Novels, Tales, Journeys

71. Konovnitsyn: Pyotr Petrovich Konovnitsyn (1802–1830) was the son of a distinguished general and count who fought in the Napoleonic Wars and ended as minister of war under Alexander I. The young Konovnitsyn joined the Decembrists, was broken to the ranks in 1826 and sent first to Semipalatinsk and then to the Caucasus. In 1828 he was promoted to ensign.

72. Dorokhov: Rufin Ivanovich Dorokhov (1801–1852) was broken to the ranks in 1820 for unruly behavior and dueling. From 1828 to 1833 he served in the Nizhegorodsky dragoons; in 1829 he was promoted to ensign. He was one of three models for Tolstoy’s Fyodor Ivanovich Dolokhov in War and Peace. Pushkin addressed an epigram to him:

You’re lucky with charming little fools,

In the service, at cards, and at feasts.

You’re St. Priest in caricatures,

You’re Neledinsky in verse;

You’ve been shot up in duels,

You’ve been cut up in war—

You may be a real, true hero,

But you’re a thorough-going rake.

FRAGMENTS AND SKETCHES The Guests Were Arriving at the Dacha (1828–1830)

1. “One of our poets…beauty”: The poet Nikolai Ivanovich Gnedich (1784–1833) was most famous for his translation of the Iliad, which Pushkin greatly admired. The line is a slightly altered quotation from his idyll “The Fishermen” (1822).

2. Hussein Pasha: Hussein Dey (1765–1838), the last Ottoman ruler of Algeria.

3. a last game of écarté: A French card game for two players, in which each player can set aside (écarter) some of the cards dealt to him and draw others before starting to play.

4. the English Embankment: Then one of the most fashionable streets in Petersburg, along the left bank of the Neva. It was named for the British embassy and church located there. The emperor would have been Alexander I.

5. Les Liaisons dangereuses…Jomini: Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782), an epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1741–1803), portrays the decadence of the French aristocracy before the revolution. Antoine-Henri Jomini (1779–1869), a Swiss businessman and officer, joined the French army in 1805, but later went over to the Russian side and became a general and advisor to the emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I. His writings on military theory were widely used in European and American military academies.

6. Rurik and Monomakh: For Rurik, see note 7 to The History of the Village of Goryukhino. Vladimir II Monomakh (1053–1125) was grand prince of Kievan Rus from 1113 to 1125.

7. Peter and Elizabeth: Peter the Great (1672–1725) became tsar of Russia in 1682 and the first Russian emperor in 1721. His daughter, the empress Elizabeth (1709–1762), came to power in 1741.

8. the duc de Montmorency…Clermont-Tonnerre: Two of the most noble French families, the first going back to the tenth century, the second to the eleventh century. The lords of Montmorency bore the title of “first baron of Christendom” until 1327. The first duke was Anne de Montmorency (1493–1567), who became marshal and constable of France. The house of Clermont-Tonnerre furnished many important military leaders and statesmen.

9. Karamzin…history: See note 4 to Roslavlev.

A Novel in Letters (1829)

1. Lamartine: Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869), poet, writer, and statesman, was a major figure of French Romanticism. One of his finest poems is the elegy “Solitude,” published in a collection in 1823.

2. Krestovsky Island: One of the islands in the mouth of the River Neva that make up St. Petersburg. The nobility used to have dachas there.

3. Clarissa Harlowe: The heroine of the epistolary novel Clarissa, or the History of a Young Lady (1748), by Samuel Richardson (see note 6 to “The Young Lady Peasant”). Pushkin found Richardson’s work tedious, but it was very popular among young ladies.

4. Lovelace…Adolphe: Robert Lovelace is the villain of Richardson’s Clarissa, who abducts and eventually rapes the heroine. The eponymous hero of the novel Adolphe (1816), by the Swiss-born writer and liberal activist Benjamin Constant (1767–1830), was a shy and introspective young man.

5. the English Embankment: See note 4 to “The Guests Were Arriving at the Dacha.”

6. Bellecourt…Charlotte: Pushkin takes these as typical names in eighteenth-century French novels.

7. Vyazemsky and Pushkin: For Vyazemsky, see note 1 to “The Stationmaster.” There are “provincial young ladies” in several of the Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin; perhaps the most perfect example in Pushkin’s work is Tatyana Larina, the heroine of his novel in verse, Evgeny Onegin (1825–1832).