Novels, Tales, Journeys

16. Tredyakovsky: Vasily Kirillovich Tredyakovsky (1703–1769), poet, translator, and critic, was of common origin, studied at the Sorbonne, and returned to Petersburg to promote classical notions of versification. Posterity has generally accepted Shvabrin’s opinion of his poetry.

17. “Duels are formally forbidden…”: Dueling became so common in the upper ranks of the Russian military that in 1715 Peter the Great formally forbade the practice on pain of death for both duelists.

18. one spirit and one flesh: In the Orthodox marriage service, the priest asks of God: “Unite them in one mind; wed them into one flesh.” The notion that man and wife are one flesh is repeated in many texts, starting with Genesis 2:22–24.

19. Major General Traubenberg: See note 9 above.

20. the late emperor Peter III: Peter III (1728–1762), the only child of the eldest daughter of Peter the Great, ruled for only six months before he was assassinated in a conspiracy said to have been headed by his wife, a German princess who went on to become Catherine the Great. After his death, a number of false pretenders appeared claiming to be Peter III, among them Emelyan Pugachev.

21. torture…abolished: Torture was regulated by law in Russia from the 1740s on; in the 1760s Catherine the Great issued orders against the use of torture, but that did not eliminate it; it was formally abolished in 1801 by a decree of Alexander I.

22. 1741: Date of the end of the first revolt of the Bashkirs against the building of the Orenburg fortress.

23. the mild reign of the emperor Alexander: Alexander I (1777–1825), the grandson of Catherine the Great, reigned from 1801 to 1825. He began in a rather liberal spirit, but became more conservative after the Napoleonic Wars.

24. bread and salt: By Russian custom, in the formal reception of honored visitors, an offering of bread and salt would be presented to them on a special embroidered towel.

25. the sovereign Pyotr Fyodorovich: That is, Peter III (see note 20 above).

26. Chumakov: Fyodor Fedotovich Chumakov (1729–1786), a Yaik Cossack, was Pugachev’s commander of artillery. In 1775, however, he seized Pugachev and turned him over to the Russians on the promise of his own pardon and a payment of 100,000 roubles. Pushkin drew the details of this passage from archival records and the accounts of witnesses. The song that follows (two lines of which were quoted in Dubrovsky) appears in a collection of Russian folk songs published in 1780.

27. Grishka Otrepev: Grigory (Grisha, Grishka) Otrepev, the first of the so-called “False Dmitrys,” was a defrocked monk who claimed to be Dmitry Ivanovich, son of Ivan the Terrible and heir to the Russian throne. The real tsarevich Dmitry was murdered in 1591 at the age of nine. Otrepev succeeded in becoming tsar during the Time of Troubles and reigned for ten months (1605–1606).

28. Kheraskov: Mikhail Matveevich Kheraskov (1733–1807) came to prominence as a poet during the reign of Catherine the Great. The quotation is from his poem entitled, like the chapter, “Parting.”

29. The epigraph is from Kheraskov’s Rossiad (1771–1779), the first epic poem in Russian to be modeled on Homer and Virgil. The “he” referred to is Ivan the Terrible.

30. Mr. Collegiate Councilor: In the Russian table of fourteen civil, military, and court ranks, established by Peter the Great in 1722, collegiate councilor was sixth, the civil equivalent of colonel.

31. Lizaveta Kharlova: Daughter and wife of fortress commanders in the Orenburg region. Her father, mother, and husband were captured by Pugachev and brutally murdered; she herself was forced to become Pugachev’s concubine, but was later killed by Cossack chiefs.

32. A. Sumarokov: See note 11 to The History of the Village of Goryukhino. The lines are in fact a pastiche by Pushkin himself.

33. sitting under the icons: Icons (images of Christ, the Mother of God, and the saints) are traditionally hung in the far right-hand corner of a room, considered the place of honor.

34. a blue ribbon…gray peasant coat: See note 17 to The Moor of Peter the Great. The Order of St. Andrew accords strangely with a peasant coat.

35. the battle of Yuzeevo: Yuzeevo, a village some eighty miles northwest of Orenburg, where on November 8, 1773, Pugachev defeated Russian forces sent to relieve the fortress.

36. Frederick: That is, Frederick II (1712–1786), king of Prussia, whose military, political, and cultural achievements won him the title of “the Great.” Pugachev, in Russian peasant fashion, fits him out with a Russian name and patronymic.