15. Buturlin: Alexander Borisovich Buturlin (1694–1767), of old Russian nobility, became Peter’s court chamberlain.
16. Feofan…Buzhinsky…Kopievich: Bishop Feofan Prokopovich (1681–1736), archbishop and statesman, guided Peter the Great in his reform of the Orthodox Church. Gavriil Buzhinsky (1680–1731) was a learned monk, abbot, and translator. Ilya Fyodorovich Kopievich was a translator and publisher of Russian books in Amsterdam; in fact, he died in 1708, some years before Ibrahim’s return to Russia.
17. blue ribbons over their shoulders: The Order of St. Andrew, the highest order of chivalry in Russia, established by Peter the Great in 1698, was worn on a light blue ribbon over the right shoulder.
18. sarafans and dushegreikas: The sarafan is a traditional woman’s outer garment, sleeveless, trapezoidal, with long skirts, worn over a shirt; a dushegreika (literally “soul-warmer”) is a waist-length jacket worn over the sarafan.
19. Ruslan and Ludmila: A narrative poem by the young Pushkin in six cantos with epilogue, based on Russian folktales, published in 1820.
20. Narva: The Russians fought two battles against the Swedish at the city of Narva, in Estonia; they lost the first in 1700 but won the second in 1704.
21. the order of precedence: An order of preeminence, for instance in seating people at the table, based on aristocratic rank and seniority, set down in the “books of the nobility” and which the tsar himself could not overrule. It was abolished by Peter the Great in 1682.
22. povoinik: A married woman’s headdress, which completely concealed the hair. Peter’s reforms included the “Europeanizing” of clothing and such other details as the introduction of shaving the beard for men.
23. ‘A wife should reverence her husband’: See St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, 5:33.
24. Ablesimov…The Miller: Alexander Onisimovich Ablesimov (1742–1783), librettist, poet, and journalist, wrote the libretto for the opera The Miller—Wizard, Trickster, and Matchmaker, to music by Mikhail Sokolovsky (1756–1795).
25. pancake makers, and heathens: Prince Menshikov (see note 12 above) was said to have sold little pies (pirozhki) in the street when he was young; “heathens” (basurmani in Russian, a corruption of musulmani) refers to the non-Orthodox foreigners (Germans in particular) that Peter was bringing into his service.
26. Prince Bova…Eruslan Lazarevich: Two legendary heroes of European folklore, whose adventures were recounted in widely popular tales published in the seventeenth century with woodblock illustrations.
27. strelets: A strelets (literally “shooter”; plural streltsi) was a member of a special guards unit, originally formed by Ivan the Terrible in the sixteenth century to serve under the tsar’s direct command in opposition to the feudal boyars.
THE TALES OF THE LATE IVAN PETROVICH BELKIN (1830)
1. Fonvizin, The Dunce: Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin (1744–1792) wrote two satirical comedies that became the first classics of the Russian theater. The second, The Dunce (or The Minor—the Russian title, Nedorosl’, can mean both), considered his masterpiece, was produced in 1782. Mitrofan is the dunce.
“The Shot”
1. Baratynsky: Evgeny Abramovich Baratynsky (1800–1844) was one of the major poets of Pushkin’s time; the epigraph is from his poem “The Ball” (1828).
2. An Evening at Bivouac: A story by Alexander Alexandrovich Bestuzhev (1797–1837), who wrote under the name of Marlinsky. It was published in 1823.
3. Denis Davydov: Denis Vasilyevich Davydov (1784–1839), poet and soldier, much admired by Pushkin, wrote what was known as “hussar poetry,” celebrating womanizing, drinking, and friendship. He distinguished himself during the Napoleonic Wars and was the model for the character Denisov in Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Alexander Petrovich Burtsov (d. 1813) was a hussar officer known for his swordsmanship and carousing. Davydov wrote three poems about him.
4. Ypsilanti…Hetairists…Skulyani: The Greek prince Alexander Ypsilanti (1792–1828) served in Russia as an officer of the imperial cavalry during the Napoleonic Wars and then became leader of the Hetairists (Filiki Hetairia, “Society of Friends”), a secret society that instigated the Greek war of independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821. They were defeated at the battle of Skulyani, in Bessarabia, on June 17, 1821.
“The Blizzard”
1. Zhukovsky: Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky (1783–1852), poet, translator, and tutor to the imperial family, was an older friend and mentor of Pushkin. The epigraph is from his ballad “Svetlana” (1813).
2. Tula: A city some 120 miles south of Moscow, known since the twelfth century for its metalwork—samovars, cutlery, firearms, seals—and also for its gingerbread and accordions.
3. 1812: On June 24, 1812, Napoleon ordered the Grande Armée to cross the River Nemen and the French invasion of Russia began.
4. Borodino: The town of Borodino, seventy miles west of Moscow, was the scene of a bloody and indecisive battle between the French and Russian armies, the costliest in the Napoleonic Wars, fought on September 7, 1812. It was the last offensive action of the French.
5. Artemisia: Artemisia II of Caria (d. 350 BC) became ruler of Caria at the death of her husband, Mausolus, in commemoration of whom she built the splendid Mausoleum in Halicarnassus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Her grief made her an example of pure marital devotion for later artists and writers.
6. “Vive Henri-Quatre”…Joconde: The song “Vive Henri-Quatre” (“Long Live Henry IV”) dates back to the time of the king himself (1553–1610); it gained new popularity in the comedy The Hunting Party of Henri IV (1770), by the French playwright Charles Collé (1709–1783), and is sung by French prisoners towards the end of War and Peace. Joconde (1814) is a comic opera by the French-Maltese composer Nicolas (Nicolò) Isouard (1773–1818).
7. “And into the air their bonnets threw”: A line from the comedy Woe from Wit (1825), the first true masterpiece of Russian theater, by Alexander Sergeevich Griboedov (1795–1829), poet, playwright, and diplomat.
8. the two capitals: A customary way of referring to the old capital, Moscow, and the new capital, St. Petersburg, founded by Peter the Great in 1703.
9. a St. George in his buttonhole: The Order of St. George is the highest military order in Russia, established by Catherine the Great in 1769.
10. Se amor non è…: The opening words of sonnet 132 from the Canzoniere of Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374); the full line is S’amor non è, che dunque e quel ch’io sento? (“If it is not love, what then is it that I feel?”).
11. grande patience: A form of solitaire.