Bulgarin, Faddei (1789-1859): Writer best remembered as a police informer during the reign of Nicholas I. ,
Chaadayev, Peter Yakovlevich (1794-1856): Author of Philosophical Letters, which condemned Russia's cultural backwardness and called for her integration into the European tradition. The publication of the "First Letter" in 1836 led Nicholas I to declare him insane and to have him placed under house arrest for eighteen months. Mandel- stam's essay on him appeared in the journal Apollon in 1915.
Charents (Sogononian), Egishe (1897-1937): Armenian poet who translated Pushkin, Mayakovski, Gorki into Armenian.
Chechanovski, Mark Osipovich: Editor and translator.
Cherniak, Robert Mikhailovich (1900-1932): Graphic artist.
Chicherin, Georgi Vasilievich (1872-1936): People's Commissar (i.e., Minister) of Foreign Affairs, 1918-30.
Chorene, Moses of: Reputed author of a fifth-century history of Armenia.
Chorny, Sasha (Alexander Mikhailovich Glikberg) (1880-1932): Talented author of satirical verse and stories. He emigrated in 1920 and eventually settled in France.
Chukovski, Kornei lvanovich (1882-1969) Eminent Russian man of letters. His son, Nikolai Korneyevich (1905-1965), was a novelist.
Courtenay, Jan Ignacy Niecislaw, Baudoin de (1845-1929): Leading Slavic philologist, professor at St. Petersburg University.
Denikin, Anton lvanovich (1872-1947): Commander-in-chief of the White Army in the South until he was succeeded by Wrangel in 1920. He died in the U.S.A.
Derzhavin, Gavriil Romanovich (1743-1816): Noted Russian poet.
Diki, Alexei Denisovich (1895-1955): Well-known actor and producer.
Dobroliubov, Alexander Mikhailovich (1876-?): Early Symbolist poet and mystical anarchist. He probably died during the Civil War.
Dobroliubov, Nikolai Alexandrovich (1836-1861): Radical publicist.
Dolmatovski, Yevgeni Aronovich (1915- ): Soviet poet noted for his political conformism.
Dombrovski, Yuri Osipovich (1910- ): Soviet writer who spent many years in a forced-labor camp. The novel to which Mrs. Mandelstam alludes is The Keeper of Antiquities.
Dzerzhinski, Felix Edmundovich (1877-1926): First head of the Cheka.
Efros, Abram Markovich (1888-1954): Noted art historian and translator.
Ehrenburg, Ilia Grigorievich (1891-1967): Famous Soviet novelist and journalist. After a youthful involvement with Bolshevik activities in 1906, he was imprisoned briefly. In 1908, he went abroad and lived in Paris from 1909 to 1917. He returned to Russia as an anti-Bolshevik in 1917, went back to Paris in 1921, and after some wavering became increasingly pro-Soviet. Until 1941, however, he managed to live mainly abroad (as European correspondent of lzvestia), making only brief visits to the Soviet Union. Notable among his vast output of novels, stories, essays, etc., are The Extraordinary Adventures of Julio Jurenito (1921), The Fall of Paris (1942) and The Thaw (1954). His memoirs were published in the mid-1960's and, despite the inevitable reticences, they give a fascinating picture of the fate of the Russian intelligentsia in Soviet times. His account of Mandelstam contains some inaccuracies (including the story, described as a legend by Mrs. Mandelstam, that he read Petrarch by a campfire in the days before his death in Siberia). A sardonic, gifted, and basically ambivalent figure, Ehrenburg did much after Stalin's death to promote the cultural values destroyed by the regime to which he had long paid lip-service as a novelist, journalist, and public figure. His novel The Thaw was of great importance as the first breach to be made in Stalinist mythology, and in his memoirs and essays after Stalin's death (such as those on Chekhov and Stendhal) he championed freedom of expression in literature and art.
Eichenbaum, Boris Mikhailovich (1886-1959): Scholar and literary critic, once a leading member of the Formalist school. He was associated with LEF.
Ekster (Grigorovich), Alexandra Alexandrovna (1884-1949): Artist and set designer. A pupil of Leger, she was active in Russian avant-garde circles, painting in a Cubist style, and illustrated books by the Futurists. After the Revolution she worked for the Kamerny Theater in Moscow, but emigrated from Russia some time in the 1920's.
Elsberg, Yakov: Soviet literary scholar, once secretary to Lev Kamenev, the Old Bolshevik purged by Stalin. In 1962 there was an attempt to have Elsberg expelled from the Union of Soviet Writers for his complicity as a secret police agent in the arrest and exile of fellow writers under Stalin, but apparently nothing came of this move (or he was speedily reinstated).
Erdman, Nikolai Robertovich (1902- ): Playwright best known for his comedy The Mandate (1925), which was staged by Meyerhold. He was first arrested in 1931 and then again in the late 1930's.
Fadeyev (Bulyga), Alexander Alexandrovich (1901-1956): Soviet novelist. Author of The Rout (1927) and The Young Guard (1945), both held up in the Stalin years as models of "socialist realism"—though Stalin made him revise The Young Guard (revised version: 1951). From 1946 to 1953 he was Secretary General of the Union of Soviet Writers. He committed suicide in 1956.
Fedin, Konstantin Alexandrovich (1892- ): Leading "Fellow Traveler" novelist. Fedin has been secretary of the Union of Soviet Writers (in succession to Surkov) since 1959.
Fety Afanasi Afanasievich (1820-1892): Lyric poet.
Filippov (Filistinski), Boris Andreyevich (1905- ): Emigre editor and poet. Collaborated with Gleb Struve in editing the works of Mandelstam (Chekhov Publishing House, New York, 1955, and Inter-Language Literary Associates, New York, three volumes, 1964-69).
Florenski, Father Pavel Alexandrovich (1882-1952): Originally a mathematician, appointed as a lecturer in philosophy at the Moscow Theological Academy in 1908, and ordained a priest in 1911. The publication in 1914 of The Pillar and Foundation of Truth was a landmark in the renaissance of Russian religious thinking. He was deported to Siberia after the Revolution.
Furmanov, Dmitri Andreyevich (1891-1926): Soviet writer famous for
his novel Chapayev, about the Civil War. He served as secretary of the Moscow branch of RAPP.
Gapon, Georgi Apollonovich (1870-1906): Russian priest who in 1903 organized a Workers' Association with quasi-official support. He led the march to the Winter Palace on Bloody Sunday, January 9, 1905.
Garin, Erast Pavlovich (1902- ): Well-known actor and producer, once an associate of Meyerhold.