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Re: Fialta
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***Fialta does not exist but its name is of course reminiscent of Yalta,
which was a very fashionable seaside resort in Crimea, where Chekhov's
"Lady with a Lapdog" takes place. VN lived next to Yalta when his family
fled to Crimea in 1917. I went back to Yalta in 1993, and was
shocked by all the damage that was done to it even since the early 1970s
when I still lived in the SU. It was full of Brezhnev-era ugly and
crumbling tall appartment buildings which by then dominated the hills of
the town. Back in VN's time, it was one of the most beautiful spots
on the Black Sea, and the place where the tsar's family often spent the
summer in their Livadiia palace (the palace was also the locale for the
1945 "Yalta conference" between Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt). GD***
From: Robert Buchanan <rnb10@columbia.edu>
There was mention here recently of "Spring in Fialta", and an old nagging
question was brought to mind. Where is Fialta? Does it even exist? Is it a
stand-in for some other town, or for all such towns? I realize this
question is trivial, but this is the internet. The text reveals that
Fialta is NOT in Crimea (because it reminds the narrator of Crimean
seaside towns), and I assume it isn't elsewhere in the USSR. Perhaps
someone who reads this list has keener inductive or investigative powers
than I.
-- Robert Buchanan
rnb10@columbia.edu
which was a very fashionable seaside resort in Crimea, where Chekhov's
"Lady with a Lapdog" takes place. VN lived next to Yalta when his family
fled to Crimea in 1917. I went back to Yalta in 1993, and was
shocked by all the damage that was done to it even since the early 1970s
when I still lived in the SU. It was full of Brezhnev-era ugly and
crumbling tall appartment buildings which by then dominated the hills of
the town. Back in VN's time, it was one of the most beautiful spots
on the Black Sea, and the place where the tsar's family often spent the
summer in their Livadiia palace (the palace was also the locale for the
1945 "Yalta conference" between Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt). GD***
From: Robert Buchanan <rnb10@columbia.edu>
There was mention here recently of "Spring in Fialta", and an old nagging
question was brought to mind. Where is Fialta? Does it even exist? Is it a
stand-in for some other town, or for all such towns? I realize this
question is trivial, but this is the internet. The text reveals that
Fialta is NOT in Crimea (because it reminds the narrator of Crimean
seaside towns), and I assume it isn't elsewhere in the USSR. Perhaps
someone who reads this list has keener inductive or investigative powers
than I.
-- Robert Buchanan
rnb10@columbia.edu