p. 6,
Rocky Marciano, Louis Armstrong, Joseph Brodsky, Gina Lollobrigida
: Rocky Marciano (1923 – 69), Italian-American undefeated champion heavyweight boxer; Louis Armstrong (1901 – 71), famous American jazz musician; Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky (1940 – 96), Russian Nobel Prize-winning poet and close friend of Dovlatov; Gina Lollobrigida (
b.
1927), Italian actress mostly active in the 1950s and 60s.
p. 17,
Karjalainen, perhaps
: An unclear reference since Karjalainen is a common Finnish surname. One possibility is the children’s author Elina Karjalainen (1927 – 2006), who wrote a series of books about a teddy bear called Uppo-Nalle.
p. 18,
Maybe Mantere
: Again, the reference is unclear, but it may allude to the singer Eeki Mantere (1949 – 2007), a popular Finnish musician of the 1970s.
p. 23,
the historian Nikolai Karamzin
: Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766 – 1826), prominent conservative Russian historian and writer.
p. 23,
Paul Robeson
: Paul Robeson (1898 – 1976) was an African-American civil-rights activist, singer and actor who received the International Stalin Prize in 1952. His political leanings and outspokenness caused him tremendous problems in America.
p. 24,
the famous artist Shemyakin
: Mikhail Mikhailovich Shemyakin (
b.
1943), a painter who studied at the Repin Academy in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and, after frequent clashes with the KGB, left the Soviet Union in 1971.
p. 24,
Yuri Gagarin, Mayakovsky, Fidel Castro
: Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin (1934 – 68), Soviet cosmonaut and the first man in space, who received the most prestigious award in the USSR, “Hero of the Soviet Union”; Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (1893 – 1930), Russian Futurist poet and Soviet propagandist, often seen as the exemplar of Soviet art; Fidel Castro (
b.
1926), leader of the Cuban revolution and subsequently First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.
p. 28,
Lomonosov
: Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1711 – 65), pioneering Russian grammarian, poet, scientist and founder of Moscow State University.
p. 37,
Pushkin Hills
: An area in the Pskov Oblast named after Russia’s most celebrated poet, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799 – 1837), who spent a period of exile and wrote some of his best-known works in the region.
p. 37,
Léger
: Fernand Léger (1881 – 1955), French painter and sculptor, who joined the Communist Party in 1945.
p. 39,
Komsomol
: The Communist Party’s youth wing.
p. 40,
pelmeni
: Meat dumplings, a traditional Russian dish.
p. 42,
Mikhail Rodzyanko… Trotsky, Lazar Kaganovich and Andrei Andreyev
: Rodzyanko (1859 – 1924) was a key politician in pre-Communist Russia. Trotsky (1879 – 1940) was second to Lenin in the early days of the Revolution; Kaganovich (1893 – 1991) and Andreyev (1895 – 1971) were fervent supporters of Stalin.
p. 43,
Heroine Mother
: A title and the name of a medal awarded to mothers of ten or more children.
p. 45,
people’s assessors
: In the Soviet legal system, a people’s assessor had a role similar to that of a magistrate. Particularly in Soviet films, people’s assessors would have towed the party line in their verdicts.
p. 50,
Misha Baryshnikov
: Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov (
b.
1948), widely regarded as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the twentieth century. He defected from the Soviet Union in 1974 whilst touring in Canada.
p. 69,
Peter Brook, Fellini and De Sica
: All luminaries of the film or theatre worlds: Peter Brook (
b.
1925), English theatre and film director; Federico Fellini (1920 – 93), Italian film director; Vittorio De Sica (1901 – 74), Italian film director and actor.
p. 69,
Shostakovich, Mravinsky, Eisenstein
: Again, all extremely influential Soviet cultural figures: Dmitry Dmitryevich Shostakovich (1906 – 75), Russian composer; Yevgeny Alexandrovich Mravinsky (1903 – 88), Soviet conductor; Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (1898 – 1948), ground-breaking Soviet film director.
p. 76,
Nikolai Gumilyov
: Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilyov (1886 – 1921), Russian Acmeist poet.
p. 76,
Yesenin, Zoshchenko and Vysotsky
: Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin (1895 – 1925), one of Russia’s
best-known lyrical poets, committed suicide at thirty. Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko (1895 – 1958) was one of the foremost figures of Soviet satire, and was persecuted by the authorities towards the end of his life. Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky (1938 – 80), known as a bard in Russia, was one of the most popular and respected singer-songwriters of his country.
p. 77,
Raykin
: Arkady Isaakovich Raykin (1911 – 87), well-known Soviet humorist.
p. 77,
Sartre, Yves Montand
: Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 – 1980), French existentialist philosopher; Yves Montand (1921 – 91), Italian-born French actor and singer.
p. 78,
Proust, Galsworthy, Feuchtwanger… she loved Pasternak and Tsvetayeva
: The first three are all “foreign” authors: Marcel Proust (1871 – 1922), French author of
In Search of Lost Time
; John Galsworthy (1867 – 1933), English novelist and author of
The Forsyte Saga
; Lion Feuchtwanger (1884 – 1958), German-Jewish novelist and playwright. Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (1890 – 1960) and Marina Ivanovna Tsvetayeva (1892 – 1941) were both celebrated Russian writers.
p. 85,
Solzhenitsyn’s portrait
: Alexander Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (1918 – 2008), Russian writer and notable dissident.
p. 85,
Tolya Gladilin… Vasya Shukshin… Bellochka
: Here Dovlatov uses the diminutive versions of the writers’ first names to emphasize his connection with them. All were prominent writers born in the late 1920s or 1930s.
p. 85,
Tarkovsky’s movies
: Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (1932 – 86), acclaimed Russian film director
whose work was highly lyrical and often spiritual.
Ivan’s Childhood
was Tarkovsky’s first feature film and won him widespread acclaim.
p. 86,
friendly greetings from Goryshin, a drunken bear hug from Wolf, a quick chat with Yefimov or Konetsky… Even Daniil Granin knew my face
: Gleb Alexandrovich Goryshin (1931 – 98), editor for the literary journal
Aurora
; Sergei Evgenyevich Wolf (1935 – 2005), a poet and prose writer from St Petersburg; Igor Markovich Yefimov (
b.
1937), novelist and author of a number of
samizdat
publications; Viktor Viktorovich Konetsky (1929 – 2002), writer and screenwriter; Daniil Alexandrovich Granin (
b.
1919), award-winning novelist and documentary writer.
p. 86,
Kornei Chukovsky, Nikolai Oleynikov… Daniil Kharms, and so on
: Chukovsky (1882 – 1969) was an influential children’s poet, critic and translator. Oleynikov (1898 – 1937) and Kharms (1905 – 42) both belonged to the absurdist OBERIU group in the 1920s, which was later seen to conflict with Soviet aesthetics. The former was shot at the height of Stalin’s purges; the latter died in a psychiatric ward in Leningrad after being arrested for treason.
p. 86,
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
: (
b.
1933) Hugely popular Russian poet and critic of Stalinism.
p. 90,
Virgin Soil Upturned
: A reference to a Soviet classic by Mikhail Sholokhov (1905 – 84), commonly thought of as rather dreary, and required reading in schools.
p. 93,
a picture of the actor Yakovlev
: Yury Vasilyevich Yakovlev (
b.
1928), a well-known film and theatre actor.
p. 95,
Ceauşescu
: Nicolae Ceauşescu (1918 – 89), General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party.
p. 107,
Gostiny Dvor
: The largest and most famous department store in St Petersburg.
p. 114,
And soon the foe… field of blood
: From Pushkin’s ‘Poltava’, English translation by John Coutts.
p. 117,
Chuk and Gek
: a children’s story written by Arkady Petrovich Gaidar (1904 – 41), about two young brothers who leave Moscow to visit their father, who is on a remote expedition.
p. 119,
Chursina… Tenyakova
: Lyudmila Alexeyevna Chursina (
b.
1941) and Natalya Maximovna Tenyakova (
b.
1944) both famous, award-winning Russian actresses.
1. James Hanley,
Boy
2. D.H. Lawrence,
The First Women in Love
3. Charlotte Brontë,
Jane Eyre
4. Jane Austen,
Pride and Prejudice
5. Emily Brontë,
Wuthering Heights
6. Anton Chekhov,
Sakhalin Island
7. Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli,
Sonnets
8. Jack Kerouac,
Beat Generation
9. Charles Dickens,
Great Expectations
10. Jane Austen,
Emma
11. Wilkie Collins,
The Moonstone
12. D.H. Lawrence,
The Second Lady Chatterley’s Lover
13. Jonathan Swift,
The Benefit of Farting Explained
14. Anonymous,
Dirty Limericks
15. Henry Miller,
The World of Sex
16. Jeremias Gotthelf,
The Black Spider
17. Oscar Wilde,
The Picture Of Dorian Gray
18. Erasmus,
Praise of Folly
19. Henry Miller,
Quiet Days in Clichy
20. Cecco Angiolieri,
Sonnets
21. Fyodor Dostoevsky,
Humiliated and Insulted
22. Jane Austen,
Sense and Sensibility
23. Theodor Storm,
Immensee
24. Ugo Foscolo,
Sepulchres
25. Boileau,
Art of Poetry
26. Kaiser,
Plays Vol. 1
27. Émile Zola,
Ladies’ Delight
28. D.H. Lawrence,
Selected Letters
29. Alexander Pope,
The Art of Sinking in Poetry
30. E.T.A. Hoffmann,
The King’s Bride
31. Ann Radcliffe,
The Italian
32. Prosper Mérimée,
A Slight Misunderstanding
33. Giacomo Leopardi,
Canti
34. Giovanni Boccaccio,
Decameron
35. Annette von Droste-Hülshoff,
The Jew’s Beech
36. Stendhal,
Life of Rossini
37. Eduard Mörike,
Mozart’s Journey to Prague
38. Jane Austen,
Love and Friendship
39. Leo Tolstoy,
Anna Karenina
40. Ivan Bunin,
Dark Avenues
41. Nathaniel Hawthorne,
The Scarlet Letter
42. Sadeq Hedayat,
Three Drops of Blood
43. Alexander Trocchi,
Young Adam
44. Oscar Wilde,
The Decay of Lying
45. Mikhail Bulgakov,
The Master and Margarita
46. Sadeq Hedayat,
The Blind Owl
47. Alain Robbe-Grillet,
Jealousy
48. Marguerite Duras,
Moderato Cantabile
49. Raymond Roussel,
Locus Solus
50. Alain Robbe-Grillet,
In the Labyrinth
51. Daniel Defoe,
Robinson Crusoe
52. Robert Louis Stevenson,
Treasure Island
53. Ivan Bunin,
The Village
54. Alain Robbe-Grillet,
The Voyeur
55. Franz Kafka,
Dearest Father
56. Geoffrey Chaucer,
Canterbury Tales
57. A. Bierce,
The Monk and the Hangman’s Daughter
58. F. Dostoevsky,
Winter Notes on Summer Impressions
59. Bram Stoker,
Dracula
60. Mary Shelley,
Frankenstein
61. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
Elective Affinities
62. Marguerite Duras,
The Sailor from Gibraltar
63. Robert Graves,
Lars Porsena
64. Napoleon Bonaparte,
Aphorisms and Thoughts
65. J. von Eichendorff,
Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing
66. Adelbert von Chamisso,
Peter Schlemihl
67. Pedro Antonio de Alarcón,
The Three-Cornered Hat
68. Jane Austen,
Persuasion
69. Dante Alighieri,
Rime
70. A. Chekhov,
The Woman in the Case and Other Stories
71. Mark Twain,
The Diaries of Adam and Eve
72. Jonathan Swift,
Gulliver’s Travels
73. Joseph Conrad,
Heart of Darkness
74. Gottfried Keller,
A Village Romeo and Juliet
75. Raymond Queneau,
Exercises in Style
76. Georg Büchner,
Lenz
77. Giovanni Boccaccio,
Life of Dante
78. Jane Austen,
Mansfield Park
79. E.T.A. Hoffmann,
The Devil’s Elixirs
80. Claude Simon,
The Flanders Road
81. Raymond Queneau,
The Flight of Icarus
82. Niccolò Machiavelli,
The Prince
83. Mikhail Lermontov,
A Hero of our Time
84. Henry Miller,
Black Spring
85. Victor Hugo,
The Last Day of a Condemned Man
86. D.H. Lawrence,
Paul Morel
87. Mikhail Bulgakov,
The Life of Monsieur de Molière
88. Leo Tolstoy,
Three Novellas
89. Stendhal,
Travels in the South of France
90. Wilkie Collins,
The Woman in White
91. Alain Robbe-Grillet,
Erasers
92. Iginio Ugo Tarchetti,
Fosca
93. D.H. Lawrence,
The Fox