The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Literature

Glossary 271

l´ıchnoe (nominative neuter declension of the adjective l´ıchnyi) personal; unique

to an individual, p. 30. l´ıchnost' personality; implies the moral character of a person, p. 30. lik [pronounced “leek”] face, visage, countenance, p. 30. l´ıshnii chelovek superfluous man, p. 54. Litfond acronym for “Literary Fund,” the financial division of the Union of Soviet

writers, p. 198. litso generic Russian word for “face,” p. 30. loshad'-kaleka crippled mare, p. 155. lubok woodcut print, one of the earliest forms of printing the written word in

Russia; now often used in the sense of “pulp fiction,” p. 73. luzha mud puddle, p. 49. Lyod Ice, title of a novel by Vlad´ımir Sorokin, p. 240.

mag´ıcheskii kristall lit. “magic crystal”; crystal ball used for telling fortunes, a

famous image from Chapter 8 of Eugene Onegin, p. 105. magnitizdat recordings of illegal music smuggled into the Soviet Union and

distributed illicitly, p. 238. Mat'-syra-zemlya Moist-Mother-Earth [Russian order is “Mother - Moist -

Earth”], p. 61. Mednye lyudi “Bronze Folk,” title of a chapter from Andrei B´ıtov’s Pushkin

House that parodies Dostoevsky’s epistolary novel, Poor Folk [Bednye lyudi],

p. 237. Mednyi vsadnik The Bronze Horseman, a narrative poem by Aleksandr Pushkin,

p. 237. Milon “Dear One,” speaking name from Denis Fonvizin’s comedy The Minor

(1781), p. 86. mit'k´ı eccentric followers of artist Dmitry Shagin in the 1970s; painters, poets,

filmmakers, and performance artists with an anti-work ethic, p. 42. Mitrofan “Mama’s Boy” (Greek), speaking name from Denis Fonvizin’s comedy

The Minor (1781), p. 86. Moskva Moscow, p. 183.

nachinaetsia begins, is beginning, p. 164.

narodnost' people- or folk-mindedness; a value precious to Slavophile thinkers

in the nineteenth century and revived as a socialist realist concept in the

1930s, suggesting that art should be accessible and appealing to the masses

by drawing on their traditions, language, melodies, rhythms, and values,

p. 200. nech´ıstaya s´ıla unclean force. One of many euphemisms for the devil, p. 61. nedorosl' “minor,” a young man in tsarist times who had not yet passed the

literacy exam qualifying him for obligatory civil service - and for marriage,

p. 86. Nepustov “Not-Shallow,” speaking name from Catherine the Great’s comedy O!

The Times! (1769), p. 85.