AAA (ААА, aaa)
AAB (ААБ, aab)
AAC (ААВ, aav)
AAD (ААГ, aag)
The first four letters of the Russian alphabet
(corresponding to English A, B, C, D) are A (pronounced like Ada's
initial), Б (pronounced like English B), В (pronounced
like English V) and Г (pronounced like G in "Gogol").
Hence, AAA = AAA = aaa, AAB = ААБ = aab, AAC =
ААВ = aav, AAD = ААГ = aag.
AAA is Andrey Andreevich Aksakov,
Van's Russian tutor. If we now continue the series (and capitalize the
lower-case letters), AAB is Andrey Andreevich Bozhko (Gogol's schoolmate in
Nezhin), AAV is Andrey Andreevich Vinelander (Ada's husband who physically
looks like Kosygin, the mayor of Yukonsk who may - or may not - look like Alexey
Kosygin, the Prime Minister in Brezhnev's government) and AAG is Andrey
Andreevich Gromyko (the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Brezhnev's government).
Gromyko reminds one of Gromeko, the maiden name of Zhivago's wife in
Pasternak's novel (known on Antiterra as Les Amours du Docteur Mertvago
and Mertvago Forever). The daughter of Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Gromeko
(AAG), Antonina (Tonya) Zhivago is a "female
namesake" of Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovski (AASD), the mayor in Gogol's
play The Inspector.
AAD =
ADA
AASD = ADA + S = A + SAD
(Russ., garden)
S is the initial of Skvoznik, the first part of the
twofold surname of Gogol's mayor. It plays on skvoznyak (draught,
a current of air). In his poem Nerodivshemusya chitatelyu (To an
Unborn Reader, 1930) VN mentions skvoznyak iz proshlogo (a draught
from the past):
Ты, светлый житель будущих веков,
ты,
старины любитель, в день урочный
откроешь антологию стихов,
забытых
незаслуженно, но прочно.
И будешь ты, как шут, одет на вкус
моей эпохи
фрачной и сюртучной.
Облокотись. Прислушайся. Как звучно
былое время --
раковина муз.
Шестнадцать строк, увенчанных овалом
с неясной
фотографией... Посмей
побрезговать их слогом обветшалым,
опрятностью и
бедностью моей.
Я здесь с тобой. Укрыться ты не волен.
К тебе на грудь
я прянул через мрак.
Вот холодок ты чувствуешь: сквозняк
из прошлого... Прощай же. Я
доволен.
I feel like I was that "bright inhabitant of future
centuries" who suddenly sensed a creepy cold: a draught from the past. VN's
shade must be pleased.
AAA are also the initials of Anna Andreevna Akhmatova (penname of Anna
Gorenko, 1889-1966) and AAB are the initials of Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Blok
(1880-1921). While Ada's husband resembles dull Kosygin, her brother and lover
Van Veen has the romantic appeal of a "Renaissance
Florentine" (florentiets epokhi Vozrozhdeniya, as Blok is
described by Gorky in Notes from the Diary).
Alexey Sklyarenko