Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0023300, Sun, 2 Sep 2012 14:58:59 +0300

Subject
golubyanki
Date
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'Which reminds me painfully of the golubyanki (petits bleus) Aqua used to send me,' remarked Demon with a sigh (1.29)

Vivian Darkbloom ('Notes to Ada'): golubyanka: Russ., small blue butterfly; petit blue: Parisian* slang for pneumatic post (express message on blue paper).

There is Lubyanka (a square in Moscow where the headquarters of the Soviet secret police were situated) in golubyanka. Solovki and Lubyanka are paired in Speak, Memory (Chapter Thirteen, 5): The thunderclap of purges that had affected 'old Bolsheviks,' the heroes of his [Nesbit's] youth, had given him a salutory shock, something that in Lenin's day all the groans coming from the Solovki force labor camp or the Lubyanka dungeon had not been able to do.

In Drugie berega (Chapter Eight, 5) Solovki are also mentioned in connection with 'Volgin' (VN's tutor who married one of his pupil's older relations and - during his subsequent career in Lenin's administration - bundled his wife off to the Solovki labor camp): При Советах этот бархатный Волгин был комиссаром - и вскоре устроился так, чтобы сбыть жену в Соловки. In Speak, Memory VN adds: The more I think of that man [Volgin], the more I believe that he was completely insane.

Aqua is Demon's insane wife who spent most of her time in various sanatoriums. Her poor little letters from the homes of madness to her husband were sometimes signed: Madame Shchemyashchikh-Zvukov (Heart rending-Sounds). (1.3)

*On Antiterra (Earth's twin planet on which Ada is set) Paris is also known as Lute. Lyutyi means in Russian "ferocious, fierce, cruel."

Alexey Sklyarenko

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