Boyd as quoted by JM: "Stalin, a Georgian, admired Georgian
folklore and here seems to be imagining the sweet raspberry taste of each
execution and puffing out his chest as if it proves himself once again a
Georgian hero."
Although Stalin's nickname was Koba (after the hero
of Kazbeghi's novel "The Patricide"), Dzhugashvili (whose assumed name
comes from stal', "steel") desired to be not a Georgian,
but Russian hero. Btw., Koba + t = Tobak.
True, malina is Russian for "raspberry".
But it can also mean "[to be] in clover". Mandelshtam's line "Chto ni kazn'
u nego, to malina" merely suggests that Stalin ("The Kremlin
high-lander") is "in clover" regardless of the terror that surrounds
him. He doesn't need to imagine the sweet taste of raspberry each time
some of his enemies/servants/slaves is executed.
The word kazn' ("execution") also occurs
in the title of VN's novel Priglashenie na kazn' ("Invitation to a
Beheading")* and in Mandelshtam's line Chasto pishetsya - kazn', a
chitaetsya pravil'no - pesn' (The written word "execution" often correctly
reads "song"), from his "The Verses in Memory of Andrey Bely"
(1934).
Now, in Pushkin's Eugene Onegin (Canto
Three, XXXIX, 7-14), in the scene travestied in Ada (1.2), girl
servants picking berries are singing in chorus, so as their sly
mouths wouldn't not eat in secret the seignioral berry. They also mention
raspberries in their song.
One of the two seconds in Demon's duel with d'Onsky
is Colonel St Alin, a scoundrel (1.2). There is alin in
malina. Alin = nail; malina = animal = Manila =
lamina; malina + stvol = Stalin + molva; Stalin + krem + r = star +
Kremlin (stvol - Russ., tree
trunk; firearm barrel; molva - Russ., rumor,
talk; krem - Russ., cream)
*In Invitation to a Beheading malina
is a game played by children: "Играли в мяч, в свинью, в карамору, в чехарду, в малину, в
тычь...".
Alexey Sklyarenko