I 28 Kuban: the area of the River Kuban, north of the Caucasus.
GUSEV
I 34 Suchan: town in the far east of Siberia, about miles east of Vladivostok.
I 37 Captain Kopeykin: a comic Captain Kopeykin figures in Gogol's novel Dead Souls, Part I (1842).
Midshipman Dyrka: a comic Midshipman Dyrka is described by Zhevakin, hero of Gogol's play Marriage (1842).
i 39 Odessa: large Russian port on the Black Sea.
PEASANT WOMEN
148 Oboyan: small town, about 340 miles south of Moscow.
I 54 watchman started banging . . in order to warn thieves that they were about, and show their masters that they were awake, Russian watchmen used to bang a stick against a wall, or use some kind of improvised rattle.
IN EXILE
i 59 Simbirsk Province: this was situated on the middle Volga, the provincial capital (Simbirsk; modern Ulyanovsk) being over 400 miles east of Moscow. The province had a sizeable Tatar element in its population.
I6o Kursk: city in central Russia, about 300 miles south of Moscow.
Ifi>3 community court: the legal provision whereby a village commune (mir, obshchestvo, or obshchi1U1) was empowered to sentence offending members to exile in Siberia, flogging, etc.
rothschild's fiddle 170 St.John's Day . . .: 8 May—the day of St John the Evangelist. St. Nicholas's Day . . . : 9 May—the day ofthe Transfcrence of the Remains of St Nicholas the Miracle-Worker.
THE STUDENT
Ryurik: Rurik, or Ryurik, a late ninth-century Viking prince of Novgorod, was traditionally the founder of the Rurikid line— the Russian ruling house from 862 to 1598.
Ivan the Terrible: Ivan IV, Tsar of Muscovy; born 1530, acceded 1533, died 1584.
Peter the Great: Peter I, the first Russian emperor; born 1672, accedcd 1682, died 1725.
'At the Last Supper . . .': in the account which follows Chekhov's student quotes or paraphrases material from the Gospels (Mark 14; Luke 22; John 18), and the translation draws on the Authorized Version at the appropriate points.
THE HEAD GARDENER's STORY 180 Ibsen: the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906). "For in the fatness . . .': Shakespeare, Hamlet, 111. iv.
PATCH
185 watchman: owing to the great demand for wood as fuel and building material, it was customary to appoint watchmen to guard the forests against thieves.
THE SAVAGE
190 officer of Cossacks: originally frontiersmen and grouped in various specific localities, of which the area of the River Don and its tributaries was one, the Cossacks enjoyed special status and privileges in return for which they were obliged to serve in special Cossack military units.
Provalye: name of a small station about 7 5 miles north of Rostov- on-Don on the Donets Railway line west of Zverevo.
i tht- Dotn-ts Line: the: network of railway lines serving the Donets Basin in the south of European Russia
1\'oi'ocherkassk: town in southern Russia, founded in 1805 as capital of the: Don Cossack Region.
IN THE CART
203 Lt>wer Gorodishche: possibly suggested by Old [Staroye] Gorodishche, name of village about 30 miles south-east of Melikhovo, cast of the: River Kashirka, a tributary of the Oka.
ON OFFICIAL HUSINESS
The Nevsky Prosprkt: the main thoroughfare ofSt Petersburg. Petrovka Street: a street running north from central Moscow.
thegaffer on tiie parish counciclass="underline" literally, the cantonal elder: a peasant clected to perform certain administrative duties within a volost (group of villages or canton).
five years afier the serfs were freed: Loshadin is saying that his appointment dates from 1866: i.e. fivc years after the Emancipa- tion of the Serfs.
225 Fell o.D me perch, I did-came down with a bump: it was king of the castle one day and dirty rascal thr next: a literal translation would be: 'Mokey had four lackeys, but now Mokey is himself a lackey. Petrak had four men working for him, but now Petrak himself is working for someone else.' 228 Pushkiris 'He clove thesnow in powderedfurrows': the quotation is of line 5. verse II, Canto Five: ofPushkin's verse novel Eugene Onegin (1823-31).
22y T'he Queert of Spades: the opera (l8yo) by 1'. I. Tchaikovsky (i84&-<j3), based on l'ushkin's short story with the same tide.
AT CHRISTMAS
23!! Charcot: Jcan Martin Charcot (1825^3), the French physician and pionecr of psychothcrapy.
FRAGMENT
239 a senior civil servant: literally 'an actual state councillor', grade four in the Table of Ranks.
Cincinnatus: Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, the early Roman politician famous for his addiction to farm labour in intervals between serving the Republic as consul (460 bc) and dictator (458 bc).
Kaygorodov: D. N. Kaygorodov (b. 1846) was a professor at the St Petersburg Forestry Institute and author of numerous learned works.
THE STORY OF A COMMERCIAL VENTURE
241 Mikhaylovsky: the Russian political thinker and literary critic N. K. Mikhaylovsky (1842-190904).
Our Natiue Word: Rodnoye slovo (untraced) was possibly a school reader.
243 European Herald: Vestnik Yevropy: a historico-political and literary monthly of liberal complexion published in St Petersburg/ Petrograd, 1866-1918.
A FISHY AFFAIR
Lermontov's Demon fell in love with Tamara: in the long poem The Demon (1839) by M. Yu. Lermontov (1814-41), the devil's kiss destroys Tamara, the girl whom he loves.
Lipetsk: town about 230 miles south of Moscow.