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