Vladimir Nabokov's name was never included in the various Brazilian anthologies of Russian poets or in the collected short-stories written by Chekov, Gogol and several other Russian authors I consulted.

In the "Nova Antologia do Conto Russo (1792-1998)," Coleção Leste, Editora 34 Ltda., 2011, with works translated directly from the Russian, I finally encountered Vladimir Nabokov's name and his short-story "Primavera em Fialta" (1936). It comes right after Ilf and Petrov's "Como Robinson foi Criado" and before Daniil Kharms "Conexão". The works go from 18th Century's Nikolai Karamazin, Sergei Dovlátoc, Lidmila Pretruchévskaia, Tatiana Tolstaia and Vladimir Sorókin. Some of the other names are Púchkin, Gógol, Dostoiévski, Turguêniev, Tchekhov, Tolstói, Górki, Pasternak, Bábel and Nabókov, together with Gárchin, Odóievski, Saltikov-Schedrin, Katáiev, Grin, Chalámov, Kharms and Platónov. 

Bruno Barreto Gomide was responsbile for the edition.

 

I learned that Isaac Babel wrote "Guy de Maupassant" and that he saw himself as a Russian Maupassant ( in his early work "Odessa"). I wonder now if, in Ada, Nabokov solely refers to the French writer, or indirectly indicates a text or story by Isaac Babel?

 

In the introduction to Nabokov's short-story the words of Carl Proffer were quoted.

Roughly translating them: " In Russia, Nabokov looked a little like an Englishman[...] The majority of his friends in England seems to have been Russian, while, in Berlin, he lived a totally Russian life. In America he was, quite naturally, a European intellectual. At last, in Switzerland, he became a mixture of all of them - but never a Swiss."

 

In her 2010 PhD thesis, the translator of Spring in Fialta, Graziela Schneider, writes that "Undoubtedly Nabokov's heart remained with Russian - and the Russians -  from his childhood and his youth" (não há dúvida de que seu coração permaneceu com a Rússia - e os russos - de sua infância e juventude.") .

The translator adds the usual explanatory notes. In one of them, related to the lines in French "On dis que tu te maries, Tu sais que j'en vai mourir -" she collects as possible references: Alfred de Musset's Fréderic et Bernerette; Alphonse Daudet's Fromont jeune et Risler ainé; a chanson by T. Cazorati (1871-18790 and Alexander Dumas Son in L'Ami des femmes.