EDNOTE.  Evgenii Belodubrovsky came across the item below in an emigre Russian newspaper of 1925. In it Boris Vladimirovich Podtyagin seeks the whereabouts of his wife. Such ads were common in emigre Russian papers where people were trying to locate relatives and friends lost in the aftermath of the Revolution. Dr. Belodubrovsky reproduces the notice and raises the question of a posible relationship to Mashenka's )_Mary's_ character, the old poet Antonovich Sergeyevich Podtyagin--specifically about the proximity of MARY's boarding house and the real Podtyagin's Berlin address. Berlin resident Dieter Zimmer responds to the question.

 
----- Original Message -----
----- Original Message -----
From: Evgeniy Belodubrovskiy
To: D. Barton Johnson
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 10:05 AM
Subject: Podtijagin 1925 goda

Dorogoi Don!

Vot moe novoe otkritie - v attachmente

Sprosite Ditera ob etoi ulize d Berline 1925  goda i kak blisko ili daleko chil v 1925  godu Sirin 

VASH -Evgenii

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Объявление ( посредине большой страницы,не крупно ,не сразу заметишь)

 

« ПОДТЯГИН БОРИС ВЛАДИМИРОВИЧ

Разыскивает его жена

Berlin. N.W. 21. Dreysestrasse  9  »

 

Г. «Возрождение»  – от 29 октября 1925 года номер 149

 

(Podtyagin, Boris Vladimirivich. Seeks his wife. Berlin. N.W. 21. Dreysestrasse 9. In newspapr "Vozrozhdenie, 29 Oct. 1925, # 149)

 

 

 

Персонаж «Машеньки»  – старый поэт АНТОН СЕРЕГЕИЧ ПОДТЯГИН

виза 

ждет визы

 уезжает

 стекла иенсне – очки на цепочках

чехов- Антон

Сергеич –Пушкин

первую гимназию кончил адамович  и  сергей набоков 

или если не здесь –то в париже

французы разрешили приехать  а немцы почему -то не выпускали  все стремился в париж  не очень хорошо говорил по-немецки  

меня в Париже давно ждут а у племянницы нет денег выслать мне на дорогу

не уехать мне отсюда

жена  антона  сергеевича

 

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The above are apparently Evgenii's notes on the Mashen'ka Podtyagin and possible parallels.

 

Dorogoi Evgenii,
 
Dreysestrasse is not so very far from Nollendorfplatz which was roughly the center of Russian Berlin in the 1920s (c. 2 miles as the Berlin crows fly that are said to come from St. Petersburg for the winter). Still I don't think there is any connection. Russian Berlin was in the boroughs of largely middle/upper class Charlottenburg, Schoeneberg and Wilmersdorf, Dreysestrasse is worlds away in the largely proletarian borough of Moabit, between a defunct hospital and a remand prison. In all of Nabokov's many descriptions of Berlin localities there is not one showing that he has ever been in that part of the town.
 
Best,
Dieter
 
Dr. Dieter E. Zimmer
Claudiusstrasse 6
D-10557 Berlin
Germany
E-Mail mail@d-e-zimmer.de
Homepage www.d-e-zimmer.de