Subject
Maykov and Lenin
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It belatedly occurs to me that Mashen'ka's surname in Maykov's eponymous long poem is Krupa ("Miss Groats"). Now, Lenin's wife was Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya (1869-1939). Her surname comes from krupa, but there is also krup ("croup") in it. This reminds me that VN's friend, the poet and critic Vladislav Khodasevich (1886-1939), entitled his article on Mayakovski "The Decollete Horse" (1927). Several characters in Ada (Baron d'Onsky, Demon Veen) seem to be horses.* Cf. Marina's words to Van: "The Zemskis were terrible rakes (razvratniki), one of them loved little girls, and another raffolait d'une de ses juments and had her tied up in a special way - don't ask me how (double hand gesture of horrified ignorance) - when he dated her in her stall" (1.37). Ada (Demon's daughter), too, loves "stallions", but the equine gene seems to have missed Van.
*see also my Russian article "All's Well that Ends Well"
Alexey Sklyarenko
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*see also my Russian article "All's Well that Ends Well"
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/