Speaking of Anna Vyrubov, the Empress' beloved lady in waiting
(1884-1964), her Diary (Dnevnik Anny Vyrubovoy) was fabricated by
A. N. Tolstoy and P. E. Shchyogolev (the famous Pushkinist, author of "The Duel
and Death of Pushkin"). It seems that Shchyogolev (a talented hoaxer who
eventually committed suicide) has also coauthored "The Conspiracy of the
Empress." Vyrubov's authentic memoirs, Stranitsy moey zhizni
("Pages of my Life," 1922), appeared in emigration. It seems to me that both
genuine and forged memoirs of Vyrubov (née Taneev) are worth looking
at.
Once Pushkin is mentioned, let me remind the List that Kinbote
finishes his Foreword/Commentary to Pale Fire (and, according to
VN, commits suicide) on October 19 (The Lyceum Anniversary). Incidentally,
Pushkin (who wrote, while still in the Lyceum, Fonvizin's Shade
and, most likely, Barkov's Shade, the obscene poem attributed to
him) had a fondness for the word ten' (shade) as meaning "spirit of a
deceased person." One particularly remembers Grigoriy Otrep'ev's monologue in
Boris Godunov:
Ten' Groznogo menya
usynovila,
Dimitriem iz groba narekla
(The shade of Ivan the Terrible adopted me,
from his grave named me Dimitriy).
Alexey Sklyarenko