Ivan G. Tobak (Cordula's first husband) brings to
mind Fima Sobak, a friend of Ellochka the Cannibal in Ilf and Petrov's
"The Twelve Chairs." The characters of Ilf and Petrov's "The Golden
Calf" include Lucia Franzevna Pferd (one of the inhabitants of Voron'ya
slobodka, "the Crow's Nest"). Sobaka is Russian for
"dog," Pferd is German for "horse." In Kuprin's story
Izumrud ("Emerald") Onegin is a race horse. Kuprin is the author of
Lucia (Lucia is the tigress in a provincial circus), Belyi
pudel' ("The White Poodle," 1904) and Poedinok ("The Single
Combat," 1905). Demon's adversary in a sword duel (1.2), Baron d'Onsky
(nicknamed Skonky) brings to mind Onegin's Don stallion in Pushkin's Eugene
Onegin (Canto Two). D'Onsky's son is a person with only one arm (3.8).
Kuprin is the author of Odnorukiy komendant ("The One-Armed
Commander"). Its hero, General Skobelev, was Ivan Nabokov's predecessor
as the Commander of the Peter-and-Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg.
Skobelev's real name, Kobelev, comes from kobel' (male dog). At the end
of his story Reka zhizni ("The River of Life," 1906) Kuprin compares
the lieutenant and the policeman to dva kobelya (two male
dogs) that just met each other in a courtyard:
Поручик хмурится, ревнует и всё пытается рассказать о том, как "у
нас в полку". Околоточный же не слушает его, перебивает и рассказывает о
потрясающих случаях "у нас в полиции". Каждый из них старается
быть как можно небрежнее и невнимательнее к другому, и оба они похожи на двух
только что встретившихся во дворе кобелей.
Anna Fridrikhovna's little son Romka returns tired
after seing off the student's body to the dissecting room and
compares himself to sobaka (a dog):
Околоточный уже окончательно прощается, когда
появляется Ромка.
- Да-а... Я студента провожал, а вы без меня-а-а. Я,
как соба-а-ака...
At the end of his suicide note the student mentions the dog
that barks downstairs:
Ещё два слова: а ведь тёмная душа собаки
должна быть гораздо более восприимчива к вибрациям мысли, чем
человеческая... Не оттого ли они и воют, почуяв покойника. А? Вот и эта собака,
что лает внизу. Теперь она уже чувствует тревогу. Но через минуту
от центральной батареи моего мозга побегут страшными скачками новые чудовищные
токи и коснутся бедного мозга собаки. И она завоет в нестерпимом, слепом
ужасе...
The title of Kuprin's story brings to mind Derzhavin's last
poem ("The river of times in its course..."), but also Mlle Larivière,
Lucette's governess who becomes a successful writer under the penname Guillaume
de Monparnasse (guvernantka belletristka, as Gerg Erminin calls
her, 3.2). In 1915 Kuprin's story Vpot'makh ("In the Dark," 1893) was
made into a movie Guvernantka ("The Governess").
Mlle Larivière's penname and her writings hint at
Maupassant. In the chapter Alfavit - zerkalo zhizni ("The Mirror of
Life Alphabet") of "The Twelve Chairs" Ostap Bender "quotes"
Maupassant:
Blizhe k telu, kak govorit Mopassan
("Closer to the body, as Maupassant says," a plsy on
blizhe k delu, "let's talk about business").
Flavita (the Russian Scrabble given to Marina's children by
Baron Klim Avidov, 1.36) is an anagram of alfavit
(alphabet).
As he speaks to Bender, Varfolomey Korobeynikov (the compiler
of the Mirror of Life Index) compares the Soviet Russia to a
volcano:
"We're living on top of a
volcano, you know. Anything can happen. Then people will rush off to find
their furniture, and where will it be? It will be here."
In "The River of Life" the student in his suicide
note speaks of the terrible volcano eruption over his home country:
Я говорю тебе: над нашей родиной прошло ужасное
вулканическое извержение. Вырвалось пламя долго сдержанного гнева и потопило
все: боязнь завтрашнего дня, почтение к предкам, любовь к жизни, мирные
сладости семейного благополучия.
and of the present strashnoe, bredovoe vremya
(horrible, nightmarish time):
В теперешнее страшное, бредовое время
позорно, и тяжело, и прямо невозможно жить таким, как я.
Dorothy Vinelander (Ada's sister-in-law) marries a Mr Brod or
Bred, who "was to direct,
and still may be directing half a century later, archeological reconstructions
at Goreloe" (the 'Lyaskan
Herculanum'). Dorothy's pet nightmare had something to do with the
eruption of a dream volcano. (3.8) The action in Kuprin's story Balt
(1932) takes place in Alaska. Balt is a draught-dog.
Alexey Sklyarenko