Vadim compares his mental flaw to a missing
pinkie. (2.7)
Griboedov's dead body was identified because the
little finger of his left hand was maimed in his duel (the
famous "Duel of Four") with Yakubovich:
Sheremetev's death [in his duel with Zavadovski] delayed
the Yakubovich-Griboedov meeting; it took place a year later
(Oct. 23, 1818) in Tiflis; the great marksman, knowing how
much the great writer liked to play the piano, neatly wounded
him in the palm of the left hand, crippling the fifth digit;
it did not prevent Griboedov from going on with his musical
improvising, but some ten years later this contracted finger
provided the sole means of identifying his body, horribly
mutilated by a Persian mob in an anti-Russian riot at Teheran,
where he was envoy. On June 11, 1829, when traveling south
from Georgia, through Armenia, on his way to Erzerum, Pushkin,
who had known Griboedov since 1817, chanced to meet, at a turn
of the road, the cart drawn by two bullocks that was carrying
Griboedov's body to Tiflis. (EO Commentary, II, pp.
89-90)
According to Vadim, his father died in a pistol
duel with a young Frenchman on October 22 [!], 1898. (2.5)
One of the seconds in the Zavadovski-Sheremetev
duel (on the Volkovo Field in the outskirts of St. Petersburg,
Nov. 12, 1817) was Onegin's friend Kaverin. When Sheremetev,
mortally wounded and in agony, "flapped and plunged all over the
snow like a large fish," Kaverin came to him and said: "Vot
tebe i repka [Well, that's the end of your little
turnip]" (EO Commentary, ibid.)
Kaverin is mentioned in LATH: Was that really I, Prince Vadim
Blonsky, who in 1815 could have outdrunk Pushkin's mentor,
Kaverin? (6.2)
The list of Vadim's novels includes Dr.
Olga Repnin (1946). The name Repnin comes from repa
(turnip), unless Repnin is an illegitimate son/daughter of
Cherepnin (cherep means "scull").
The society nickname of Vadim's father (who was
portrayed by Vrubel) was Demon. (2.5). In Blok's poem Vozmezdie
(Retribution, 1910-21) the hero's father (who is
devastated by Demon over whom Vrubel has exhausted) is known as
Demon.
Его опустошает Демон,
Над коим Врубель изнемог...
Его прозрения глубоки,
Но их глушит ночная тьма,
И в снах холодных и жестоких
Он видит "Горе от ума".
And in his cold and cruel dreams
he [Demon] sees Woe from Wit. (Retribution,
Chapter Three)
Gore ot uma (Woe from Wit,
1824) is a comedy in verse ("the only
great Russian comedy in verse") by Griboedov.
Vadim wonders if Count Starov (an old diplomat)
were his real father (6.1) and if he had Caucasian blood (7.3).
Griboedov was a diplomat who married a Georgian princess.
Alexey Sklyarenko