Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman" is known on Antiterra as
"Headless Horseman." As I pointed out before, golova (the
knight's head) is a character in Pushkin's poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila." On the
other hand, golova (the mayor) is a character in Gogol's story
Noch' pered Rozhdestvom ("Christmas Eve," 1832).
In Pushkin's poem Domik v Kolomne* ("The Small House
in Kolomna," 1830) the cook Fyokla dies v noch'
pred rozhdestvom (on Christmas Eve). The poem's heroine,
Parasha, is a namesake of Eugene's bride in "The Bronze Horseman." After she
(Eugene's Parasha) died in the disastrous Neva flood of 1824, Eugene goes mad
and is pursued by the ghost of Falconet's equestrian statue of Peter
I.
Pyotr Grinyov, the "first person" of Pushkin's short
novel Kapitanskaya dochka ("The Captain's Daughter," 1836), is a
namesake of the czar Peter I** (who is a character in Pushkin's unfinished
novella "The Blackamoor of Peter the Great," 1827; besides, in the 1830s
Pushkin worked on "The History of [Czar] Peter"). A character in "The
Captain's Daughter" is Emelian Pugachyov, a historical insurgent (the
hero of Pushkin's "The History of Pugachyov's Riot," 1835) who impersonated
the czar Peter III (the late husband of Catherine II) and was beheaded
in Moscow in 1775.***
In our world, Headless Horseman is a novel by
Captain Mayne Reid.
*cf. Shchastlivyi domik ("The Happy Small House,"
1914), a collection of poetry by Khodasevich (the book's title is borrowed
from Pushkin's poem Domovomu, "To a House-Spirit," 1819: И от недружеского взора / Счастливый домик
охрани! "And protect the happy small house / from an unfriendly eye");
cf. "Уединённый домик на Васильевском," ("The Solitary Small
House in the Vaslilievsky Island," 1829, a story by Tit Kosmokratov, discussed
by Khodasevich in his article "The Petersburg Tales of Pushkin,"
1914)
**and of M'sier Pierre, the executioner in VN's Invitation
to a Beheading
***the action in "Christmas Eve" also takes place during
the reign of Catherine II; there is akula ("shark") in Vakula, the
blacksmith and painter who flies to St. Petersburg and back to Dikan'ka (in the
province of Poltava**** in Ukrain) on a devil's back in order to bring his bride
a pair of shoes (cf. Ada's Paar of Chose) in Gogol's fairy
tale
****there is decapitation in Pushkin's poem Poltava
(1828)
Alexey Sklyarenko