14. an old-style blue banknote: Blue banknotes, first issued in 1786, were worth five roubles, a considerable sum for a peasant at that time.
15. Kaffeeschenks: A court position supervising coffee and tea supplies.
16. Voronezh … relics there: St. Mitrofan of Voronezh (1623–1703) was the first bishop of Voronezh, in southwestern Russia. Relics are “revealed” when they prove to be either miracle-working or incorrupt. In 1831, Bishop Mitrofan’s relics were unearthed and found to be incorrupt; in 1832 he was canonized.
17. wanderers: The Russian word strannik (“wanderer”), as in the title of the present work, can mean anything from a real pilgrim to a simple vagabond.
18. passport: See note 13 to “The Sealed Angel.”
19. St. Mitrofan’s: Both a church and a monastery in Voronezh (see note 16 above).
20. Saracens … Prince Bova: The term “Saracen” is synonymous with “Muslim” in Russian folk tales. Eruslan Lazarevich and Prince Bova are heroes of such tales.
21. Tartars in kibitkas: In Russia, a kibitka (from the Tartar kibit) was a covered carriage or sleigh; among nomads of the steppe it was a round felt tent, sometimes mounted on a wheeled platform.
22. Ryn Sands … Khan Dzhangar: The Ryn Sands are a territory of approximately 25,000 square miles of long hummocky dunes between the lower Volga and Ural Rivers north of the Caspian Sea. Khan Dzhangar or Zhangir (d. 1845) was the last khan of the Bukey or Inner Horde of Kazakhs that moved about on the Ryn Sands. He carried on an important trade in horses and entered Russian government service in 1824.
23. from the apostle Pauclass="underline" See Galatians 3:28 (“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus”). Also Colossians 3:11.
24. Holy God: The chant known as the Trisagion (“Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us”), sung during the Orthodox liturgy and in the burial procession.
25. from Khiva: The Khivan khanate, on the territory of present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, was hostile to Russia during the earlier nineteenth century. Its capital, the city of Khiva, fell to the Russian army in 1873, after which it was made a “protectorate.”
26. Nicholas the Wonderworker: St. Nicholas (ca. 270–343), bishop of Myra in Lycia (Asia Minor), is one of the most widely venerated saints in Christendom, and obviously not a Russian.
27. the Keremet: Among the peoples of the Volga-Ural region, the Keremet or Kiremet were generally evil spirits, but the word also refers to the sacred groves the spirits lived in, where sacrifices to them were performed.
28. the Menaion: The Menaion, from the Greek word for “month,” is a collection of Orthodox liturgical texts and saints’ lives for each day of the month throughout the year.
29. banknotes … missing: Russian banknotes were distinguished by color: five-rouble notes were blue, ten-rouble notes gray, twenty-five-rouble notes red, and one-hundred- or two-hundred-rouble notes white.
30. “The Skiff”: A popular song to words by the soldier-poet Denis Davydov (1784–1839), a hero of the Napoleonic Wars.
31. Go away … burning coal?: Words from the popular song “Go Away, Don’t Look,” by Alexander Beshentsov (ca. 1811–82), first published in 1858.
32. the dragon Gorynych: A three-headed green dragon from Russian epic songs (byliny), who walks on his hind legs and spits fire.
33. Nizhny: That is, Nizhny Novgorod, a major Russian city. The fair in Nizhny, world-famous in the nineteenth century, attracted millions of visitors every year. It was also known as the Makary Fair, because it originally took place outside the walls of the monastery of St. Macarius in the Nizhny region. In 1816 a fire destroyed the buildings that housed the fair, and in 1817 it moved to Nizhny proper.
34. the marshal of the nobility: In 1785 the empress Catherine the Great issued a Charter of the Gentry, organizing the Russian nobility into provincial assemblies, each headed by a marshal chosen by his peers.
35. Alyonushka … called out to her: “Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka” is a Russian folktale in which a little brother turned into a white kid saves his sister from a wicked witch.
36. Suvorov: Field Marshal Alexander Vasilievich Suvorov (1729–1800), reputed never to have lost a battle, was one of only three Russian military men to bear the title of generalissimo. He was something of an eccentric and was much loved by his troops.
37. crown peasants: The category of “crown peasant” was created by the emperor Peter the Great, designating peasants who lived on land belonging to the crown, paid rent, but were personally free, though restricted in their movements.
38. a show-booth on Admiralty Square: Until 1873, popular shows similar to the medieval mystery and morality plays were staged in wooden booths on Admiralty Square in Petersburg during the Christmas and Easter seasons.
39. a messenger … in the flesh: A misquotation of 2 Corinthians 12:7: “there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.”
40. “Resist … flee from you”: James 4:7.
41. the Wet Savior: Also known in Russia as the “First Savior” or the “Honey Savior,” this is the feast of the Presentation of the Cross, celebrated on August 1.
42. St. Tikhon of Zadonsk: Tikhon of Zadonsk (1724–83) was made bishop of Voronezh in 1763, but in 1769 he retired to the monastery in Zadonsk where he spent the rest of his life. An important spiritual writer and a wonderworker, Tikhon was canonized in 1861 and his “life” was published in 1862.
43. Solovki … Zosima and Sabbatius: That is, to the monastery on the Solovetsky Islands founded in the fifteenth century by Sts. Zosima and Sabbatius.
Singlemind
(1879)
1. the reign of Catherine II: Catherine II, the Great, born in Pomerania in 1729, married the Russian emperor Peter III and became empress of Russia after his assassination in 1762. She ruled until her death in 1796.
2. Prince Gagarin’s dictionary: A Universal Geographical and Statistical Dictionary, by Prince S. P. Gagarin, published in 1843.
3. “in trouble … hut on fire”: Frequently quoted lines from the poem “Red-Nosed Frost” (1863), by Nikolai Nekrasov (1821–78).
4. memorial notices for old women: That is, lists of names of the living or dead to be prayed for during the liturgy.
5. Burns or Koltsov: The Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759–96) and Alexei Koltsov (1809–42), often called the Russian Burns, were both close to simple country life and wrote stylized peasant songs.
6. Neither … frightened him: Words remarkably close to Herodotus’s praise of the Persian couriers in his Histories (8:98): “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” which became the unofficial motto of the U.S. Post Office.
7. The ox … against my fury: The passage is a quotation from Isaiah 1:3–24, with some modifications and a number of omissions.