The literary historian and Nabokovian Evgeny Belodubrovsky has spent years combing the old files of emigre Russian newspapers. He recently sent me the item below from Rul', the Berlin paper co-edited by Nabokov's father, Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, who was assassinated in early 1922. A memorial fund was organized through the paper. In the list of contributors Evgeny spotted the item below:

« В ФОНД ИМЕНИ В.Д. НАБОКОВА  поступила через газету «Руль» от ИЗЫ КРЕМЕР тысяча немецких марок"

         ГАЗЕТА «РУЛЬ» от 13 апреля 1922 года. №                                                             426.

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Translation: Iza Kremer has donated 1000 German marks to the V.D. Nabokov Fund via the paper Rul'.

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I call attention to this because I recently published an essay "Ada's 'Last Tango' in Dance, Song, and Film" (Cycnos v. 24, #1, 2007, pp. 55-69) that deals with VN's use the song "Last Tango" long associated with the Russian singer Iza Kremer. Nabokov himself nowhere explicitly mentions Kremer herself, but the above item from Evgeny Belodubrovsky is a bit of documentary evidence of the connection.

My thanks to Evgeny for supplying this information. The song with Kremer's Russian lyrics is available on Zembla.

D. Barton Johnson