Hope Against Hope

Gerstein, Emma: Literary scholar, close friend of the Mandelstams and Anna Akhmatova; author of Sudba Lermontova (Lermontov's Fate) (Moscow, 1964).

Ginzburg, Grigori Romanovich (1904- ): Pianist and professor at the Moscow Conservatory.

Ginzburg, Leo Moritsevich (1901- ): Conductor.

Gippius, Vladimir Vasilievich (1876-1941): Poet and literary historian; director of the Tenishev school which Mandelstam attended before the Revolution.

Gladkov, Fedor V. (1883-1958): "Proletarian" writer, famous for his novel Cement.

Gorbunov, Nikolai Petrovich (1892-?): Executive secretary of the Council of People's Commissars; vice-president of the Lenin Academy of Agriculture.

Gorki, Maxim (Alexei Maximovich Peshkov) (1868-1936): Major Russian writer, friend of Lenin (and, later, Stalin); editor of Novaya Zhizn (New Life), which opposed the October Revolution, until it was closed down on Lenin's orders in 1918. Gorki did much to help and give material aid to intellectuals during the Civil War. He emigrated in 1921, but returned in 1929 to become the chief exponent of "socialist realism." After his death in 1936, Yagoda and Professor D. Pletnev were charged by Stalin with his "medical murder."

Grigoriev, Apollon Alexandrovich (1822-1864): Poet and critic.

Gronski, Ivan Mikhailovich (1894- ): Journalist and critic. He was editor of Izvestia, 1928-34.

Gumilev, Lev Nikolayevich (1911- ): Son of Nikolai Gumilev and Akhmatova; historian and Orientalist. He was arrested first in 1934 after the assassination of Kirov, and again in 1937. During the war he was released and served at the front. In 1949 he was arrested again and was released in 1956.

Gumilev, Nikolai Stepanovich (1886-1921): Acmeist poet and co-founder of the Poets' Guild. Before the First World War he traveled to Abyssinia. His narrative and lyric poetry and his tales were influenced by his travels, his distinguished military service in the war and his monarchist beliefs. After the Revolution he did translations for Gorki's World Literature Publishing House and taught poetry in the House of Arts. He was shot in August 1921 after he proudly confessed his involvement in the Tagantsev affair, a rather confused anti-Bolshevik conspiracy. His poetry is popular with Soviet youth, though he still has not been rehabilitated. He was the first husband of Ahkmatova.

Gusev (Drabkin), Sergei Ivanovich (1874-1933): Prominent Party official.

He was head of the Press Department of the Central Committee, ⁱ9²5~33*

Herzen, Alexander Ivanovich (1812-1870): Famous Russian publicist and editor of Kolokol (The Bell), which he brought out in London after his emigration in 1847.

Ivanov, Georgi Vladimirovich (1894-1958): Acmeist poet who emigrated to Paris after the Revolution. His book of memoirs, Petersburg Winters, was first published in Paris in 1928.

Ivanov у Viacheslav Ivanovich (1866-1949): Leading Symbolist poet and classical scholar. He emigrated to Rome in 1924.

Kablukovy Sergei Platonovich: Secretary of the Religious Philosophical Society in St. Petersburg.

Kachalov (Shverubovich), Vasili Ivanovich (1875-1948): Famous actor of the Moscow Art Theater.

Kalinin, Mikhail Ivanovich (1875-1946): Member of the Politburo from 1925; chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, 1912-46, and hence titular head of state.

Kamenev (Rosenfeld), Lev Borisov'tch (1883-1936): Old Bolshevik, member of the Central Committee from 1917 and one of the ruling Party triumvirate (with Stalin and Zinoviev) after Lenin's death. Arrested in 1934, he was executed after his confession at a show trial in 1936.

Katanian, Ruben Pavlovich (1881-?): Assistant Procurator General of the U.S.S.R., 1933-37.

Katayev, Valentin Petrovich (1897- ): Prominent Soviet novelist. One of the leading "Fellow Travelers" in the 1920's. His play The Squaring of the Circle was often produced in the West in the 1930's. After Stalin's death, as editor of the literary monthly Yunost (Youth), he encouraged new talent. His semi-fictional reminiscences, Holy Well (published in English translation in 1967), contain his version of the conversation described by Mrs. Mandelstam on p. 280. His brother was the satirist Evgeni Petrov.

Kaverin (Zilber), Veniamin Alexandrovich (1902- ): Soviet novelist who was a leading member of the Serapion Brothers in the 1920's. In recent years, since Stalin's death, he has played a courageous part in the restoration of cultural values. In 1956 he was one of the editors of the almanac Literary Moscow, which was a landmark in the movement for greater freedom of expression.

Kazin, Vasili (1898-?): A "proletarian" poet.

Khardzhiev, Nikolai Ivanovich: Soviet literary scholar and editor. A friend of the Mandelstams.

Khlebnikov, Velimir (Victor Vladimirovich) (1885-1922): Futurist poet noted for his linguistic experimentation. He died of malnutrition in 1922. Some of his poetry has now been reprinted after many years of suppression.

Khodasevich, Vladislav Felitsianovich (1886-1939): Poet and critic. He emigrated in 1922 and died in Paris.

Kirov (Kostrikov), Sergei Mironovich (1886-1934): Party leader of

Leningrad. His assassination in December 1934, possibly with the complicity of Stalin, was used as an excuse to step up the tempo of the purges and mass terror.

Kirsanov, Semion Isaakovich (1906- ): Poet, translator and member of LEF, influenced in his early period by Mayakovski.

Kluyev, Nikolai Alexandrovich (1887-1937): Peasant poet. He was arrested in the i93o's and died in Siberia.

Klychkov (Leshenkov), Sergei Antonovich (1889-1937): Peasant poet and novelist, arrested in 1937.

Kochetov, Vsevolod Anisimovich (1912- ): Novelist who in recent years has become the spokesman of extreme anti-liberal forces in Soviet literature. Two of his novels, The Brothers Yershov (1957) and What Do You Want? (1969), are lampoons on the liberal intelligentsia. Kochetov is editor of the monthly Oktiabr (October).

Koltsov, Mikhail Yefimovich (1898-1942): Soviet journalist, correspondent and editor of Pravda who became famous for his dispatches during the Spanish civil war. Elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in 1938, he was arrested that same year, and presumably died in a forced-labor camp.

Komarovski, Count Vasili Alexeyevich (1881-1914): Minor poet connected with the Symbolist movement.