Anna Karenina

1906

Death of favourite daughter, Masha. Increasing tension with wife.

1908

I Cannot Be Silent, opposing capital punishment. 28 August: celebrations for eightieth birthday.

1909

Frequent disputes with wife. Draws up will relinquishing copyrights. His secretary Gusev arrested and exiled.

1910

Flight from home, followed by death at Astapovo railway station, 7 November (os).

PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS AND GUIDE TO PRONUNCIATION

Russian Names

EACH Russian person has, in addition to a surname, a patronymic. This is a middle name ending either in ‘-ovich’ or ‘-evich’, meaning ‘son of’ (e.g. Sergey Ivanovich, Stepan Arkadyevich), or in ‘-ovna’ or ‘-evna’, meaning ‘daughter of’ (e.g. Darya Alexandrovna, Anna Arkadyevna). The first name with patronymic is used as the most common polite form of address, in contrast to the practice of combining title with surname which is customary in English-speaking countries. And when speaking or thinking about a third person, Russians commonly use only the surname, which appears brusque if translated directly. When the narrator describes Vronsky first seeing Anna at the railway station before he has been introduced to her, for example, we read: ‘Vronsky remembered now that this was Karenina.’ In these cases ‘Madame’ has to be interpolated. Surnames decline according to gender, thus Konstantin Levin is married to Kitty Levina.

First names on their own are used only between family and friends, and an additional level of intimacy or familiarity is introduced by diminutives. Konstantin, for example, becomes ‘Kostya’, Ekaterina becomes ‘Katya’ or ‘Katenka’, and Sergey becomes ‘Seryozha’. Patronymics can also have diminutives, and they are used for many of Tolstoy’s male characters, so that ‘Arkadyevich’ becomes ‘Arkadyich’ and ‘Kirillovich’ becomes ‘Kirillich’. Russians can even address each other by their patronymics alone, so that at the peak of early Soviet adulation of Lenin, the Soviet leader was referred to in an officially affectionate and familiar way as ‘Ilych’ in certain particular circumstances. In Anna Karenina, the Karenins’ doorman is known familiarly as ‘Kapitonich’, a diminutive of ‘Kapitonovich’. It is notable that neither Anna nor Vronsky use diminutives with each other, nor do their friends use diminutives to address them; Vronsky is invariably referred to by his surname only, and only his mother calls him by the affectionate ‘Alyosha’. Karenin, however, is usually referred to by his name and patronymic. This is all deliberate practice on Tolstoy’s part, as manner of address is an intrinsic part of his characterization.¹ A case in point is the comic character of Vasenka Veslovsky, who not only is always referred to by the diminutive of his name (short for ‘Vasily’), but by the diminutive of the diminutive (‘Vasenka’ rather than ‘Vasya’). We never learn his patronymic. Conversely, we never learn Countess Lydia Ivanovna’s surname, but the repeated refrain throughout the narration of ‘Countess Lydia Ivanovna’ is also telling in its own way. The proliferation of English nicknames (Stiva, for example, which is a Russian version of ‘Steve’) is unusual, but denotes a particular fashion. The previous French vogue is reflected in old Prince Shcherbatsky being known as ‘Alexandre’.

Names In Anna Karenina

Names are therefore important in Tolstoy. It was clearly not carelessness on his part that he chose to give Karenin and Vronsky the same first name, or that Anna, her daughter Annie, her maid Annushka, and her ward Hannah all share the same name (Anna being derived from the Hebrew ‘Hannah’). There is also the original meaning of names to consider, many of which are of Greek origin and arrived in Russia along with the adoption of Christianity (‘Platon’, the name of the wise peasant Levin hears about, for example, naturally means wisdom). Many of the invented surnames in the novel have symbolic meanings or associations, some of which are humorous. The surname of the waspish Princess Myagkaya, for example, means ‘soft’. The new passion which Tolstoy developed for learning Greek in the early 1870s is reflected in the etymology of ‘Karenin’ (derived from the Greek word for head: Tolstoy’s known enthusiasm for Xenophon, meanwhile, may have generated the name of Levin’s friend Katavasov, which would seem to be derived from the Greek ‘katabasis’ defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as: ‘A going down; a military retreat, in allusion to that of the ten thousand Greeks under Xenophon, related by him in his Anabasis.’ Katavasov, of course, as an incisive polemicist, does not like to retreat. Other names in Anna Karenina follow Tolstoy’s practice of adapting familiar Russian ones, such as his invented ‘Oblonsky’, which is close to ‘Obolensky’.

The following list of principal characters has been organized into families, households, and groups. To assist the reader, stressed syllables are marked with an acute accent wherever there might be lack of clarity.

THE OBLONSKYS

Prince Stepán Arkádyevich Oblónsky (Stepan Arkádyich, Stiva)

Princess Dárya Alexándrovna Oblónskaya, née Shcherbatskaya (Dáshenka, Dolly, Dóllinka)

Their six children are Tánya (diminutive of Tatyana), who is also known as Tanechka and Tanchúrochka, Grísha (diminutive of Grigóry), Masha (Maria), Lily (diminutive of Elizavéta), Alyosha (Alexey or Alexander), and Vasya (Vasily).

Matvey, Oblonsky’s valet

Matryona Filimonovna, the family housekeeper (Matryosha)

THE SHCHERBATSKYS

Shcherbátsky, Prince Alexander Dmítrievich (Alexandre)

Princess Shcherbátskaya (her other names are not given)

Princess Ekaterína Alexándrovna Shcherbátskaya, later Levina (Kitty, Katerína, Kátya, Kátenka)

Prince Nikolay Shcherbátsky, a cousin

Vásenka Veslóvsky (diminutive of Vasíly; we do not know his patronymic), second cousin of the Shcherbatskys

THE KARENINS

Anna Arkádyevna Karénina, née Oblónskaya

Alexey Alexandrovich Karénin

Sergéy Alexéyevich Karénin (Sergey Alexéyich, Seryózha)

Anna Alexéyevna Karénina (Annie), Anna’s daughter by Vronsky (who shares a first name with Karenin, so the patronymic is correct)

Ánnushka (diminutive of Anna), Anna’s maid

Hannah, English ward of Anna

Kornéy Vasílyevich, servant

Kapitónich Petrov, doorman

Vasily Lúkich Vunic, tutor to Seryozha

Countess Lydia Ivánovna (we never learn her surname), Karenin’s friend

THE LEVINS

Konstantín Dmítrievich Lévin (Konstantin Dmítrich, Kóstya).

Nikoláy Dmítrievich Lévin (Nikólenka)

Márya Nikoláyevna (Másha), Nikolay’s partner (surname not given)

Sergey Ivánovich Koznyshév (Sergey Ivánich), Levin’s half-brother

Dmitry Konstantínovich Lévin, Levin and Kitty’s son

Agáfya Mikháilovna, Levin’s housekeeper

THE VRONSKYS

Countess Vrónskaya (we never learn her name or patronymic), Vronsky’s mother

Count Alexéy Kiríllovich Vronsky (Alexey Kiríllich, Alyosha)

Count Alexander Kiríllovich Vronsky, Vronsky’s brother, married to Varya (diminutive of Varvára)

Princess Betsy Tverskáya, Vronsky’s cousin, married to Anna’s first cousin (she is addressed by her full first name and patronymic, Elizaveta Fyodorovna, only once)

THE LVOVS

Prince Arsény Lvov (patronymic not known)

Princess Natálya Alexándrovna Lvóva, née Shcherbatskaya