of the Scottish clan Bruce, commanded the artillery at Poltava. A learned man and an author, he was rumored among the people to be an alchemist and magician. Young Raguzinsky is probably the son of Count Sava Lukich Vladislavich-Raguzinsky (1669–1738), a Serbian count and merchant who served Peter on important diplomatic missions.

13. Küchelbecker: The poet Vilhelm Karlovich Küchelbecker (1797–1846) was a schoolmate and friend of Pushkin. The lines are from his anti-tyrannical tragedy The Argives (1822–1825).

14. Preobrazhensky regiment…Sheremetev…Golovin: The Preobrazhensky regiment, founded by Peter the Great, became and remained one of the elite regiments of the Russian army; it was formally disbanded in 1917. Count Boris Petrovich Sheremetev (1652–1719) was made field marshal during the Great Northern War and was the first Russian to receive the new title of count in 1706. Ivan Mikhailovich Golovin (1672–1737) was admiral of the Russian fleet.

15. Buturlin: Alexander Borisovich Buturlin (1694–1767), of old Russian nobility, became Peter’s court chamberlain.

16. Feofan…Buzhinsky…Kopievich: Bishop Feofan Prokopovich (1681–1736), archbishop and statesman, guided Peter the Great in his reform of the Orthodox Church. Gavriil Buzhinsky (1680–1731) was a learned monk, abbot, and translator. Ilya Fyodorovich Kopievich was a translator and publisher of Russian books in Amsterdam; in fact, he died in 1708, some years before Ibrahim’s return to Russia.

17. blue ribbons over their shoulders: The Order of St. Andrew, the highest order of chivalry in Russia, established by Peter the Great in 1698, was worn on a light blue ribbon over the right shoulder.

18. sarafans and dushegreikas: The sarafan is a traditional woman’s outer garment, sleeveless, trapezoidal, with long skirts, worn over a shirt; a dushegreika (literally “soul-warmer”) is a waist-length jacket worn over the sarafan.

19. Ruslan and Ludmila: A narrative poem by the young Pushkin in six cantos with epilogue, based on Russian folktales, published in 1820.

20. Narva: The Russians fought two battles against the Swedish at the city of Narva, in Estonia; they lost the first in 1700 but won the second in 1704.

21. the order of precedence: An order of preeminence, for instance in seating people at the table, based on aristocratic rank and seniority, set down in the “books of the nobility” and which the tsar himself could not overrule. It was abolished by Peter the Great in 1682.

22. povoinik: A married woman’s headdress, which completely concealed the hair. Peter’s reforms included the “Europeanizing” of clothing and such other details as the introduction of shaving the beard for men.

23. ‘A wife should reverence her husband’: See St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, 5:33.

24. Ablesimov…The Miller: Alexander Onisimovich Ablesimov (1742–1783), librettist, poet, and journalist, wrote the libretto for the opera The Miller—Wizard, Trickster, and Matchmaker, to music by Mikhail Sokolovsky (1756–1795).

25. pancake makers, and heathens: Prince Menshikov (see note 12 above) was said to have sold little pies (pirozhki) in the street when he was young; “heathens” (basurmani in Russian, a corruption of musulmani) refers to the non-Orthodox foreigners (Germans in particular) that Peter was bringing into his service.

26. Prince Bova…Eruslan Lazarevich: Two legendary heroes of European folklore, whose adventures were recounted in widely popular tales published in the seventeenth century with woodblock illustrations.

27. strelets: A strelets (literally “shooter”; plural streltsi) was a member of a special guards unit, originally formed by Ivan the Terrible in the sixteenth century to serve under the tsar’s direct command in opposition to the feudal boyars.

THE TALES OF THE LATE IVAN PETROVICH BELKIN (1830)

1. Fonvizin, The Dunce: Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin (1744–1792) wrote two satirical comedies that became the first classics of the Russian theater. The second, The Dunce (or The Minor—the Russian title, Nedorosl’, can mean both), considered his masterpiece, was produced in 1782. Mitrofan is the dunce.

“The Shot”

1. Baratynsky: Evgeny Abramovich Baratynsky (1800–1844) was one of the major poets of Pushkin’s time; the epigraph is from his poem “The Ball” (1828).

2. An Evening at Bivouac: A story by Alexander Alexandrovich Bestuzhev (1797–1837), who wrote under the name of Marlinsky. It was published in 1823.

3. Denis Davydov: Denis Vasilyevich Davydov (1784–1839), poet and soldier, much admired by Pushkin, wrote what was known as “hussar poetry,” celebrating womanizing, drinking, and friendship. He distinguished himself during the Napoleonic Wars and was the model for the character Denisov in Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Alexander Petrovich Burtsov (d. 1813) was a hussar officer known for his swordsmanship and carousing. Davydov wrote three poems about him.

4. Ypsilanti…Hetairists…Skulyani: The Greek prince Alexander Ypsilanti (1792–1828) served in Russia as an officer of the imperial cavalry during the Napoleonic Wars and then became leader of the Hetairists (Filiki Hetairia, “Society of Friends”), a secret society that instigated the Greek war of independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821. They were defeated at the battle of Skulyani, in Bessarabia, on June 17, 1821.

“The Blizzard”

1. Zhukovsky: Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky (1783–1852), poet, translator, and tutor to the imperial family, was an older friend and mentor of Pushkin. The epigraph is from his ballad “Svetlana” (1813).

2. Tula: A city some 120 miles south of Moscow, known since the twelfth century for its metalwork—samovars, cutlery, firearms, seals—and also for its gingerbread and accordions.

3. 1812: On June 24, 1812, Napoleon ordered the Grande Armée to cross the River Nemen and the French invasion of Russia began.

4. Borodino: The town of Borodino, seventy miles west of Moscow, was the scene of a bloody and indecisive battle between the French and Russian armies, the costliest in the Napoleonic Wars, fought on September 7, 1812. It was the last offensive action of the French.

5. Artemisia: Artemisia II of Caria (d. 350 BC) became ruler of Caria at the death of her husband, Mausolus, in commemoration of whom she built the splendid Mausoleum in Halicarnassus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Her grief made her an example of pure marital devotion for later artists and writers.

6. “Vive Henri-Quatre”…Joconde: The song “Vive Henri-Quatre” (“Long Live Henry IV”) dates back to the time of the king himself (1553–1610); it gained new popularity in the comedy The Hunting Party of Henri IV (1770), by the French playwright Charles Collé (1709–1783), and is sung by French prisoners towards the end of War and Peace. Joconde (1814) is a comic opera by the French-Maltese composer Nicolas (Nicolò) Isouard (1773–1818).

7. “And into the air their bonnets threw”: A line from the comedy Woe from Wit (1825), the first true masterpiece of Russian theater, by Alexander Sergeevich Griboedov (1795–1829), poet, playwright, and diplomat.

8. the two capitals: A customary way of referring to the old capital, Moscow, and the new capital, St. Petersburg, founded by Peter the Great in 1703.

9. a St. George in his buttonhole: The Order of St. George is the highest military order in Russia, established by Catherine the Great in 1769.

10. Se amor non è…: The opening words of sonnet 132 from the Canzoniere of Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374); the full line is S’amor non è, che dunque e quel ch’io sento? (“If it is not love, what then is it that I feel?”).

11. grande patience: A form of solitaire.

12. St. Preux: The middle-class private tutor who falls in love with his aristocratic pupil, Julie, in the epistolary novel Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse (1761), by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778).

“The Coffin-Maker”

1. Derzhavin: See note 10 to The Moor of Peter the Great. The epigraph is from his poem “The Waterfall” (1794), in memory of Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin (1739–1791), general and favorite of Catherine the Great.

2. Pogorelsky’s postman…the former capital: The reference is to a story from the collection The Double, or My Evenings in Little Russia (1828), by Anton Pogorelsky, pseudonym of Count Alexei Alexeevich Perovsky (1787–1836). The “former capital” is Moscow (see note 8 to “The Blizzard”); the city was burned down during the Napoleonic Wars.

3. “with a poleaxe…cuirass”: The quotation is from the tale in verse “The Female Fool Pakhomovna,” by Alexander Izmailov (1779–1831).

4. whose face seemed bound in red morocco: A slightly altered quotation from the comedy The Braggart (1786), by Yakov Borisovich Knyazhnin (1742–1791). Knyazhnin was a famous playwright during the reign of Catherine the Great, the son-in-law and successor to Sumarokov (see note 11 to The History of the Village of Goryukhino).

5. The deceased woman lay on the table: It was customary for a dead person to be laid in state on a table until the coffin was brought.

“The Stationmaster”

1. Prince Vyazemsky: Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky (1792–1878), one of Pushkin’s closest friends, was himself a poet and writer. The epigraph is a slightly altered quotation from his poem “The Post-Station.”

2. the bandits of Murom: The dense forest near the old town of Murom, on the Oka River southeast of Moscow, was notorious for harboring bandits. The town was also the home of the most famous hero of medieval Russian epic poetry, Ilya Muromets.

3. the fourteenth class: Collegiate registrar, mentioned in the epigraph, was the lowest of the fourteen ranks of the Russian imperial civil service established by Peter the Great.

4. the prodigal son: Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son, from the Gospel of Luke (15:11–32), forms an ironic backdrop to Pushkin’s story.

5. the Demut Inn: A small inn on the Moika Embankment in Petersburg, founded by Philipp-Jakob Demut of Strasbourg, very popular with Pushkin and the writers of his circle.

6. the Joy of the Afflicted: A church built in Petersburg between 1817 and 1820, named for the wonder-working icon of the Mother of God Joy of the Afflicted, the original of which is in the Church of the Transfiguration in Moscow.

7. Dmitriev’s wonderful ballad: See note 2 to The Moor of Peter the Great. In Dmitriev’s ballad “The Caricature” (1791), a conscripted soldier returns from years of service and learns from his servant Terentyich that his wife has run off to join a band of thieves.

“The Young Lady Peasant”

1. Bogdanovich: The poet Ippolit Fyodorovich Bogdanovich (1744–1803) was born of old Ukrainian aristocracy. His long comic poem Dushenka (1783), from which Pushkin quotes here, was modeled on La Fontaine’s Psyche (“Dushenka” in Russian).

2. But Russian grain won’t grow in foreign fashion: A line from the first of the Satires by Prince Alexander Alexandrovich Shakhovskoy (1777–1846), a prolific poet and playwright who remained neoclassical in the age of the romantics.

3. mortgage…courageous: Mortgaging one’s estate to the government was a newly instituted way of raising cash, which eventually left many landowners or their heirs deeply in debt or bankrupt.

4. Jean-Paul: Pen name of the prolific German writer Johann Paul Friedrich Richter (1763–1825). Pushkin was reading him in a French translation: Pensées de Jean-Paul extraites de tous ces ouvrages (“Thoughts of Jean-Paul drawn from all his works”), a selection published in Paris in 1829.

5. neither in judgment nor in condemnation: Words echoing the Orthodox prayer before communion: “May the communion of Thy most holy mysteries be neither to my judgment nor to my condemnation, O Lord, but to the healing of soul and body.”

6. Pamela: That is, the English epistolary novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740), by Samuel Richardson (1689–1761), which was a bestseller in its day.

7. Saint Friday: The third-century Greek martyr and saint Paraskeva was named by her parents after Holy Friday (paraskevi in Greek). The Russians added the Slavonic version of her name, Pyatnitsa, calling her Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa, and often dropped the first part: hence Svyataya Pyatnitsa, or “Saint Friday,” which sounds comical in Russian.

8. sleeves à l’imbécile: Very ample sleeves with small lead weights added near the elbows to make them hang down.

9. the Lancaster system: Joseph Lancaster (1778–1838) invented a system of mutual instruction, having more advanced pupils pass on what they had already learned to younger pupils. The system was widely used in the nineteenth century.

10. “Natalya, the Boyar’s Daughter”: A sentimental historical tale by the poet, writer, and historian Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766–1826), who was much admired by Pushkin.

11. Taras Skotinin: A character in Fonvizin’s The Dunce (see note 1 to The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin).

THE HISTORY OF THE VILLAGE OF GORYUKHINO (1830)

1. the New Grammar: The New Grammar, published in 1769 by Nikolai Gavrilovich Kurganov (1725–1796), professor of mathematics and navigation at Moscow University, had great influence on later Russian writers, Pushkin among them. Pyotr Grigorievich Plemyannikov (d. 1775) served as general under the empress Elizabeth I (1709–1762), the daughter of Peter the Great.

2. a new Niebuhr: Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1776–1831), German historian, was one of the founders of modern historiography.

3. zemstvo: The name, derived from zemlya (land, earth), for the local organization of peasants in a village or group of villages. It acquired a new official meaning after the reforms of Alexander II in 1864.

4. the year 1812: See note 3 to “The Blizzard.” “The twelve nations” in the next sentence refers to the alliance that formed the army of Napoleon.

5. Misanthropy and Repentance: A play by the German playwright and author August von Kotzebue (1761–1819), who also worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Russia and served for a time as Russian consul to Germany. His plays were popular among Russian audiences.

6. The Well-Intentioned…the Hamburg Gazette: The Well-Intentioned and The Zealot for Enlightenment mentioned later were popular Petersburg journals of the early nineteenth century. The Hamburg Gazette, one of the oldest German newspapers, was in its time the most widely read paper in the world.

7. Rurik: Rurik, the ninth-century Swedish Varangian chieftain, invaded Russia, settled near Novgorod, and founded the first dynasty of Russian tsars, who ruled until the seventeenth century.

8. Millot…Tatishchev, Boltin, and Golikov: The abbé Claude-François-Xavier Millot (1726–1785) was a Jesuit and a historian, author of a number of works, including Elements of General History Ancient and Modern (1772–1783). Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev (1686–1750), Ivan Nikitich Boltin (1735–1792), and Ivan Ivanovich Golikov (1735–1801) wrote on various aspects of Russian history. Catherine the Great acquired Boltin’s papers after his death and made a gift of them to the Pushkin family.

9. Deriukhovo and Perkukhovo: The names are comical in a rather crude way, suggestive of ear-pulling and throat-clearing. Goryukhino itself is formed from the word gorye (woe, grief).

10. a double-headed eagle: Taverns were licensed by the state and were required to display the state symbol, the double-headed eagle.

11. Mr. Sumarokov: Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov (1717–1777), poet and playwright, is considered the first professional man of letters in Russia.

ROSLAVLEV (1831)

1. Roslavlev: Roslavlev, or the Russians in 1812, the second novel of Mikhail Nikolaevich Zagoskin (1789–1852), was published in 1831. His first novel, Yuri Miloslavsky, published in 1829, became the first Russian bestseller. His work was modeled on the novels of Walter Scott.

2. Montesquieu…Crébillon…Rousseau…Sumarokov: For Montesquieu see note 8 to The Moor of Peter the Great. Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon (1707–1777), son of a famous playwright and member of the French Academy, was himself a novelist, songwriter, and bon vivant. Rousseau is…Rousseau (see note 12 to “The Blizzard”). For Sumarokov, see note 11 to The History of the Village of Goryukhino.

3. Lomonosov: Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1711–1765) wrote on a wide range of subjects—scientific, literary, historical, philological. He was also a poet and was influential in the formation of the Russian literary language.

4. Karamzin’s History: See note 10 to “The Young Lady Peasant.” Karamzin’s twelve-volume History of the Russian State (1816–1826) was the foundational work of Russian historiography.

5. Mme de Staël: Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein (1766–1817), the daughter of Jacques Necker (1732–1804), minister of finance under Louis XVI, is known to literature simply as Mme de Staël. An important writer and a woman of society, she was an outspoken opponent of Napoleon, who exiled her from Paris several times. Corinne (1807), her most famous novel, is based on her travels in Italy during one of those exiles.

6. Kuznetsky Bridge: Kuznetsky Bridge is in fact a street in Moscow, which was known at that time for its fashionable shops run by foreigners, most often Frenchmen.

7. the Confederation of the Rhine: A confederation of German states formed by Napoleon after his victory at Austerlitz in 1805. It lasted until Napoleon’s defeat at Leipzig in 1813.

8. the sovereign’s appeal…Rastopchin’s folk-style leaflets…Pozharsky and Minin: The appeal of Alexander I for the defense of Moscow was published in August 1812. Count Fyodor Vasilyevich Rastopchin (1763–1826), military governor of Moscow at the time, ordered the distribution of one-page fliers with woodcut images calling for resistance. In 1612, Prince Dmitri Pozharsky and the merchant Kuzma Minin gathered a volunteer army and drove out the invading forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ending what is known as the Time of Troubles.

9. Charlotte Corday…Marfa Posadnitsa…Princess Dashkova: Charlotte Corday (1768–1793) assassinated Jean-Paul Marat (1743–1793), leader of the radical Jacobin faction during the Reign of Terror, for which she was guillotined. Marfa Posadnitsa, the wife of the mayor (posadnik) of Novgorod, is the heroine of the last work of fiction by Nikolai Karamzin (see note 4 above); she was involved in the unsuccessful defense of republican Novgorod against monarchical Moscow in 1478. Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Vorontsova-Dashkova (1743–1810) was a close friend of Catherine the Great and by her own account played a central part in the coup d’état of 1762 that brought Catherine to the imperial throne.

10. Count Mamonov…entire fortune: Count Matvey Alexandrovich Dmitriev-Mamonov (1790–1863) was one of the richest landowners in Russia. At the beginning of the war against Napoleon he made a speech to members of the Moscow nobility pledging to give his entire income to the struggle, and he went on to raise a mounted Cossack regiment at his own expense.

11. Borodino: See note 4 to “The Blizzard.”

DUBROVSKY (1832–1833)

1. seventy souls: That is, seventy male serfs—an extremely modest number for a Russian landowner; Count Mamonov, for instance, owned 15,000.

2. We insert it here in full: What follows is Pushkin’s transcription of an actual court decision of the time; the only change he made was the substitution of the names of his characters for the names of the actual participants.

3. the Cadet Corps: An elite school in Petersburg for aristocratic boys, founded by the empress Anna Ioannovna in 1731. Its graduates had favored status for advancement in military or civil careers.

4. Derzhavin: See note 10 to The Moor of Peter the Great. The line here also comes from the ode “On the Death of Prince Meshchersky” (1779).

5. “Thunder of victory resound”: The opening words of Derzhavin’s choral ode, set to music by Osip Kozlovsky (1757–1831), written for the celebration given by Potemkin (see note 1 to “The Coffin-Maker”) on the taking of Izmail in 1791.

6. laid it out on the same table: See note 5 to “The Coffin-Maker.”

7. “Vanity of vanities…‘Memory Eternal’ ”: “Vanity of vanities” comes from the opening of Ecclesiastes (1:2). “Memory Eternal” is the prayer of supplication sung at the end of the Orthodox funeral service.

8. “Eschew evil and do good”: Words from Psalm 37:27, quoted in the first epistle of Peter (3:11).

9. the Turkish campaign: That is, the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1791.

10. Lavaterian guesswork: Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) was a Swiss poet, philosopher, and theologian, remembered mainly for his book Physiognomical Fragments (1775–1778), detailing the analysis of personal character based on facial and bodily features.

11. Kulnev: General Yakov Petrovich Kulnev (1763–1812), one of the most popular and colorful figures of the Napoleonic Wars, was killed pursuing the French at the battle of Klyastitsy. His lithographic portrait was widely distributed after his death.

12. Radcliffe: The English novelist Ann Radcliffe (1764–1823) perfected what came to be known as the Gothic novel, full of terror and the supernatural. Her most famous work, The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), was very popular in Russia.

13. Misha: Misha, the diminutive of Mikhail, is the name traditionally given to bears in Russia.

14. Rinaldo: Hero of the popular novel Rinaldo Rinaldini, the Robber Chief (1797), by the German author Christian August Vulpius (1762–1827), author of numerous romantic tales and libretti and brother-in-law of Goethe.

15. Amphitryon’s wines: Amphitryon was a legendary prince of Tiryns, in the Peloponnese. The Roman playwright Plautus (ca. 254–184 BC) made him the hero of a burlesque comedy, which in turn inspired Molière’s Amphitryon (1668). His name came to stand for a generous host.

16. Konrad’s mistress: Konrad Wallenrod is the eponymous hero of a narrative poem by the great Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855), who was much admired by Pushkin.

THE QUEEN OF SPADES (1834)

1. The verses of the epigraph to chapter 1 are by Pushkin himself, who partially quotes them in a letter of September 1, 1828, to Vyazemsky (see note 1 to “The Stationmaster”). It has also been said that Pushkin, who was a passionate gambler himself, first wrote them on his sleeve in chalk while playing at Prince Golitsyn’s.

2. mirandole: A term in the card game of faro, meaning to play only one card at a time and not double your bets. Faro (pharaon) is a simple French gambling game in which a banker plays individually against any number of players and winning depends on the matching of cards. To stake en routé is to bet repeatedly on the same lucky card. Paroli means to double bets on the same card, indicated by bending down the corners of the card. To punt is to place a bet against the bank.

3. Richelieu: See note 7 to The Moor of Peter the Great.

4. the comte de Saint-Germain…Casanova: The comte de Saint-Germain (ca. 1712–1784) was a prominent figure in European society, a wealthy and well-educated man and an accomplished musician, who claimed to be the son of Francis II Rakóczi, Prince of Transylvania. Various myths arose about him, to do with his interest in mysticism and alchemy, his membership in secret societies, his being the Wandering Jew, a prophet, and an “Ascended Master.” Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (1725–1798), born in Venice, was also a notable figure in society, a libertine and womanizer, a friend of royalty and also of Voltaire, Goethe, and Mozart. He is remembered mainly for his autobiography, Histoire de ma vie (“The Story of My Life”), written in French—a vivid description of the mores of eighteenth-century Europe and of his own in particular.

5. Pushkin’s friend Denis Davydov (see note 3 to “The Shot”) wrote to him about this epigraph: “Good heavens, what a devilish memory! God knows, I once told you my reply to M. A. Naryshkina about les suivantes qui sont plus fraîches, and you set it down word for word as an epigraph to a chapter of The Queen of Spades.”

6. Bitter…Dante…stairs: A paraphrase of Paradiso XVII:58–60: Tu proverai sì come sa di sale / lo pane d’altrui, e come è duro calle / lo scendere e ‘l salir per altrui scale (“You will taste how salty / is another’s bread, and how hard a path it is / going down and up another’s stairs”).

7. two portraits…Mme Lebrun: Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1755–1842) was one of the finest portrait painters of her time. Her successful career in Paris was interrupted in 1789 by the French Revolution, after which she lived abroad until 1802, spending the years from 1795 to 1801 in Russia.

8. Leroy…Montgolfier…Mesmer: Julien Leroy (1686–1759) was a famous Parisian clockmaker; in 1739 he was named Royal Clockmaker to Louis XV. The Montgolfier brothers, Joseph-Michel (1740–1810) and Jacques-Etienne (1745–1799), invented the hot-air balloon, which made its first flight in 1783. Franz Mesmer (1734–1815), a German doctor, proposed a theory of the transfer of energy between the animate and the inanimate, which he called “animal magnetism” and which later became known as “mesmerism.”

9. Homme sans moeurs et sans religion!: The phrase, which was much in the air during the Enlightenment, has been attributed to Diderot and to Voltaire. In the dialogue Des devoirs de l’Homme et du Prince (“On the Duties of Man and Prince”), by Jaques Vernet (1698–1789), professor of theology and history in Geneva, Socrates speaks of “un homme sans religion et sans moeurs.”

10. Oubli ou regret: “Forget or regret.” A game that allowed ladies to choose a partner at a ball. They would secretly take the name of oubli or regret, approach the man, and pose the question. He would choose at random and then take the next dance with the lady who bore the name.

11. Swedenborg: Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) was a Swedish scientist and inventor who later became a mystic and visionary reformer of Christianity. The epigraph, as is often the case with Pushkin, is a playful stylization.

12. the midnight Bridegroom: See Matthew 25:1–13, Christ’s parable of the wise and foolish virgins. Pushkin suggests an ironic parallel between the Bridegroom and Hermann.

13. “Attendez!”: “Wait!” in French. In the original, Pushkin uses the Russified French word Atandé, used in faro when a player wants to change his stake before the betting is closed. In the epigraph, the aristocratic banker takes offense at the tone of it.

KIRDJALI (1834)

1. Ypsilanti…insurrection: See note 4 to “The Shot.”

2. Georgi Kantakuzin: A Greek prince, one of the notable participants in the Greek uprising. Pushkin met him when he was serving in Kishinev during the early 1820s. Kishinev, now the capital of Moldova, had recently been annexed by Russia from Turkey.

3. Nekrasovists: A group of Don Cossacks, led by Ignat Nekrasov (d. 1737). They were Old Believers, condemned as heretics by the Russian Orthodox Church, and fled Russia in 1708.

4. Klephtes: Greek for “bandits.” The name was given to Greek mountaineers who preserved their independence after the Turkish conquest of the Byzantine empire in the fifteenth century.

5. A man…important post: Mikhail Ivanovich Leks (1793–1856), whom Pushkin had served under in Kishinev, was by then the director of the chancellery of the Ministry of Interior in Petersburg.

EGYPTIAN NIGHTS (1835)

1. an album: A whole culture developed around the personal albums kept by upper-class Russian girls, in which they would ask friends and new acquaintances to write verses or personal messages.

2. ragged abbés: Abbé, or “abbot,” was a title of lower-ranking clergymen in France. Abbés were appointed by the king and received a small income without necessarily serving in an abbey. They sometimes took to writing (see note 8 to The History of the Village of Goryukhino). The Abbé Prévost, author of Manon Lescaut (1731), is perhaps the most well-known example.

3. Derzhavin: See note 10 to The Moor of Peter the Great. The line is from Derzhavin’s famous ode “God” (1784).

4. Signora Catalani: Angelica Catalani (1780–1849) was one of the greatest sopranos in the history of opera, renowned for her three-octave range. She sang in Petersburg in 1820.

5. Tancredi: An opera by Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868), based on Voltaire’s tragedy Tancrède (1760).

6. Aurelius Victor: Sextus Aurelius Victor (ca. 320–390 AD), a Roman statesman and historian, wrote a short history of the Roman Empire.

THE CAPTAIN’S DAUGHTER (1836)

1. Knyazhnin: See note 4 to “The Coffin-Maker.” The quotation is from his comedy The Braggart (1786).

2. Count Münnich: Burkhard Christoph von Münnich (1683–1767), a German-born military officer and engineer, came to Russia in 1721, was taken into the Russian army by Peter the Great, and rose to become a field marshal and count. He played a major role in Russian military and political affairs under several monarchs.

3. the Semyonovsky regiment: Founded in 1683 by Peter the Great, it was one of the two oldest and most distinguished guards regiments in Russia.

4. passport: Russians were required to carry an “internal passport” when they traveled within Russia.

5. Orenburg: A city in the southern Ural region, over nine hundred miles east of Moscow. It was founded in 1743 as a frontier outpost, bordering on the territory of the nomadic Kazakhs.

6. “the keeper…my affairs”: A quotation from the poem “Epistle to my Servants Shumilov, Vanka, and Petrushka” (1769), by Denis Fonvizin (see note 1 to The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin).

7. a Yaik Cossack: Yaik was the old name of the Ural River. The Cossacks of the Yaik and the Don served as frontier guards for Russia, in exchange for certain freedoms. After their support for Pugachev’s rebellion, Yaik Cossacks lost those privileges and, like the river itself, were renamed Ural Cossacks.

8. above the stove: Russian stoves were large and elaborate structures, used for cooking, laundry, bathing, and sleeping, as well as for heating.

9. the revolt of 1772: In 1772, just prior to Pugachev’s rebellion, there was a revolt of the Yaik Cossacks over forced conscription and low pay, which led to the killing of the Russian military commander of the Orenburg region, the harsh Major General Mikhail Mikhailovich Traubenberg (1719–1772).

10. the time of Anna Ioannovna: Anna Ioannovna (1693–1740) was the daughter of Peter the Great’s physically and mentally handicapped brother Ivan V, who ruled jointly with Peter until his death in 1696. In 1730 she became empress of Russia.

11. The Dunce: See note 1 to The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin.

12. Küstrin and Ochakov: The Turkish fortress of Ochakov fell to the Russians in 1737, during the Austro-Russian-Turkish War; the Prussian fortress of Küstrin was besieged by the Russians in 1758, during the Seven Years’ War, but not actually taken.

13. Bashkirs: A Turkic people who inhabited territory to the north of Orenburg on both sides of the Urals. They fought the Russians over the building of the fortress in Orenburg and later supported Pugachev’s rebellion.

14. Knyazhnin: See note 4 to “The Coffin-Maker.” The quotation is from his comedy The Odd Birds (1790).

15. Sumarokov: See note 11 to The History of the Village of Goryukhino.

16. Tredyakovsky: Vasily Kirillovich Tredyakovsky (1703–1769), poet, translator, and critic, was of common origin, studied at the Sorbonne, and returned to Petersburg to promote classical notions of versification. Posterity has generally accepted Shvabrin’s opinion of his poetry.

17. “Duels are formally forbidden…”: Dueling became so common in the upper ranks of the Russian military that in 1715 Peter the Great formally forbade the practice on pain of death for both duelists.

18. one spirit and one flesh: In the Orthodox marriage service, the priest asks of God: “Unite them in one mind; wed them into one flesh.” The notion that man and wife are one flesh is repeated in many texts, starting with Genesis 2:22–24.

19. Major General Traubenberg: See note 9 above.

20. the late emperor Peter III: Peter III (1728–1762), the only child of the eldest daughter of Peter the Great, ruled for only six months before he was assassinated in a conspiracy said to have been headed by his wife, a German princess who went on to become Catherine the Great. After his death, a number of false pretenders appeared claiming to be Peter III, among them Emelyan Pugachev.

21. torture…abolished: Torture was regulated by law in Russia from the 1740s on; in the 1760s Catherine the Great issued orders against the use of torture, but that did not eliminate it; it was formally abolished in 1801 by a decree of Alexander I.

22. 1741: Date of the end of the first revolt of the Bashkirs against the building of the Orenburg fortress.

23. the mild reign of the emperor Alexander: Alexander I (1777–1825), the grandson of Catherine the Great, reigned from 1801 to 1825. He began in a rather liberal spirit, but became more conservative after the Napoleonic Wars.

24. bread and salt: By Russian custom, in the formal reception of honored visitors, an offering of bread and salt would be presented to them on a special embroidered towel.

25. the sovereign Pyotr Fyodorovich: That is, Peter III (see note 20 above).

26. Chumakov: Fyodor Fedotovich Chumakov (1729–1786), a Yaik Cossack, was Pugachev’s commander of artillery. In 1775, however, he seized Pugachev and turned him over to the Russians on the promise of his own pardon and a payment of 100,000 roubles. Pushkin drew the details of this passage from archival records and the accounts of witnesses. The song that follows (two lines of which were quoted in Dubrovsky) appears in a collection of Russian folk songs published in 1780.

27. Grishka Otrepev: Grigory (Grisha, Grishka) Otrepev, the first of the so-called “False Dmitrys,” was a defrocked monk who claimed to be Dmitry Ivanovich, son of Ivan the Terrible and heir to the Russian throne. The real tsarevich Dmitry was murdered in 1591 at the age of nine. Otrepev succeeded in becoming tsar during the Time of Troubles and reigned for ten months (1605–1606).

28. Kheraskov: Mikhail Matveevich Kheraskov (1733–1807) came to prominence as a poet during the reign of Catherine the Great. The quotation is from his poem entitled, like the chapter, “Parting.”

29. The epigraph is from Kheraskov’s Rossiad (1771–1779), the first epic poem in Russian to be modeled on Homer and Virgil. The “he” referred to is Ivan the Terrible.

30. Mr. Collegiate Councilor: In the Russian table of fourteen civil, military, and court ranks, established by Peter the Great in 1722, collegiate councilor was sixth, the civil equivalent of colonel.

31. Lizaveta Kharlova: Daughter and wife of fortress commanders in the Orenburg region. Her father, mother, and husband were captured by Pugachev and brutally murdered; she herself was forced to become Pugachev’s concubine, but was later killed by Cossack chiefs.

32. A. Sumarokov: See note 11 to The History of the Village of Goryukhino. The lines are in fact a pastiche by Pushkin himself.

33. sitting under the icons: Icons (images of Christ, the Mother of God, and the saints) are traditionally hung in the far right-hand corner of a room, considered the place of honor.

34. a blue ribbon…gray peasant coat: See note 17 to The Moor of Peter the Great. The Order of St. Andrew accords strangely with a peasant coat.

35. the battle of Yuzeevo: Yuzeevo, a village some eighty miles northwest of Orenburg, where on November 8, 1773, Pugachev defeated Russian forces sent to relieve the fortress.

36. Frederick: That is, Frederick II (1712–1786), king of Prussia, whose military, political, and cultural achievements won him the title of “the Great.” Pugachev, in Russian peasant fashion, fits him out with a Russian name and patronymic.

37. Knyazhnin: See note 4 to “The Coffin-Maker.” The lines are Pushkin’s invention.

38. Prince Golitsyn: In August 1774, Russian relief troops under General Pyotr Mikhailovich Golitsyn defeated Pugachev’s forces at the town of Tatishchevo.

39. Ivan Ivanovich Mikhelson: Mikhelson (1740–1807) was one of the most prominent commanders in the Russian army. While still a lieutenant colonel, he successfully broke Pugachev’s siege of Kazan and pursued the enemy to a final defeat against great odds at the battle of Tsaritsyn.

40. Volynsky and Khrushchev: Artemy Petrovich Volynsky (1689–1740) was a minister under the cruel and arbitrary empress Anna Ioannovna (see note 10 above). He and his friend and assistant Andrei Fyodorovich Khrushchev (1691–1740) were accused of plotting to replace Anna with Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great, and were executed.

41. Tsarskoe Selo: Literally “the Tsar’s Village,” located fifteen miles south of Petersburg. Originally an estate given by Peter the Great to his wife in 1708, it developed over time into a favorite country residence of the imperial family and the nobility and eventually into a town. Sofia, a neighboring town, merged with Tsarskoe Selo in 1808. Pushkin was in the first graduating class of the lycée at Tsarskoe Selo, founded by Alexander I in 1811. In 1937 the town was renamed Pushkin, in honor of the centenary of his death.

42. Rumyantsev’s recent victories: Count Pyotr Alexandrovich Rumyantsev (1725–1796) was a brilliant Russian general and later field marshal, involved mainly in the Russo-Turkish wars. His victories during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 forced the sultan Abdul Hamid I to sue for peace in 1774.

“The Omitted Chapter”

43. St. Elijah’s day: The Old Testament prophet Elijah (Elias) is commemorated as a saint in both the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches. His day is July 20 by the Julian calendar (still followed by the Russian Orthodox Church), August 2 by the Gregorian calendar.

JOURNEY TO ARZRUM (1836)

1. Voyages en Orient…: The author of the Voyages was Victor Fontanier (1796–1857), who was sent as a naturalist attached to the French embassy in Constantinople to explore the regions of the Black Sea and the Ottoman Empire (1822–1829). His book was published between 1829 and 1834.

2. Khomyakov…Muravyov…Count Dibich: Alexei Stepanovich Khomyakov (1804–1860), poet, philosopher, and co-founder of the Slavophile movement, was one of the most influential Russian thinkers of his time and later. The poet Andrei Nikolaevich Muravyov (1806–1874) published an account of his journey to the Holy Land in 1834. The German-born Count Ivan Ivanovich Dibich, or Diebitsch (1785–1831), became a Russian field marshal and commanded the imperial forces during the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829.

3. Detached Caucasus Corps: A corps of some 40,000 men, under General Paskevich (see following note), sent to fight the Turks on the Caucasian front of the war, to draw them away from the other front in the Balkan peninsula. The corps included a number of former Decembrists, a group of liberal-minded officers and soldiers who had been arrested after staging an uprising on December 26, 1825, in favor of constitutional reforms. Pushkin had been a close friend of some of the Decembrists and sympathized with their cause.

4. Paskewitch…Mouravieff…Tsitsevaze…Beboutof…Potemkine…Raiewsky: Pushkin is clearly amused by these French renderings of Russian names, as Byron was in Don Juan. Ivan Fyodorovich Paskevich (1782–1856) shared command of the Russian forces with Dibich and headed the army after Dibich’s death in 1831. He was a field marshal and in reward for his successes was granted the titles of Count of Erevan and Prince of Warsaw. Nikolai Nikolaevich Muravyov (1794–1866) was chief of staff of the Caucasus Corps under Paskevich. The Georgian prince Alexander Garsevanovich Chavchavadze (1786–1846) was a poet and a general in the Russian army. Vasily Osipovich Bebutov (1791–1858), of Georgian-Armenian nobility, served in the Russian army from 1809 and distinguished himself during the Russo-Turkish wars. Prince Potemkin (see note 1 to “The Coffin-Maker”) had nothing to do with the Caucasus Corps. Nikolai Nikolaevich Raevsky (1771–1829) was an important general during the Napoleonic Wars. Pushkin met him in the Caucasus in 1821 and they became good friends; his sons were members of the Southern Society, which helped to plan the Decembrist uprising; they pulled out of the Society before the uprising took place, but were nevertheless “punished” by being sent to serve in the Caucasus.

5. Osman Pasha: Osman Pasha (“pasha” being an honorary title) was the governor of Arzrum.

6. the campaign of 1829: Paskevich’s campaign on the Caucasian front, which ended in September 1829 with the defeat of the Turkish army and the Treaty of Adrianople. It is the background subject of Pushkin’s Journey to Arzrum, in addition to which, despite his disclaimer, he also wrote a number of poems based on his experiences during the campaign.

7. Ermolov: Alexei Petrovich Ermolov (1777–1861) began his military career in the Preobrazhensky regiment (see note 14 to The Moor of Peter the Great), advanced rapidly during the Napoleonic Wars, became chief of staff of the First Western Army in 1812 and then chief of staff of the entire army in the same year. After the defeat of the French, he was made commander in chief of the Caucasus. But his stubborn temperament brought him into conflict with his superiors, and in 1827 Nicholas I abruptly replaced him with Paskevich. He spent the last thirty years of his life on his estate near Orel.

8. Dawe: The British painter George Dawe (1781–1829) moved to Petersburg in 1819, where he was commissioned to paint 329 portraits of Russian generals who participated in the Napoleonic Wars, to be hung in the military gallery of the Winter Palace.

9. the count of Jericho: For Paskevich see note 4 above. Ermolov plays on the similarity of the Russian words Erevansky (“of Erevan”) and Erikhonsky (“of Jericho”).

10. Count Tolstoy: Count Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy (1782–1846), known as “Tolstoy the American” because he had spent time in the Aleutian Islands during a two-year cruise around the world (1803–1805). He was a high-society bon vivant, duelist, gambler, and at various times Pushkin’s friend and enemy.

11. Karamzin’s History: See note 4 to Roslavlev.

12. Prince Kurbsky: Prince Andrei Mikhailovich Kurbsky (1528–1583) was a close friend and advisor to Ivan the Terrible, but then became his enemy and defected to Lithuania. He is best remembered for his bitter and erudite exchange of letters with the tsar; he also wrote a History of the Grand Prince of Moscow on the life of Ivan the Terrible.

13. Griboedov: See note 7 to “The Blizzard.”

14. Count Pushkin: That is, Count Vladimir Alexeevich Musin-Pushkin (1798–1854), a distant relation of Pushkin’s. He had been involved in the Decembrist uprising, but was punished only by demotion.

15. Indomitable mares…: The quotation is from the poem “Peter the Great in Ostrogozhsk” (1823), by the young poet and officer Kondraty Fyodorovich Ryleev (1795–1826), one of the five Decembrists who were hanged for inciting the rebellion.

16. Orlovsky: Alexander Osipovich Orlovsky (1777–1832) was a Russian artist of Polish origin. He was most noted for his lively drawings, for which he was invited to Petersburg by Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, brother of the emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I. Pushkin greatly admired his work.

17. Hot Springs: Also known as the Caucasian Mineral Waters, now the town of Pyatigorsk. Pushkin had visited the place some years earlier (see the fragment “A Romance at the Caucasian Waters”).

18. A. Raevsky: Alexander Nikolaevich Raevsky (1795–1868), the eldest son of General Nikolai Raevsky (see note 4 above), was a close friend of Pushkin’s and the model for his poem “The Demon” (1823).

19. Count Gudovich: Field Marshal Ivan Vasilyevich Gudovich (1741–1820) took part in the Russo-Turkish wars of 1768–1774, 1787–1791, and 1806–1812, in which his many victories gained him great distinction.

20. the peaceful Circassians: The Circassians, the last native people of the Caucasus to be subdued by the Russians (only in 1868), had been largely driven out of their territories in what amounted to a genocide. Those who remained were “peaceful” in name only.

21. Mansur…Solovki monastery: “Mansur” means “the victorious one.” His name was Ushurma. His birthdate is variously given as 1732, 1750, and 1760; he died in 1794. A Chechen sheikh and imam, he led a revolt against the Russian invasion of the Caucasus, was finally defeated in 1791, and was imprisoned for life in the Schlüsselburg Fortress near Petersburg. Some say he died in the monastery of Solovki, in the north of Russia.

22. …like a warrior…around him: Pushkin quotes in English from the poem “The Burial of John Moore” (1817), by the Irish poet and clergyman Charles Wolfe (1791–1823), which was much admired by Byron.

23. Stjernvall…North: The Finnish baron Carl Emil Knut Stjernvall-Walleen (1806–1890) was the brother-in-law of Count Musin-Pushkin (see note 14 above). The quotation is from Derzhavin’s poem “The Waterfall” (see note 10 to The Moor of Peter the Great and note 1 to “The Coffin-Maker”).

24. General Bekovich: Fyodor Alexandrovich Bekovich-Cherkassky (1790–1835), a prince of Kabardian origin, served as a Russian general in the Caucasus.

25. And in goatskins…delight: A line from Book III of the Iliad.

26. The Prisoner of the Caucasus: An early “Byronic” narrative poem by Pushkin, published in 1822.

27. one traveler writes: The traveler was Nikolai Alexandrovich Nefedev (1800–1860), whose book Notes During a Trip to the Caucasus and Georgia in 1827 was published under the initials N. N. in 1829.

28. The Rape of Ganymede: Rembrandt’s painting (1635) from the Dresden Gallery shows a great eagle flying off with a grimacing little boy who is peeing between his legs as he is carried aloft. Pushkin would have known the painting from engravings, which were very popular at the time.

29. Pliny’s testimony: The Roman historian Pliny the Elder (AD 23/24–79) discusses the names of mountain passes in Book V, chapter 27, of his Natural History in XXXVII Books.

30. Count J. Potocki…Spanish novels: The Polish count and military engineer Jan Potocki (1761–1815) wrote books on his travels to Astrakhan and the Caucasus, as well as to Turkey, Egypt, and Morocco, but his fame rests on his “Spanish” novel The Manuscript Found in Saragossa (1814), written in French.

31. Prince Kazbek…fugelman…Preobrazhensky regiment: Prince Kazbek is probably Gabriel Chopikashvili-Kazbegi, of the ruling family of the mountainous Kazbegi region in northeast Georgia, who remained loyal to Russia when the people of the region rebelled in the early nineteenth century. A fugelman (from the German flügelmann, “flank man” or “wing man”) was a well-trained soldier who was placed in front of a company at drill as a model for the others. For the Preobrazhensky regiment, see note 14 to The Moor of Peter the Great.

32. “holds up the heavenly vault”: A slightly altered quotation from the poem “A Half-Soldier” (1826), by Denis Davydov (see note 3 to “The Shot”).

33. Fazil Khan: Fazil Khan Sheyda (1784–1852), a Persian court poet and diplomat, was accompanying a diplomatic mission to Petersburg in 1829 when Pushkin met him. See following note.

34. Khozrev-Mirza: The young prince Khozrev-Mirza (1812–1878), grandson of the shah of Persia, led a mission to Petersburg to apologize for the destruction of the Russian ministry in Tehran and the murder of its minister plenipotentiary, the poet Alexander Griboedov (see note 7 to “The Blizzard”).

35. Rinaldo Rinaldini: See note 14 to Dubrovsky.

36. Kishinev: See note 2 to Kirdjali. The town had been under Ottoman rule since the sixteenth century.

37. Lalla Rookh: Pushkin quotes in English from the long poem Lalla Rookh: An Oriental Romance (1817), by the Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779–1852).

38. Sankovsky…Tsitsianov…: Pavel Stepanovich Sankovsky (1798–1832) edited the Tiflis Gazette, the first Russian-language newspaper in the Caucasus. He met Pushkin on his way to Arzrum and became his great admirer. The Georgian prince Pavel Dmitrievich Tsitsianov (1754–1806), the hot-headed Russian military commander of Georgia, was killed in action at the siege of Baku.

39. Aga Mohammed: Aga Mohammed (1742–1797) was shah of Persia from 1789 until his murder in 1797. He succeeded in reuniting the territories of the Caucasus that had broken away during the previous centuries, and was known for the unusual cruelty of his actions, especially in the taking of Tiflis. It was he who moved the Persian capital to Tehran.

40. poor Clarence…Malaga: Raphael Holinshed (1529–1580), in his Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1577), writes that the Duke of Clarence, the elder brother of Richard III, “was cast into the Tower, and therewith adjudged for a traitor, and privily drowned in a butt of malmsey.” Shakespeare included this detail in Richard III (act 1, scene 4), which Pushkin read in French translation. Malmsey was a kind of Madeira, not Malaga.

41. Tbilis-kalar…“Hot City”: Pushkin’s error: the city was known as “Tbilis-kalak,” kalak being Georgian for “city.” The same error appears in A Geographical and Statistical Description of Georgia and the Caucasus, by the German author Ioann-Anton Guldenstedt (1745–1781), published in Russian translation in 1809, which Pushkin probably used.

42. Count Samoilov: Nikolai Andreevich Samoilov (1800–1842), an officer in the Preobrazhensky regiment, was the cousin of the younger Raevskys (see note 4 above).

43. titular councilors…assessor: In the ascending order of the Russian table of ranks (see note 3 to “The Stationmaster”), titular councilor was ninth, equivalent to captain, and collegiate assessor was eighth, equivalent to major. In his story “The Nose” (1836), Pushkin’s young friend Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852) speaks of “collegiate assessors who are made in the Caucasus,” meaning made quickly.

44. General Sipyagin: Nikolai Martyanovich Sipyagin (1785–1828) was the military governor of Tiflis before his sudden death.

45. General Strekalov: Stepan Stepanovich Strekalov (1782–1856), who took over as military governor of Tiflis in 1828, arranged with the authorities to keep Pushkin under surveillance while he was in the city.

46. the slain Griboedov: See note 7 to “The Blizzard” and note 34 above. The Georgian drivers’ distortion of the name, “Griboed,” means “Mushroom-eater.” They of course had no idea who Griboedov was.

47. Buturlin: Nikolai Alexandrovich Buturlin (1801–1867), aide-de-camp to the Russian minister of war, Alexander Ivanovich Chernyshev (1786–1857), was sent to keep an eye on former Decembrists in the Caucasus, including Pushkin and Raevsky, and delivered a detailed report on them when he returned to Petersburg in 1829.

48. a poem to a Kalmyk girl…: Verses Pushkin jotted down on the occasion of his meeting with the “Circe of the steppe” described early in chapter 1:

The Kalmyk Girl

Farewell, my dear Kalmyk girl!

Thwarting all my plans,

Drawn on by my laudable habit,

I almost followed your kibitka

Off into the steppe.

Your eyes, of course, are narrow,

Your nose flat, your brow wide,

You do not babble in French,

Your legs are not squeezed into silk,

You do not crumble your bread

English-style by the samovar,

You do not admire Saint-Mars,

Give little value to Shakespeare,

Do not fall into reverie,

Since there’s not a thought in your head,

You do not sing: Ma dov’é,

Do not leap in the galop at dances.

Who cares? For a whole half-hour,

While they were hitching my horses,

My mind and heart were taken

With your gaze and your savage beauty.

Friends, is it not all one

For your idle soul to be lost

In a splendid hall, the dress circle,

Or in a nomadic kibitka?

49. General Burtsov: Ivan Grigorievich Burtsov (1794–1829) took part in the Napoleonic Wars and was then involved in the early stages of the Decembrist movement, but withdrew before the uprising. Imprisoned for six months all the same, he was then transferred to the Caucasus, where he served with distinction in the wars with the Persians and the Turks and was killed in action. Pushkin had made Burtsov’s acquaintance years earlier, while he was still at the lycée in Tsarskoe Selo (see note 41 to The Captain’s Daughter).

50. our Volkhovsky: Vladimir Dmitrievich Volkhovsky (1798–1841), Pushkin’s fellow student at the lycée, joined the Decembrists and as a result was sent in 1826 to serve on Paskevich’s staff in the Caucasus.

51. Mikhail Pushchin: Mikhail Ivanovich Pushchin (1800–1869), brother of one of Pushkin’s closest friends at the lycée, and like his brother a Decembrist, was broken to the ranks in 1826 and sent to serve in the Caucasus. By the time of their meeting in Tiflis, he had been made an officer again and served with the army engineers.

52. Semichev: Nikolai Nikolaevich Semichev (1792–1830), also a Decembrist. After six months in prison, he was sent to the Caucasus as a captain in the Nizhegorodsky grenadier regiment. At one point, when Pushkin recklessly threw himself into combat, General Raevsky sent Semichev to drag him away from the front line.

53. young Osten-Sacken: A captain of the Nizhegorodsky grenadiers, the younger brother of Dmitry Erofeevich Osten-Sacken (1789–1881), who at that time was chief of staff of the Detached Caucasus Corps under Paskevich. The Osten-Sackens were a distinguished Baltic German family.

54. Yazidis…devil worshippers: The Yazidis are Kurdish-speaking people settled from ancient times in what is now northern Iraq. Their monotheistic religion has ties to Zoroastrianism; its somewhat Manichaean vision of good and evil has led other monotheists to persecute them wrongly as “devil worshippers.”

55. Colonel Frideriks…General Muravyov…Colonel Simonich: Colonel B. A. Frideriks (1797–1874), mentioned earlier, commanded the Erevan Light Cavalry Regiment. General Nikolai Nikolaevich Muravyov (1794–1866) was Raevsky’s immediate superior, and, like Raevsky and Osten-Sacken, sympathized with the Decembrists serving in the Caucasus, which displeased Paskevich, who eventually had them all dismissed from the army. Count Ivan Osipovich Simonich (1792–1851), from Dalmatia, fought on the French side in the Napoleonic Wars, was captured by the Russians in 1812, and later joined the Russian army. In the Caucasus he commanded the Georgian grenadier regiment; in 1836 he was sent as Russian minister to Persia, replacing the murdered Griboedov.

56. Salvator Rosa: Italian Baroque painter (1615–1673), considered a “proto-Romantic” because of the dramatic lighting effects of his landscapes and portraits.

57. Hakki Pasha: Ismail Hakki Pasha (1798–1876) was a Turkish general and statesman, later briefly the governor of Arzrum.

58. Colonel Anrep: Roman Romanovich von Anrep (d. 1830), of a noble Swedish-Russian family, commanded an uhlan regiment in the Caucasus and was a close friend of Paskevich. A few years earlier, he and Pushkin had paid court to the same girl.

59. Franks: In Armenia Roman Catholics were referred to as “Franks,” a custom that dated back to the time of the Crusades.

60. the poet Yuzefovich: Mikhail Vladimirovich Yuzefovich (1802–1889) was a cavalry captain and aide-de-camp to Raevsky. He left memoirs of his meetings with Pushkin during the campaign of 1829.

61. Arnauts: Turkish for Albanians.

62. the battle of Poltava: See note 11 to The Moor of Peter the Great. Pushkin gives the date according to the old (Julian) calendar, which was still used in Russia. By the Gregorian calendar it was July 8.

63. Theodosius the Second: Theodosius II (401–450) became emperor of the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire in 408, at the age of seven.

64. Hajji-Baba…calf’s ears…: Pushkin is drawing on the three-volume novel The Adventures of Hajji-Baba of Ispahan, by the former diplomat James Justinian Morier (1780–1849), published in London in 1824, and in Russian translation in 1830. In the third volume, the Persian ambassador, whom Hajji-Baba serves as secretary, catches a courier who has stolen from him while passing through Arzrum. The ambassador orders the courier’s ears cut off, against the local governor’s protests, but the servants trick the ambassador, giving him two pieces of goat meat instead.

65. Tournefort…the city: Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656–1708), botanist and traveler, makes this observation in the eighteenth letter of his Relation d’un voyage en Levant (“An Account of a Journey to the Levant,” 1717).

66. the time of Godfrey: Godfrey de Bouillon (1060–1100), directly descended from Charlemagne, lord of Bouillon and later Duke of Lower Lorraine (Lotharingia), took part in the first crusade in 1095, and in 1100 was made “king of Jerusalem.” He died there in the same year. Godfrey became the subject of a number of medieval French chansons de geste, and Torquato Tasso (1544–1595) made him the hero of his epic poem Jerusalem Delivered (1581).

67. composed by the janissary Amin-Oglu: A fictitious personage; the verses are by Pushkin himself.

68. Sukhorukov: Vasily Dmitrievich Sukhorukov (1795–1841), officer in the Cossack guards regiment and military historian, was close to the Decembrists. After the uprising, the rich materials he had collected on the Don Cossack army were taken from him and never returned, and he was removed from his regiment and sent to serve in the Caucasus. There he gathered materials for a history of the campaign of 1829, but these, too, were confiscated in 1830. On his return to Petersburg, Pushkin tried unsuccessfully to recover them.

69. Bey-bulat, the terror of the Caucasus: In 1825 Bey-bulat Taymazov led the Caucasian mountaineers in a revolt against the Russians, but in 1829 he went over to the Russian side.

70. Mr. Abramovich: Pushkin gives only the initial A. The Russian editors of the 1975 edition followed here give the name Abramovich this first time, following the suggestion of the ethnographer Evgeny Gustavovich Veydenbaum in his Travels in the Northern Caucasus (1888), though others say that the cavalry captain Abramovich was not serving in the Caucasus at that time.

71. Konovnitsyn: Pyotr Petrovich Konovnitsyn (1802–1830) was the son of a distinguished general and count who fought in the Napoleonic Wars and ended as minister of war under Alexander I. The young Konovnitsyn joined the Decembrists, was broken to the ranks in 1826 and sent first to Semipalatinsk and then to the Caucasus. In 1828 he was promoted to ensign.

72. Dorokhov: Rufin Ivanovich Dorokhov (1801–1852) was broken to the ranks in 1820 for unruly behavior and dueling. From 1828 to 1833 he served in the Nizhegorodsky dragoons; in 1829 he was promoted to ensign. He was one of three models for Tolstoy’s Fyodor Ivanovich Dolokhov in War and Peace. Pushkin addressed an epigram to him:

You’re lucky with charming little fools,

In the service, at cards, and at feasts.

You’re St. Priest in caricatures,

You’re Neledinsky in verse;

You’ve been shot up in duels,

You’ve been cut up in war—

You may be a real, true hero,

But you’re a thorough-going rake.

FRAGMENTS AND SKETCHES The Guests Were Arriving at the Dacha (1828–1830)

1. “One of our poets…beauty”: The poet Nikolai Ivanovich Gnedich (1784–1833) was most famous for his translation of the Iliad, which Pushkin greatly admired. The line is a slightly altered quotation from his idyll “The Fishermen” (1822).

2. Hussein Pasha: Hussein Dey (1765–1838), the last Ottoman ruler of Algeria.

3. a last game of écarté: A French card game for two players, in which each player can set aside (écarter) some of the cards dealt to him and draw others before starting to play.

4. the English Embankment: Then one of the most fashionable streets in Petersburg, along the left bank of the Neva. It was named for the British embassy and church located there. The emperor would have been Alexander I.

5. Les Liaisons dangereuses…Jomini: Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782), an epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1741–1803), portrays the decadence of the French aristocracy before the revolution. Antoine-Henri Jomini (1779–1869), a Swiss businessman and officer, joined the French army in 1805, but later went over to the Russian side and became a general and advisor to the emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I. His writings on military theory were widely used in European and American military academies.

6. Rurik and Monomakh: For Rurik, see note 7 to The History of the Village of Goryukhino. Vladimir II Monomakh (1053–1125) was grand prince of Kievan Rus from 1113 to 1125.

7. Peter and Elizabeth: Peter the Great (1672–1725) became tsar of Russia in 1682 and the first Russian emperor in 1721. His daughter, the empress Elizabeth (1709–1762), came to power in 1741.

8. the duc de Montmorency…Clermont-Tonnerre: Two of the most noble French families, the first going back to the tenth century, the second to the eleventh century. The lords of Montmorency bore the title of “first baron of Christendom” until 1327. The first duke was Anne de Montmorency (1493–1567), who became marshal and constable of France. The house of Clermont-Tonnerre furnished many important military leaders and statesmen.

9. Karamzin…history: See note 4 to Roslavlev.

A Novel in Letters (1829)

1. Lamartine: Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869), poet, writer, and statesman, was a major figure of French Romanticism. One of his finest poems is the elegy “Solitude,” published in a collection in 1823.

2. Krestovsky Island: One of the islands in the mouth of the River Neva that make up St. Petersburg. The nobility used to have dachas there.

3. Clarissa Harlowe: The heroine of the epistolary novel Clarissa, or the History of a Young Lady (1748), by Samuel Richardson (see note 6 to “The Young Lady Peasant”). Pushkin found Richardson’s work tedious, but it was very popular among young ladies.

4. Lovelace…Adolphe: Robert Lovelace is the villain of Richardson’s Clarissa, who abducts and eventually rapes the heroine. The eponymous hero of the novel Adolphe (1816), by the Swiss-born writer and liberal activist Benjamin Constant (1767–1830), was a shy and introspective young man.

5. the English Embankment: See note 4 to “The Guests Were Arriving at the Dacha.”

6. Bellecourt…Charlotte: Pushkin takes these as typical names in eighteenth-century French novels.

7. Vyazemsky and Pushkin: For Vyazemsky, see note 1 to “The Stationmaster.” There are “provincial young ladies” in several of the Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin; perhaps the most perfect example in Pushkin’s work is Tatyana Larina, the heroine of his novel in verse, Evgeny Onegin (1825–1832).

8. the Herald of Europe: A biweekly journal published in Petersburg from 1802 to 1830. It began in a liberal spirit but turned more and more conservative, consistently attacking Pushkin’s work, especially in the jeering personal critiques by Nikolai Ivanovich Nadezhdin (1804–1856) of the long poems Poltava and Count Nulin.

9. Fornarina…tableaux vivants: The Portrait of a Young Woman (1518–1520), by Raphael (1483–1520), known as La Fornarina (“The Baker Woman”), is said to be the portrait of the artist’s Roman mistress, Margherita Luti, who appears in several of his paintings. The parlor game of tableaux vivants (“living pictures”), in which live people would simulate famous paintings, was popular in the nineteenth century.

10. Minin…Pozharsky: In 1818 a bronze sculpture was set up on Moscow’s Red Square to commemorate Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and the merchant Kozma Minin (see note 8 to Roslavlev).

11. collegiate assessor: See note 43 to Journey to Arzrum.

12. La Bruyère: Jean de La Bruyère (1645–1696), moralist and philosopher, is known essentially for one book, Les Caractères (1688), a collection of portraits forming a chronicle of the French seventeeth century and its mores, written with a sylistic sharpness and perfection that has served as a model ever since its publication, not least for Pushkin himself.

13. Fonvizin…Prostakovs and Skotinins: For Fonvizin, see note 1 to The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin. The names Prostakov and Skotinin, while perfectly normal in Russian, are suggestive of simple-mindedness and brutishness respectively.

14. “And that’s…patriots”: From act 2, scene 5 of Griboedov’s Woe from Wit (see note 7 to “The Blizzard”).

15. The first line refers to Pierre Terrail, the Chevalier Bayard (1475–1524), called by one of his fellow soldiers le bon chevalier sans peur et sans reproche, an embodiment of French chivalric ideals. The second line is from the device of Enguerrand III de Coucy (1182–1242) and his descendants. The full version reads Je ne suis roy, ne prince, ne comte aussi, / Je suis le sire de Coucy.

16. Faublas…women: The Loves of the Chevalier de Faublas (1787) was the first of a trilogy of novels about Faublas by Jean-Batiste Louvet de Couvrai (1760–1797), journalist, novelist, playwright, and revolutionary activist.

17. hoarse-voiced guardsman of 1807: According to Vyazemsky (see note 1 to “The Stationmaster”), the boastfulness and haughtiness of young Russian officers were combined with an affected huskiness of voice, a practice that began in 1807, the year of Napoleon’s war with East Prussia, which ended with the treaty of Tilsit. Another explanation attributes the huskiness to the wearing of extremely tight-waisted uniforms.

18. Adam Smith: Scottish philosopher and economist (1723–1790). His book The Wealth of Nations (1776), setting forth the free market theory, was and remains a fundamental work in modern political economics.

Notes of a Young Man (1829–1830)

1. the prodigal son: See note 4 to “The Stationmaster.”

My Fate Is Decided. I Am Getting Married…(1830)

1. “My native land, adieu”: The words (in English) are an inexact quotation of an inserted lyric from canto 1, stanza 13, of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812–1818), a long poem by Lord Byron: “Adieu, adieu! my native shore / Fades o’er the waters blue […] / My Native Land—Good Night!”

2. Mlle Sont The soprano Henriette Sontag (1806–1854), born in Koblenz, Germany, made her début in 1821 and went on to become internationally famous.

A Romance at the Caucasian Waters (1831)

1. Boston: Already referred to in previous stories, Boston is a card game similar to whist, which became very popular in Europe during the later eighteenth century. It was probably named after the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, birthplace of the American Revolution. At any rate, the game was not played by the British.

2. Bukharans: The Bukharans were inhabitants of the Muslim khanate of Bukhara, in the region of Uzbekistan, at that time a Russian protectorate.

3. from Basmannaya to the Arbat: At that time, Basmannaya Street and the Arbat were on opposite sides of Moscow.

A Russian Pelham (1834–1835)

1. Pelham: Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873), English writer and parliamentarian, published his best-selling novel Pelham: or the Adventures of a Gentleman in 1828.

2. the late Count Sheremetev: Count Nikolai Petrovich Sheremetev (1751–1809) was a member of an old and extremely wealthy noble family who were important patrons of the theater.

3. the philistines: A nickname given by German university students to the local townspeople.

We Were Spending the Evening at the Dacha…(1835)

1. Mme de Staël: See note 5 to Roslavlev.

2. a Gambs armchair: The Prussian furniture maker Heinrich Daniel Gambs (1769–1831) moved to Petersburg in 1795 and set up shop there.

3. the Maid of Orleans…Mme Roland…: The Maid of Orleans, referring to Joan of Arc, is the title of a satirical poem by Voltaire (see note 8 to The Moor of Peter the Great) published in 1762, and of a tragedy by Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) first produced in 1801. Françoise d’Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon (1635–1719), was a favorite and later the second wife of Louis XIV. Marie-Jeanne Phlippon Roland (1754–1793) and her husband were supporters of the French Revolution on the moderate Girondist side; purged by Robespierre during the Reign of Terror, she was imprisoned and died on the guillotine.

4. Antony…La Physiologie du mariage: The drama Antony, by Alexander Dumas (1802–1870), described by its author as “a scene of love, jealousy, and anger,” was a great success when first produced in Paris in 1831. La Physiologie du mariage, by Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), a rather daring essay for its time, was published in 1829.

5. Aurelius Victor…Cornelius Nepos…Suetonius: Sextus Aurelius Victor (ca. 320–ca. 390), was the author of the short historical work De Caesaribus (“On the Caesars”); several other works have been attributed to him, including De Viris Illustribus (“On Illustrious Men”). Most of the works of the Roman biographer Cornelius Nepos (ca. 110 BC–ca. 25 BC) have been lost, but he is referred to and quoted by a number of other Roman historians. Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (ca. 69–ca. 122), Roman historian, was the author of De Vita Caesarum, best known in English as The Twelve Caesars.

6. Tacitus…Sallust: Publius Cornelius Tacitus (ca. 56–ca. 117), Roman senator and historian, was the author of the Annals and the Histories, rather detailed accounts of the period of the emperors Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero. Gaius Sallustius Crispus (86–ca. 35 BC), the earliest Roman historian known by name, was of plebeian origin and a supporter of Julius Caesar during the civil war, for which he was made governor of the province of Africa Nova.

7. the marquise George Sand: Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin (1804–1876), known by her literary pseudonym George Sand, was baronne, not marquise, Dudevant, but she was the author of La Marquise (1832), which Pushkin may have had in mind. Commenting on her “liberated” spirit, Turgenev said of her: “What a brave man she was, and what a good woman.”

8. does not desire the death of a sinner: The words are familiar to Russians from several Orthodox prayers, particularly the prayer before confession.

A Story from Roman Life (1833–35)

1. Titus Petronius: Authorship of the Roman satirical novel The Satyricon is generally attributed to Gaius Petronius Arbiter (27–66), whose name may originally have been Titus Petronius Niger, as given in a fifteenth-century manuscript of the novel. The story of his death is recounted in book 16 of the Annals of Tacitus.

2. Caesar…Cumae…Eumenides: The Caesar in this case is Nero, under whom Petronius served as consul and arbiter elegantiarum (“judge of elegance”). Cumae was a town on the coast of the Campania north of Naples founded by Greek settlers in the eighth century BC, known especially for being the home of the Cumaean sibyl. In Greek mythology Eumenides was the name for the Furies (Erinyes) once they were placated; it means “kindly ones.”

3. Gray they’ve grown…and lie forgot!: Pushkin’s loose translation of ode 44 (the numbering varies depending on the edition), by the Greek lyric poet Anacreon (ca. 582–ca. 485 BC).

4. Proud steeds…in their eyes: Pushkin’s version of Anacreon’s ode 55 (again the numbering varies).

5. Which of the gods…a certain death: Pushkin’s loose version of ode 7 from book 2 of the Odes of the Roman poet Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65–8 BC). Horace was a great admirer of Anacreon. The term quiritis, referring to Roman citizens in their peacetime functions, was used by Caesar as a reproach to his soldiers; incidentally, it does not appear in Horace’s ode.

6. Sweet…country: Line 13 from book 3, ode 2, by Horace.