One last word about Prince Andronnikov. In 1918, when he was the head of the Kronstadt Cheka, he received 2 000 000 (two million; I wonder what is the price of Kinbote's crown jewels?) roubles from the grand duke Aleksandr Mikhailovich ("Sandro", grand son of Nicolas I) and his wife (and niece) Ksenia Aleksandrovna (sister of Nicolas II), who fled to Crimea and thence to France. Gleb Bokiy (after Dzerzhinsky, the second man in Cheka) found out about it and when bribed next time Andronnikov was caught red-handed.
 
Note that Dr Evgeniy Botkin was executed with the last Russian czar's family.
The name Bokiy (that has bok, "side," and kiy, "billiard cue," in it) may remind one of both Nabokov and Botkin. Bokiy (of whom VN might have never heard, I admit) too was executed in 1937.
 
Alexey Sklyarenko
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