Filip Ivanych Nikftin and Mihail Stanislavich Grinévich, officials of Oblônski's bureau.
Zahar Nikftich (first name and patronymic), Oblônski's secretary.
Fomin, a shady character in a case under discussion at Oblônski's office.
*
Along with the other sections of what is called the Commentary in this volume, Nabokov intended the account of names to be part of the prefatory matter to a textbook edition of Anna Karenin that would have contained a new translation. It is particularly unfortunate that this project was never completed. Ed.
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Alabin, a society friend of Oblônski.
Prince Golitsyn, a gentleman dining with a lady at the Hotel d'Angleterre.
A Mr. Brénteln who married a Princess Shahovskôy.
Countess Bânin, a lady at whose house Oblônski attends a rehearsal of some private theatricals.
Mrs. Kalinin, a staff captain's widow, with a petition.
Mile. Roland, formerly the French governess of Oblônski's children, now his mistress. She will be replaced in part four, chapter 7, about two years later (winter 1873-1874) by a young ballerina Masha Chibisova.
Miss Hull, their English governess.
Mlle. Linon, the old French governess of Dolly, Nathalie, and Kitty.
Matryona Filimônovna ("daughter of Filimon"), no surname; diminutive: Matryosha; the old nurse of the Shcherbatski girls, now nursing the Oblônski children. Her brother, a cook.
Matvey(the English would be Matthew), Oblonski's old valet and butler.
Other servants of the Oblônski household: Mâr'ya, a housekeeper of sorts; a chef; an assistant (female) cook, who prepares the servants' meals; several anonymous maids; a footman; a coachman; a daily barber, and a weekly clockwinder.
The Bôbrishchevs, the Nikitins, the Mezhkôvs, Moscow families mentioned by Kitty in connection with gay and dull balls.
Kôrsunski, Egôrushka (diminutive of Geôrgi), an amateur conductor of dances at the balls given by his friends.
His wife, Lydie (Lidia).
Miss Elétski, Mr. Krivin, and other guests at the ball.
The Karénin Group
Karénin (rhymes with "rainin' "), Alekséy Aleksândrovich ("son of Aleksandr"), Russian nobility of unspecified ancientry, formerly (around 1863) Governor of Tver; now a statesman occupying a high rank in one of the Ministries, apparently Interior or Imperial Estates; has a house in Petersburg.
His wife, Anna Arkâdievna ("daughter of Arkâdi") Karénin, born Princess Oblônski, Steve's sister. Married eight years.
Seryôzha (diminutive of Sergey), their son, in his eighth year in 1872.
Countess Lidia Ivanovna ("daughter of Ivan"), no surname mentioned, a friend of the Karenins, fashionably interested in the union of Catholic religions (Greek and Roman) and of the Slav nations.
Prâvdin, a vaguely Masonic correspondent of hers.
Princess Elizaveta Fyôdorovna Tverskôy; anglicized diminutive: Betsy; Vronski's first cousin, married to Anna's first cousin.
Ivan Petrôvich (first name and patronymic), no surname given, a gentleman from Moscow, Anna's acquaintance, who happens to travel on the same train with her.
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An anonymous railway guard, crushed by a backing train; leaves a widow and a large family.
A number of people, passengers and officials, on trains and railway stations.
Annushka (lowly diminutive of Anna), Anna Karénin's maid.
Mariette, Seryôzha's French governess, surname not given; at end of part four is replaced by Miss Edwards.
Kondrâti (first name), one of the Karénins' coachmen.
The Vrdnski Group
Vronski, Count Alekséy Kinlych, son of Count Kiril Ivanovich Vrônski; diminutive Alydsha; a Cavalry Captain (rotmistr) of the Guards and aide-de-camp at the Court; stationed in Petersburg; in Moscow on leave of absence; has an apartment in St.
Petersburg in the Morskâya Street (a fashionable quarter) and a country estate Vozdvizhenskoe, some fifty miles from Lyovin's estate, presumably in the Province of Tula, Central Russia.
His elder brother, Aleksândr (French: Alexandre), living in St. Petersburg, Commander of a Regiment of the Guards, father of at least two daughters (the elder is called Marie) and of a newborn boy; his wife's name is Vârya (diminutive of Varvara), née Princess Chirkov, daughter of a Decembrist. Keeps a dancing-girl.
Countess Vrônski, mother of Aleksândr and Alekséy, has an apartment or house in Moscow and a country estate nearby, reached from a station (Obirâlovka), a few minutes from Moscow on the Nizhegorodski line.
Alekséy Vrônski's servants: a German valet and an orderly; old Countess Vronski's maid and her butler Lavrénti, both traveling with her back to Moscow from Petersburg; and an old footman of the Countess who comes to meet her at the Moscow station.
Ignâtov, a Moscow pal of Vrônski.
Lieutenant "Pierre" Petritski, one of Vronski's best friends, staying in Vr6n-ski's Petersburg flat.
Baroness Shflton, a married lady, Pierre's mistress.
Captain Kamerôvski, a comrade of Petn'tski's.
Various acquaintances mentioned by Petritski: fellow officers Berkôshev and Buzulûkov; a woman, Lora; Fertingof and Miléev, her lovers; and a Grand Duchess. (Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses were Romanovs, i.e., relatives of the Tsar.)
The Lyavin Group
Lydvin, Konstantîn Dmitrich ("son of Dmitri"), scion of a noble Moscow family older than the Count Vronski's; Tolstoy's representative in the world of the book; aged 32; has an estate, Pokrôvskoe, in the "Karâzinski" District and another in the Seleznyovski District, both in Central Russia. ("Province of Kashin"—presumably the Province of Tula.) Nikolây, his elder brother, a consumptive crank.
Maria Nikolaevna, first name and patronymic, no surname given; diminutive: Mâsha; she is Nikolây's mistress, a reformed prostitute.
Nikolay's and Konstantin's sister, unnamed; living abroad.
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Their elder half brother, Sergéy Ivanovich Kôznyshev, a writer on philosophic and social questions; has a house in Moscow and an estate in the Province of Kâshin.
A professor from the University of Kharkov, South Russia.
Trûbin, a cardsharp.
Kritski, an acquaintance of Nikolay Lydvin, embittered and leftist.
Vanyushka, a boy, adopted at one time by Nikolay Lyovin, now a clerk in the office of Pokrovskoe, the Lyovins' estate.
Prokofi, Koznyshev's man servant.
Menials on Konstantin Lyovin's estate: Vasili Fyodorovich (first name and patronymic), the steward; Agâfia Mihâylovna (first name and patronymic), formerly nurse of Lyovin's sister, now his housekeeper; Filip, a gardener; Kuzmâ, a house servant; Ignât, a coachman; Semyon, a contractor; Prôhor, a peasant.
Commentary N o tes (part one)*
No. 1 All was confusion in the Oblonski's house
In the Russian text, the word dom (house, household, home) is repeated eight times in the course of six sentences. This ponderous and solemn repetition, dom, dom, dom, tolling as it does for doomed family life (one of the main themes of the book), is a deliberate device on Tolstoy's part (p.3).
No. 2 Alabin, Darmstadt, America
Oblonski with several of his friends, such as Vronski and presumably Alabin, is considering arranging a restaurant supper in honor of a famous songstress (see note 75); these pleasant plans permeate his dream and mingle with recollections of recent news in the papers: he is a great reader of political hodge-podge. I find that about this time (February 1872) the Cologne Gazette at Darmstadt (capital of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, part of the new German Empire in 1866) was devoting much discussion to the so-called Alabama claims (generic name applied to claims for indemnity made by the U. S. upon Great Britain because of the damage done to American shipping during the Civil War). In result Darmstadt, Alabin, and America get mixed up in Oblonski's dream (p.4).