Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0000501, Mon, 13 Mar 1995 19:37:19 -0800

Subject
Platon Nabokov (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITORIAL NOTE: For the non-Slavists among you, I might mention (in
conjunction with Galya's Diment's note below) that the name PLATON
(Plato) Nabokov is an exquisite double oxymoron: Nabokov bouncing
between Plato (whom he despised) and the ultra-humble peasant Platon
Karataev of War & Peace fame. DBJ

From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>

FYI. The latest issue of the LA emigre newspaper PANORAMA (#726, March
8-14, 1995) has an interview with Platon Nabokov who is apparently
Nabokov's distant, or not so distant, cousin. His father, Joseph Nabokov,
was V.D. Nabokov's twice-removed nephew ("dvoiurodnyi plemiannik" -- once
removed? I am not great with relations either in English or in Russian).
He is a poet who spent several years in a labor camp where he was reportedly
interrogated about, among other things, his link to V. Nabokov's
family. He calls V. Nabokov "istinnyi realist" ("a true realist"), for
which I am not sure his relative would have ever forgiven him, and also
"vydaiushchiisia stilist" ("an outstanding stylist"), which I suspect the
other Nabokov would have liked. There is a picture of Platon Nabokov too,
and he DOES look like Vladimir there. The title of the article is
interesting -- "I v nyneshnei Rossii est' svoi Nabokov" ("Present Russia,
too, has its own Nabokov").

Galya Diment