Even though I failed to synthesize sun and star correctly, I'm glad that my awkward attempt trigerred several brilliant "scientific" responses from better informed scholars.
 
Incidentally, it was I who several years ago tried to draw the attention of the Pale Fire specialists to Rozanov's Lyudi Lunnogo Sveta.
 
The Moscow hospital (as well as one in St. Petersburg) was named after Sergey Petrovich Botkin (1832-89), the famous therapeutist, the tsars Alexander II and Alexander III's phisician. Evgeniy Botkin, the doctor of the tsar Nicolas and his family who was executed with his patients, was Sergey Petrovich's son. Sergey's brother Vasiliy, the writer, is mentioned several times in The Gift. There were other historical Botkins.
 
Alexey Sklyarenko
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