Doctor Zhivago (84 page)

The notes that follow are indebted to the commentaries by E. B. Pasternak and E. V. Pasternak in volume
4
of the Complete Collected Works in eleven volumes published by Slovo (Moscow,
2004
). Biblical quotations, unless otherwise specified, are from the Revised Standard Version.

1.
Memory Eternal:
The chanted prayer of “Memory Eternal”
(Vechnaya Pamyat)
, asking God to remember the deceased, concludes the Orthodox funeral or memorial service
(panikhida)
and the burial service. Pasternak places it here to introduce the central theme of the novel. Psalm 24:1 (“The earth is the Lord’s …”) and the prayer “With the souls of the righteous dead, give rest, O Savior, to the soul of thy servant” come at the end of the burial service.

2.
The Protection:
Dating events by church feasts was customary in Russia (as elsewhere) until the early twentieth century, and even later. Pasternak alternates throughout the novel between civil and religious calendars. The feast of the Protective Veil (or Protection) of the Mother of God falls on October 1. The Russian Orthodox Church, and the Russian state until 1917, followed the Julian rather than the Gregorian calendar, which have a difference of thirteen days between them. Thus October 1 by the Julian calendar is October 14 by the Gregorian calendar, and the October revolution of 1917 actually broke out on November 7.

3.
The Kazan Mother of God:
This feast, which commemorates the miracle-working icon of the Virgin found in Kazan in 1579, is celebrated on July 8/21.

4.
zemstvo:
A local council for self-government introduced by the reforms of the emperor Alexander II in 1864.

5.
Tolstoyism and revolution:
“Tolstoyism,” an anti-state, anti-church, egalitarian social doctrine of the kingdom of God on earth, to be achieved by means of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance, was developed in the polemical writings of Leo Tolstoy and his disciples in the last decades of the nineteenth century. A number of revolutionary movements appeared during the same period in Russia, some more or less Marxist, others populist.

6.
Soloviev:
Vladimir Soloviev (1853–1900) was a poet, philosopher, and literary critic. His work, of major importance in itself, also exerted a strong influence on the poetry of the Russian symbolists and the thinkers of the religious-philosophical revival in the early twentieth century.

7.
the capitals:
The old capital of Russia was Moscow; St. Petersburg, founded by the emperor Peter the Great in 1703, became the new capital and remained so until the 1917 revolution. Exclusion from both capitals was a disciplinary measure taken against untrustworthy intellectuals under the old regime and again under Stalin.

1.
The war with Japan …:
The Russo-Japanese War (February 10, 1904—September 5, 1905), fought for control of Manchuria and the seas around Korea and Japan, ended in the unexpected defeat of Russia at the hands of the Japanese. The Russian situation was made more difficult by increasing social unrest within the country. On January 22, 1905, which came to be known as “Bloody Sunday,” the Orthodox priest Gapon led a large but peaceful procession to the imperial palace in Petersburg to present a petition asking for reforms in the government. The procession was fired upon and many people were killed. Further disturbances then sprang up all across the country and spread to the armed forces. In August 1905 the emperor Nicholas II allowed the formation of a State Duma (national assembly). But the Duma’s powers were so limited that it satisfied none of the protesting parties, and in October came a general strike, as a result of which the emperor was forced to sign the so-called October Manifesto, which laid the foundations for a constitutional monarchy. This satisfied the Constitutional Democratic (CD) Party and other liberals, but not the more radical parties.

2.
Yusupka … Kasimov bride:
It was common until recently for Tartars like Gimazetdin Galiullin to work as yard porters in Russian apartment blocks. Gimazetdin’s son Osip (Yusupka) will play an important role later on.
The Kasimov Bride
(1879) is a historical novel by Vsevolod Soloviev (1849–1903), brother of the philosopher (see part 1,
note 6
). In the fifteenth century, the town of Kasimov, now in Riazan province, was the capital of the Kasimov Tartar kingdom.

3.
Wafangkou:
At the battle of Wafangkou (June 14–15, 1904), the Russian forces of General Stackelberg, who was attempting to relieve Port Arthur, were roundly defeated by the Japanese under General Oku.

4.
Your dear … boy:
An altered quotation from Tchaikovsky’s opera
The Queen of Spades
(1890), with a libretto by Modest Tchaikovsky, based on the story by Alexander Pushkin.

5.
a manifesto:
The October Manifesto of 1905 (see
note 1
above).

6.
a papakha:
A tall hat, usually of lambskin and often with a flat top, originating in the Caucasus.

7.
Gorky … Witte:
Maxim Gorky (1868–1936), a major figure in Russian literature and in the radical politics of the time, was one of a group of writers who wrote to inform the chairman of the council of ministers, Count Sergei Witte (1849–1915), of the peaceful character of Father Gapon’s demonstration on January 22, 1905 (see
note 1
above). Witte, who brilliantly negotiated the peace with Japan in September 1905, was also the author of the October Manifesto.

8.
The Meaning … Sonata:
Leo Tolstoy’s story
The Kreutzer Sonata
(1889), a study of sensuality and jealousy, is a violent attack on the relations between the sexes in modern society.
The Meaning of Love
(1892–94), by the philosopher Vladimir Soloviev (see part 1,
note 6
), is an affirmation of the physical-spiritual union of sexual love.

9.
fauns … ‘let’s be like the sun’:
Vyvolochnov refers to some of the favorite motifs
in fin de siècle poetry and book design. One such book was
Let’s Be Like the Sun
(1903), the best-known work of the symbolist poet Konstantin Balmont (1867–1942).

10.
Lev Nikolaevich … Dostoevsky:
In his polemical treatise
What Is Art?
, Tolstoy (Lev Nikolaevich, i.e., Leo) attacks the “all-confusing concept of beauty” in art, and replaces it with the notion of “the good.” The phrase “Beauty will save the world” is commonly but wrongly ascribed to Dostoevsky. In fact, it comes from Dostoevsky’s novel
The Idiot
(1868), where it is attributed to the hero, Prince Myshkin, by Aglaya Epanchina. Vassily Rozanov (1856–1919), philosopher, diarist, and critic, was one of the major figures of the period leading up to the revolution. He was deeply influenced by Dostoevsky.

11.
Faust … Hesiod’s hexameters: Faust
, a monumental cosmic drama in two parts, is considered the masterwork of the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832). Part 1 was published in 1808 and part 2 in 1832. Pasternak translated the two parts of
Faust
between 1948 and 1953, in alternation with his work on
Zhivago.
The ancient Greek poet Hesiod, author of
Works and Days
and
The Theogony
, is thought to have lived in the later eighth century
BC
.

12.
Katerina’s in
The Storm: The Russian playwright Alexander Ostrovsky (1823–1886) wrote and staged his play
The Storm
in 1859. The heroine Katerina says, in a famous monologue in act 5, scene 4, “Where to go now? Home? No, whether home or the grave, it’s all the same to me.”

13.
The psalm:
Psalm 103, which opens with the words quoted here, is sung as the first of three antiphons at the start of the Orthodox liturgy.

14.
the nine beatitudes:
The beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3–12) are sung as the third antiphon of the Orthodox liturgy.

15.
Presnya days:
The armed riots of workers in the Presnya district of Moscow during December were the last incidents of the 1905 revolution.

16.
bashlyks:
A bashlyk is a hood of Tartar origin with long tails that can be tied around the neck like a scarf.

17.
The Woman or the Vase:
The title of a painting by G. I. Semiradsky (1843–1902), which depicts a market in ancient Rome, where a customer is trying to decide whether to buy a slave woman or a costly vase.

18.
dacha:
The word
dacha
, in its broadest sense, refers to a country dwelling, which can be anything from a rented room in a cottage, to a privately owned country house, to a complex of buildings as significant as the Krüger estate referred to here.

19.
Theosophist:
The spiritual teaching known as Theosophy (“God-wisdom”), first propounded by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891), is an esoteric doctrine of human perfectibility through communion with a “Spiritual Hierarchy” drawn from all of the world’s religions. It was especially popular in intellectual circles during the later nineteenth century, in Russia, Europe, and the United States.

20.
Cui’s nephew:
César Cui (1835–1918), Russian composer, was one of a group of composers known as “the Five” or “the Mighty Little Bunch”
(Moguchaya Kuchka)
, the other four being Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Borodin.

1.
“Askold’s grave” … Oleg’s steed:
The actual grave is said to be the burial place of the Kievan prince Askold, still to be seen on the steep bank of the river Dnieper. Askold
was killed in 882 by Oleg, the successor to Rurik, founder of the first dynasty of Russian rulers. These events were the subject of an opera composed by Alexei Verstovsky (1799–1862). It was predicted that Oleg’s death would be caused by his favorite horse. As it turned out, he died from the bite of a snake that hid in the skull of his horse long after its death.

2.
John the Theologian:
St. John, the author of the fourth Gospel, known as John the Theologian in Orthodox tradition, was also the author of the book of Revelation, from which Zhivago quotes (“and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more,” Revelation 21:4).

3.
vodka and pancakes …:
In the week before the beginning of the Great Lent, the forty-day fast period preceding Holy Week and Easter, it is the Russian custom to eat pancakes
(bliny)
with all sorts of fish and cream toppings, accompanied by vodka.

4.
Egyptian expedition … Fréjus:
The ultimately unsuccessful expedition of the French army in Egypt lasted from 1798 to 1801, but Napoleon led it only until August of 1799, when news of unrest in Paris drew him back to the capital. He landed at the port of Fréjus in the south of France on October 9, 1799, and a month later led a bloodless coup against the then-ruling Directoire and set up the Consulat, with himself as first consul.

5.
Blok:
Alexander Blok (1880–1921), one of the greatest Russian poets, was a leader of the symbolist movement. In an autobiographical sketch written near the end of his life, Pasternak noted: “A number of writers of my age as well as myself went through the years of our youth with Blok as our guide” (
I Remember
, translated by David Magarshack, New York, 1959). Blok is an important presence in
Doctor Zhivago
, where he is referred to a number of times.

6.
panikhidas:
See part 1,
note 1
. During the prayers over a dead person before burial, the panikhida may be repeated several times.

7.
“Holy God … have mercy on us”:
This prayer, known as the trisagion, is sung repeatedly after the funeral service as the coffin is carried out.

1.
Erfurt Program … Plekhanov:
The Erfurt Program was a plan of action adopted by the German Social Democratic Party at its conference in Erfurt in 1891, based on a simplified or “vulgar” Marxist analysis. Presented a year later in
The Class Struggle
, by Karl Kautsky (1854–1938), one of the authors of the program, it became widely influential in the years before the 1917 revolution. Georgi Plekhanov (1857–1918), revolutionary activist and Marxist theorist, was one of the founders of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. At the second party conference in 1903, Plekhanov broke with Lenin, who headed the Bolsheviks (“Majority”), and joined the Mensheviks (“Minority”), who tended to be more moderate.

2.
mad Gretchen:
In the first part of Goethe’s
Faust
(see part 2,
note 11
), Faust sees the young Gretchen (Margarete) in the street and asks Mephistopheles to procure her for him. Gretchen’s purity makes the task difficult, but Faust succeeds in the end. Gretchen becomes pregnant, drowns her baby, is condemned to death, and awaits execution in prison, where Faust sees her for a last time.

3.
Eruslan Lazarevich:
A hero of so-called lubok literature. A lubok is a folk woodcut or steel engraving, a form of broadside combining illustrations and text, produced in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and later.

4.
the Gypsy Panina:
Varya Panina (1872–1911) was a famous Gypsy singer, whose
voice had great depth and musicality. She began singing in Moscow restaurants and gave her first public concert, which was a huge success, in 1902, at the Hall of the Nobility in Petersburg. Alexander Blok called her “the celestial Varya Panina.” The words “led under the golden crown” refer to the Orthodox wedding service, during which the bride and groom stand under crowns held by their attendants.