Kinbote speaks of Andronnikov and Niagarin, the two
Soviet experts who broke into Villa Disa and stole King's letter to the
Queen, in his note to Shade's line 681 ("Mars glowed. Shahs married.
Gloomy Russians spied").
Arkadiy Dolgoruky, the hero and narrator of
Dostoevsky's novel "The Adolescent," calls Alfonsinka, Lambert's
girlfriend who stole a letter that once belonged to Andronikov, shpion
(a spy).
In one of his conversations with Kinbote Shade
mentions Dostoevsky among Russian humorists. Other great
humorists include "those joint authors of genius Ilf and Petrov" (Kinbote's
note to line 172). In Ilf and Petrov's "The 12 Chairs" Bender accuses
Vorob'yaninov, who lives at Bender's expense, of alfonsism
("gigoloism"). Like PF's Andronnikov and Niagarin, Bender and Vorob'yaninov
(whose name comes from vorobey, sparrow) are diamond
hunters.
The (historical) name Dolgoruky* means
"long-armed". In "The 12 Chairs" Bender says to the members of
Soyuz mecha i orala ("The Union of Sword and Plough" that Bender
created in Stargorod): U nas dlinnye ruki ("We have long
arms").
Mars (cf. "Mars glowed" in Shade's poem) is
mentioned in the "chess" chapter of "The 12 chairs" ("The Interplanetary Chess
Tournament"). Russian for "chess" is shakhmaty (shakh, shah, +
mat, mate). Cf. "Shahs married" in Shade's poem
*Prince Yuri Dolgoruky (dubbed so
because of his wide connections) founded Moscow in
1147
Alexey Sklyarenko