Vadim compares his mental flaw to a missing pinkie.
(2.7)
Griboedov's dead body was identified because the little finger
of his left hand was maimed in his duel (the famous "Duel of the
Four") with Yakubovich:
Sheremetev's death [in
his duel with Zavadovski] delayed the Yakubovich-Griboedov meeting; it
took place a year later (Oct. 23, 1818) in Tiflis; the great marksman, knowing
how much the great writer liked to play the piano, neatly wounded him in the
palm of the left hand, crippling the fifth digit; it did not prevent
Griboedov from going on with his musical improvising, but some ten years
later this contracted finger provided the sole means of identifying his body,
horribly mutilated by a Persian mob in an anti-Russian riot at Teheran, where he
was envoy. (EO Commentary, II, p. 89)
According to Vadim, his father died in a pistol duel with a
young Frenchman on October 22, 1898. (2.5)
One of the seconds in the Zavadovski-Sheremetev duel (on the
Volkovo Field in the outskirts of St. Petersburg, Nov. 12, 1817) was
Onegin's friend Kaverin. When Sheremetev, mortally wounded and in agony,
"flapped and plunged all over the snow like a large fish," Kaverin came to him
and said: "Vot tebe i repka [Well, that's the end of your little
turnip]" (EO Commentary, ibid.)
Kaverin is mentioned in LATH: Was that really I, Prince Vadim Blonsky, who in 1815 could have
outdrunk Pushkin's mentor, Kaverin? (6.2)
The list of Vadim's novels includes Dr. Olga
Repnin (1946). The name Repnin comes from repa
(turnip).
The society nickname of Vadim's father (who was portrayed by
Vrubel) was Demon. (2.5). In Blok's poem Vozmedie
(Retribution, 1910-21) the hero's father (who is devastated by Demon
over whom Vrubel has eshausted) is known as Demon.
Его опустошает Демон,
Над коим Врубель
изнемог...
Его прозрения глубоки,
Но их глушит ночная тьма,
И в снах
холодных и жестоких
Он видит "Горе от ума".
And in his cold and cruel dreams
he [Demon] sees Woe from Wit.
(Retribution, Chapter Three)
Gore ot uma (Woe from Wit,
1824) is a comedy in verse ("the only great Russian
comedy in verse") by Griboedov.
Alexey Sklyarenko