In a letter of October 1905, from the Shlisselburg Fortress to his comrades in St. Petersburg, Grigoriy Gershuni mentions Ratner's article on the radical programme of the SR party:

Статья Ратнера о радикальной программе мне ой-ой как не понравилась!

Gershuni's letter was first published by Boris Savinkov in his "Memoirs of a Terrorist" (1928, 3d edition). Savinkov's first wife Vera was the daughter of the writer Gleb Uspenski, the author of Vlast' zemli (The Power of the Land, 1882) who went mad. Savinkov died a Luzhinesque death: (according to the NKVD) he committed suicide by jumping from a window in the Lubyanka prison in Moscow. In his memoirs Savinkov also mentions Evgenia Ratner (an active member of the SR party) and B. O. Gavronsky (cf. G. A. Vronsky, the movie man; btw., Fondaminski's wife Amalia was born Gavronsky). Savinkov is also the author of Kon' Blednyi (A Pale Horse, 1909) written under the influence of Merezhkovski and Hippius. It was Hippius who proposed to Savinkov his penname Ropshin reminscent of Ropsha, a village near St. Petersburg where the tsar Peter III was stabbed to death by Alexey Orlov. It was Prince Potyomkin who succeeded Grigoriy Orlov (Alexey's brother) as a favourite of Catherine II.

Dear Mr 'Vascodagama' received an invitation to Windsor Castle from its owner, a bilateral descendant of Van's own ancestors, but he declined it, suspecting (incorrectly, as it later transpired) the misprint to suggest that his incognito had been divulged by one of the special detectives at Chose - the same, perhaps, who had recently saved the psychiatrist P.O. Tyomkin from the dagger of Prince Potyomkin, a mixed-up kid from Sebastopol, Id.

During his first summer vacation, Van worked under Tyomkin, at the Chose famous clinic, on an ambitious dissertation he never completed, 'Terra: Eremitic Reality or Collective Dream?' (1.30)

Nevo = Evno = veno = oven = Noev

Gogol' + Lubyanka = golubyanka + gol'

Nevo - old name of lake Ladoga

Evno - Evno Azef, a terrorist and police agent who plays a major part in Savinkov's memoirs

veno - obs., bride-price

oven - ram; Aries, the Ram

Noev - Noah's (Noev kovcheg, Noah's ark)

golubyanka - small blue butterfly (cf. Aqua's golubyanki, petits blues she sent to Demon, 1.29)

gol' - Russ., the poor