EDNOTE. There is a substantial literature on THE
DEFENSE some of which suggests protoptypes including Tartakover
& Kieseritsky. VN denied Akiba Rubenstein as a model. Check the Nabokov
biobliography at http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/.
I am Ildiko Baba from Hungary. I'm writing my
dissertation about The Defence. My question is: did VN know anyone, who could be
the model, the sample of Luzhin's figure? Did he know someone with this kind of
behavior? Maybe Mr Dmitri Nabokov knows something about this ....