39. Ivan Ivanovich Mikhelson: Mikhelson (1740–1807) was one of the most prominent commanders in the Russian army. While still a lieutenant colonel, he successfully broke Pugachev’s siege of Kazan and pursued the enemy to a final defeat against great odds at the battle of Tsaritsyn.
40. Volynsky and Khrushchev: Artemy Petrovich Volynsky (1689–1740) was a minister under the cruel and arbitrary empress Anna Ioannovna (see note 10 above). He and his friend and assistant Andrei Fyodorovich Khrushchev (1691–1740) were accused of plotting to replace Anna with Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great, and were executed.
41. Tsarskoe Selo: Literally “the Tsar’s Village,” located fifteen miles south of Petersburg. Originally an estate given by Peter the Great to his wife in 1708, it developed over time into a favorite country residence of the imperial family and the nobility and eventually into a town. Sofia, a neighboring town, merged with Tsarskoe Selo in 1808. Pushkin was in the first graduating class of the lycée at Tsarskoe Selo, founded by Alexander I in 1811. In 1937 the town was renamed Pushkin, in honor of the centenary of his death.
42. Rumyantsev’s recent victories: Count Pyotr Alexandrovich Rumyantsev (1725–1796) was a brilliant Russian general and later field marshal, involved mainly in the Russo-Turkish wars. His victories during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 forced the sultan Abdul Hamid I to sue for peace in 1774.
“The Omitted Chapter”
43. St. Elijah’s day: The Old Testament prophet Elijah (Elias) is commemorated as a saint in both the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches. His day is July 20 by the Julian calendar (still followed by the Russian Orthodox Church), August 2 by the Gregorian calendar.
JOURNEY TO ARZRUM (1836)
1. Voyages en Orient…: The author of the Voyages was Victor Fontanier (1796–1857), who was sent as a naturalist attached to the French embassy in Constantinople to explore the regions of the Black Sea and the Ottoman Empire (1822–1829). His book was published between 1829 and 1834.
2. Khomyakov…Muravyov…Count Dibich: Alexei Stepanovich Khomyakov (1804–1860), poet, philosopher, and co-founder of the Slavophile movement, was one of the most influential Russian thinkers of his time and later. The poet Andrei Nikolaevich Muravyov (1806–1874) published an account of his journey to the Holy Land in 1834. The German-born Count Ivan Ivanovich Dibich, or Diebitsch (1785–1831), became a Russian field marshal and commanded the imperial forces during the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829.
3. Detached Caucasus Corps: A corps of some 40,000 men, under General Paskevich (see following note), sent to fight the Turks on the Caucasian front of the war, to draw them away from the other front in the Balkan peninsula. The corps included a number of former Decembrists, a group of liberal-minded officers and soldiers who had been arrested after staging an uprising on December 26, 1825, in favor of constitutional reforms. Pushkin had been a close friend of some of the Decembrists and sympathized with their cause.
4. Paskewitch…Mouravieff…Tsitsevaze…Beboutof…Potemkine…Raiewsky: Pushkin is clearly amused by these French renderings of Russian names, as Byron was in Don Juan. Ivan Fyodorovich Paskevich (1782–1856) shared command of the Russian forces with Dibich and headed the army after Dibich’s death in 1831. He was a field marshal and in reward for his successes was granted the titles of Count of Erevan and Prince of Warsaw. Nikolai Nikolaevich Muravyov (1794–1866) was chief of staff of the Caucasus Corps under Paskevich. The Georgian prince Alexander Garsevanovich Chavchavadze (1786–1846) was a poet and a general in the Russian army. Vasily Osipovich Bebutov (1791–1858), of Georgian-Armenian nobility, served in the Russian army from 1809 and distinguished himself during the Russo-Turkish wars. Prince Potemkin (see note 1 to “The Coffin-Maker”) had nothing to do with the Caucasus Corps. Nikolai Nikolaevich Raevsky (1771–1829) was an important general during the Napoleonic Wars. Pushkin met him in the Caucasus in 1821 and they became good friends; his sons were members of the Southern Society, which helped to plan the Decembrist uprising; they pulled out of the Society before the uprising took place, but were nevertheless “punished” by being sent to serve in the Caucasus.
5. Osman Pasha: Osman Pasha (“pasha” being an honorary title) was the governor of Arzrum.
6. the campaign of 1829: Paskevich’s campaign on the Caucasian front, which ended in September 1829 with the defeat of the Turkish army and the Treaty of Adrianople. It is the background subject of Pushkin’s Journey to Arzrum, in addition to which, despite his disclaimer, he also wrote a number of poems based on his experiences during the campaign.
7. Ermolov: Alexei Petrovich Ermolov (1777–1861) began his military career in the Preobrazhensky regiment (see note 14 to The Moor of Peter the Great), advanced rapidly during the Napoleonic Wars, became chief of staff of the First Western Army in 1812 and then chief of staff of the entire army in the same year. After the defeat of the French, he was made commander in chief of the Caucasus. But his stubborn temperament brought him into conflict with his superiors, and in 1827 Nicholas I abruptly replaced him with Paskevich. He spent the last thirty years of his life on his estate near Orel.
8. Dawe: The British painter George Dawe (1781–1829) moved to Petersburg in 1819, where he was commissioned to paint 329 portraits of Russian generals who participated in the Napoleonic Wars, to be hung in the military gallery of the Winter Palace.
9. the count of Jericho: For Paskevich see note 4 above. Ermolov plays on the similarity of the Russian words Erevansky (“of Erevan”) and Erikhonsky (“of Jericho”).
10. Count Tolstoy: Count Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy (1782–1846), known as “Tolstoy the American” because he had spent time in the Aleutian Islands during a two-year cruise around the world (1803–1805). He was a high-society bon vivant, duelist, gambler, and at various times Pushkin’s friend and enemy.
11. Karamzin’s History: See note 4 to Roslavlev.
12. Prince Kurbsky: Prince Andrei Mikhailovich Kurbsky (1528–1583) was a close friend and advisor to Ivan the Terrible, but then became his enemy and defected to Lithuania. He is best remembered for his bitter and erudite exchange of letters with the tsar; he also wrote a History of the Grand Prince of Moscow on the life of Ivan the Terrible.
13. Griboedov: See note 7 to “The Blizzard.”
14. Count Pushkin: That is, Count Vladimir Alexeevich Musin-Pushkin (1798–1854), a distant relation of Pushkin’s. He had been involved in the Decembrist uprising, but was punished only by demotion.
15. Indomitable mares…: The quotation is from the poem “Peter the Great in Ostrogozhsk” (1823), by the young poet and officer Kondraty Fyodorovich Ryleev (1795–1826), one of the five Decembrists who were hanged for inciting the rebellion.
16. Orlovsky: Alexander Osipovich Orlovsky (1777–1832) was a Russian artist of Polish origin. He was most noted for his lively drawings, for which he was invited to Petersburg by Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, brother of the emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I. Pushkin greatly admired his work.
17. Hot Springs: Also known as the Caucasian Mineral Waters, now the town of Pyatigorsk. Pushkin had visited the place some years earlier (see the fragment “A Romance at the Caucasian Waters”).