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ADA's Shura Tobak and The Bronze Horseman
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Sasha (or more free-and-easy Sashka) is a Russian diminutive of Alexander.* Another, even more affectionate, diminutive of this name is Shura. In Ilf and Petrov's "The Golden Calf" there is Shura Balaganov, a member of the Antelope Gnu crew. In Ada (3.3) there is Shura Tobak, the violinist, whom snobbish Cordula Tobak (born de Prey) cannot forgive for being her husband's neighbor in the telephone book. Shura Tobak's first name and profession link him to Aleksandr Gertsovich, the Jewish musician in Mandelshtam's poem "Zhil Aleksandr Gertsovich..." ("There lived Alexander Herzevich..." 1931), and to Mr Alexander Screepatch,** the new president of the United Americas in Ada (3.4).
In a previous post I mentioned several Chekhovian characters (Andrey in The Three Sisters, Andrey Andreich in The Bride) who play a violin. But I forgot about Yakov Bronza,*** the hero of Chekhov's story Skripka Rotshil'da ("Rothschild's Violin", 1894),**** whose hobby is violin playing. Bronza's profession is the making of coffins. It links him to Adrian Prokhorov, the hero of Pushkin's story Grobovshchik ("The coffin-maker", 1830), and master Bezenchuk, the coffin-maker in Ilf and Petrov's "The Twelve Chairs" (who often hit the bottle, pil gor'kuyu, because people in N died seldom).
In The Bronze Horseman (1833) Alexander Pushkin describes the disastrous Neva flood of 1824 and mentions, among other things, coffins from sodden graveyards floating along the streets (Гроба с размытого кладбища / плывут по улицам). The original title of Pushkin's poem is Mednyi [copper] vsadnik; but the equestrian statue of Peter I is actually made of bronze - the fact emphasised by the author who speaks of kumir na bronzovom kone ("the idol on his bronze horse"). He also mentions in The Bronze Horseman his namesake, the late tsar Alexander I who "gloriously ruled Russia" (and whom Pushkin actually disliked) in that grim year:
Покойный царь ещё Россией
Со славой правил.
Vladimir Lenin, who ruled Russia in 1917-24, isn't mentioned in Ada. But it seems to me that Nabokov kept in mind that the leader of the Bolsheviks was his (and his father's) namesake, and the mysterious L disaster in Ada hints, among other real events (including the Neva flood on November 7, 1824), at the 1917 October Revolution (Oct. 25/Nov. 7). It is probably worth noting that the next great flood of the Neva occurred exactly hundred years later, in 1924, the year of Lenin's death. It was Stalin (who was to lyudoed, cannibal, Lenin what the severe tsar Nicolas I was to mild Alexander I) who began to rule Russia by the time. On Antiterra (the planet on which Ada is set) they have Khan Sosso (a play on Soso, Dzhugashvili's first name), the ruler of the ruthless Sovietnamur Khanate (2.2), instead of him. While "Sosso" reminds me of the tong-twister shla Sasha po shosse i sosala sushku ("Sasha walked along a highway sucking a dry cracker"), "Sovietnamur" (combining the Soviet Union with Vietnam and the Amur) brings the phrase shury-mury ("love affair" in nursery slang) to mind.
Sashka + Shura = Sasha***** + shkura (skin******)
*one remembers the poet Sasha Chyornyi (pen-name of Aleksandr Glikberg, 1880-1932) and, by association, Andrey Belyi (pen-name of Boris Bugaev, 1880-1934), another poet and prose writer (the author of Petersburg) esteemed by Nabokov; chyornyi means "black", belyi "white" in Russian
**skripach means "violinist", "fiddler"
***the hero's real name is Ivanov, Bronza ("Bronze") is his nickname
****Chekhov's Moisey Rotshild, a poor Jew in a Russian village, is merely a namesake of the Barons Rothshild, the famous family of bankers
*****Sasha is a long poem by Nekrasov (1855). Its heroine (Sasha is also a diminutive of Aleksandra) is a young country girl. Interesting to note that in his poem Yubileynoe ("Anniversary Poem", 1924) Mayakovski, VN's "late namesake", unceremoniously calls N. A. Nekrasov "Kolya, son of the late Alyosha"
******usually of an animal; cf. Vityaz' v tigrovoy shkure ("The Knight in a Tiger's Skin"), an epic by Shota Rustavelli (who is believed to be Queen Tamara's lover); like English "skin", shkura is often used idiomatically
Alexey Sklyarenko
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In a previous post I mentioned several Chekhovian characters (Andrey in The Three Sisters, Andrey Andreich in The Bride) who play a violin. But I forgot about Yakov Bronza,*** the hero of Chekhov's story Skripka Rotshil'da ("Rothschild's Violin", 1894),**** whose hobby is violin playing. Bronza's profession is the making of coffins. It links him to Adrian Prokhorov, the hero of Pushkin's story Grobovshchik ("The coffin-maker", 1830), and master Bezenchuk, the coffin-maker in Ilf and Petrov's "The Twelve Chairs" (who often hit the bottle, pil gor'kuyu, because people in N died seldom).
In The Bronze Horseman (1833) Alexander Pushkin describes the disastrous Neva flood of 1824 and mentions, among other things, coffins from sodden graveyards floating along the streets (Гроба с размытого кладбища / плывут по улицам). The original title of Pushkin's poem is Mednyi [copper] vsadnik; but the equestrian statue of Peter I is actually made of bronze - the fact emphasised by the author who speaks of kumir na bronzovom kone ("the idol on his bronze horse"). He also mentions in The Bronze Horseman his namesake, the late tsar Alexander I who "gloriously ruled Russia" (and whom Pushkin actually disliked) in that grim year:
Покойный царь ещё Россией
Со славой правил.
Vladimir Lenin, who ruled Russia in 1917-24, isn't mentioned in Ada. But it seems to me that Nabokov kept in mind that the leader of the Bolsheviks was his (and his father's) namesake, and the mysterious L disaster in Ada hints, among other real events (including the Neva flood on November 7, 1824), at the 1917 October Revolution (Oct. 25/Nov. 7). It is probably worth noting that the next great flood of the Neva occurred exactly hundred years later, in 1924, the year of Lenin's death. It was Stalin (who was to lyudoed, cannibal, Lenin what the severe tsar Nicolas I was to mild Alexander I) who began to rule Russia by the time. On Antiterra (the planet on which Ada is set) they have Khan Sosso (a play on Soso, Dzhugashvili's first name), the ruler of the ruthless Sovietnamur Khanate (2.2), instead of him. While "Sosso" reminds me of the tong-twister shla Sasha po shosse i sosala sushku ("Sasha walked along a highway sucking a dry cracker"), "Sovietnamur" (combining the Soviet Union with Vietnam and the Amur) brings the phrase shury-mury ("love affair" in nursery slang) to mind.
Sashka + Shura = Sasha***** + shkura (skin******)
*one remembers the poet Sasha Chyornyi (pen-name of Aleksandr Glikberg, 1880-1932) and, by association, Andrey Belyi (pen-name of Boris Bugaev, 1880-1934), another poet and prose writer (the author of Petersburg) esteemed by Nabokov; chyornyi means "black", belyi "white" in Russian
**skripach means "violinist", "fiddler"
***the hero's real name is Ivanov, Bronza ("Bronze") is his nickname
****Chekhov's Moisey Rotshild, a poor Jew in a Russian village, is merely a namesake of the Barons Rothshild, the famous family of bankers
*****Sasha is a long poem by Nekrasov (1855). Its heroine (Sasha is also a diminutive of Aleksandra) is a young country girl. Interesting to note that in his poem Yubileynoe ("Anniversary Poem", 1924) Mayakovski, VN's "late namesake", unceremoniously calls N. A. Nekrasov "Kolya, son of the late Alyosha"
******usually of an animal; cf. Vityaz' v tigrovoy shkure ("The Knight in a Tiger's Skin"), an epic by Shota Rustavelli (who is believed to be Queen Tamara's lover); like English "skin", shkura is often used idiomatically
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/