Nikolai Konstantinovich Mikhailovsky (1842–1904) was a social and literary critic and one of the founders of the Narodniki, a movement that favored “going to the people [
narod
].” He was an early supporter of the revolutionary “People’s Will” movement.
2.
Pisarev:
Dmitri Ivanovich Pisarev (1840–68), writer and critic, was an extreme proponent of utilitarianism, the cause of “the hungry and naked people.”
3.
The Messenger of Europe
:
See note 3 to “The Kiss.”
NEIGHBORS
1.
If you ever need my life, come and take it:
Chekhov later used this same line in act 3 of
The Seagull
(1896).
2.
humiliated and insulted:
The title of a novel by Dostoevsky published in 1861.
3.
Pisarev…Dobrolyubov:
For Pisarev, see note 2 above to “History of a Business Enterprise.” Nikolai Alexandrovich Dobrolyubov (1836–61) was a radical utilitarian journalist, critic, and poet.
4.
in Dostoevsky’s taste:
There are many mismatched marriages in Dostoevsky’s novels.
5.
Khoma Brut:
The naïve “philosopher” and seminary student who is suddenly confronted with otherworldly horror in Gogol’s story “Viy” (1835).
FEAR
1.
visions…in that sleep of death:
See
Hamlet
, Act II, scene 1, ll. 66–68: “For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, / When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, / Must give us pause.”
2.
Shakespeare’s…bench:
cf.
The Merchant of Venice
, Act V, scene 1, l. 54: “How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!”
BIG VOLODYA AND LITTLE VOLODYA
1.
par dépit
:
“out of spite” (French).
2.
Pardon, je ne suis pas seul
:
“Excuse me, I’m not alone” (French).
3.
as Derzhavin had Pushkin:
Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin (1743–1816) was a statesman and the major poet of his generation. During a public examination at the imperial lycée in Tsarskoe Selo on January 8, 1815, the fifteen-year-old student Pushkin recited one of his own poems before the old master, who was greatly impressed.
THE TEACHER OF LITERATURE
1.
Count Nulin:
The horse is named after the hero of Pushkin’s poem
Count Nulin
(1825), a comic take-off on Shakespeare’s narrative poem
The Rape of Lucrece
(1594).
2.
Maria Godefroi:
Marie Godefroy was a circus equestrienne whom Chekhov had once seen perform and found disappointing.
3.
the Third Department:
The imperial secret police, created by the tsar Nicholas I in 1825.
4.
Shchedrin:
See note 7 to “The Name-Day Party.”
5.
Onegin…Boris Godunov
:
For
Onegin
see note 1 to “After the Theater.”
Boris Godunov
(1831) is Pushkin’s drama about the man who ruled Russia as regent (1585–1598) and then tsar (1598–1605).
6.
Lermontov:
See note 1 to “On the Road.”
7.
Of his kingdom there shall be no end:
The angel Gabriel’s words to the Virgin Mary in Luke 1:33.
8.
“The Sinful Woman”:
A very popular narrative poem (ca. 1857) by Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817–75), poet, novelist, playwright, and satirist.
9.
Lessing’s
Hamburg Dramaturgy
:
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–81), writer, dramatist, and thinker, was a major figure of the Enlightenment in Germany.
Hamburg Dramaturgy
(1767–69) is a collection of essays written during the years when he served as dramaturg for the Hamburg National Theater.
10.
Oh, not in vain…doth remain:
Nikitin plays on lines from a poem by Lermontov (see note 1 to “On the Road”).
11.
Kalka…Chukotsky Noses:
The battle between invading Mongols and a coalition of Russian forces on the Kalka River in southern Ukraine took place in 1223. Chukotka, a peninsula on the far northeastern coast of Siberia, is said to look on the map like a nose cut off from a face.
12.
The Messenger of Europe
:
See note 3 to “The Kiss.”
13.
after the Dormition:
See note 3 to “The Witch.”
14.
sang “Holy God” all the way to the cemetery:
The chant is called the Trisagion (the “thrice holy”): “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.”
15.
Theophany:
The Orthodox feast of the Theophany, celebrated on January 6, commemorates the baptism of Christ in the Jordan by John the Baptist, at which the Trinity was made manifest.
16.
the Great Lent:
See note 3 to “Reading.”
IN A COUNTRY HOUSE
1.
a bad Sobakevich:
Mikhailo Semyonovich Sobakevich, a solid, bear-like landowner, is one of the main characters in Nikolai Gogol’s novel
Dead Souls
(1842).
2.
Goncharov:
The writer Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov (1812–91), best known for his novel
Oblomov
(1859), was indeed from a wealthy merchant family in Simbirsk, on the Volga, some 400 miles east of Moscow.
3.
Flammarion:
Nicolas Camille Flammarion (1842–1925) was an astronomer and writer, author of many books, including early science fiction novels, and interested also in psychic research, spiritism, and reincarnation.
THE PECHENEG
1.
Pecheneg…Zhmukhin:
The Pechenegs were a semi-nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia, considered cruel and uncultivated, who migrated westwards during the Middle Ages and in the tenth century laid siege to Kiev. Zhmukhin, the central character of the story, is dubbed a “Pecheneg” by his neighbors. The name Zhmukhin is a plausible Russian name, but has suggestions of pushing, squeezing, oppression.
2.
the Donetsk line:
The railway line to Donetsk, a major industrial city in the Ukraine, was opened in 1870.
3.
Novocherkassk:
A new city founded by the leader of the Don Cossacks in 1804 as an administrative center in the Rostov region, bordering the Ukraine, and developed with the help of a French engineer, who nicknamed the city “little Paris.”
4.
passports: