7. Maybe… done it, too: The Russian word for maybe’ is the colloquial and popular avos, meaning on the off chance’. The ‘high-bornrhymester’ is Prince Dolgoruky (1764–1823), a satirical salon poet who addressed a poem to the word. Pushkin may have come across Byron’s use of shibboleth’ in Don Juan, XI, 12, 1 – 2: ‘Juan, who did not understand a word / Of English, save their shibboleth, “God damn!”’
8. To Albion the seas are granted: Britain’s defeat of the French (and Spanish) at Trafalgar in 1805 ensured its supremacy over the seas.
9. the fraud: The reference is either to Prince A. N. Golitsyn (1773–1844) or to M. L. Magnitsky (1778–1855). Golitsyn changed from an atheist in his early years to an adherent of ‘official mysticism’, founding the Biblical Society’ and becoming Minister for National Education and Spiritual Affairs. Magnitsky was notorious for his monetary greed.
10. Maybe Tsar Nicholas… free: In 1830 Pushkin continued to hope for Tsar Nicholas’s mercy towards the exiled Decembrists. Here the tone is ironical.
11. This man of fate… rack of leisure: The ‘man of fate is Napoleon. The pope attended his coronation in Paris. ‘Rack of leisure refers to Napoleon’s imprisonment on St Helena.
12. The Pyrenees… B’s shadow: The stanza refers to two revolutions of 1820 that shook post-Napoleonic Europe and influenced Decembrism in Russia. The Spanish revolution was defeated in 1823 by the French, mandated by the Holy Alliance of France, Austria, Russia and Prussia. The Neapolitan was crushed by Austria in 1821, assisted by England and France. The ‘one-armed prince was general Alexander Konstantinovich Ipsilanti (1792–1828), a Greek serving in the Russian army, who lost his arm in the battle of Dresden. In 1821 he led an abortive rising of the Greeks in Turkish Moldavia. Pushkin knew Ipsilanti in Kishinev and supported his endeavours, but was later disillusioned with him. Pushkin uses the former name Morea for the Peloponnese. From Kishinev Ipsilanti directed a secret society known as the Hetairae, which had its headquarters in the Pelo-ponnese and fomented a rising there. ‘L refers probably to Louis Pierre Louvel 1783–1820), a saddler, who planned to kill all the Bourbons, assassinating ‘B’, duc de Berry, heir to the French throne in Paris, on 13 February 1820.
13. Our Tsar said… Alexander’s menial: Alexander attended four congresses aimed at crushing revolution in Europe: in Aachen (1818), Troppau (1820), Laibakh (1821) and Verona (1822). At Laibach the Neapolitan revolution was the main concern, while the Verona congress planned the intervention in Spain. ‘Alexander’s menial is Count Arakcheev, the Tsar’s most powerful adviser. See note i to ‘Fragments of Onegin’s Journey.
14. Toy regiment… deadly foes: The stanza refers to the Semyonovsky regiment founded by Peter the Great (1672–1725), who modelled it on the half-boy, half-toy regiment that he created in his boyhood. The ‘tyrant was the mad Paul I (1754–1801, father of Alexander I and Nicholas I), slain by a gang of courtiers with the connivance of the Semyonovsky regiment, who were meant to be guarding him. The same regiment staged a rebellion in 1820, foreshadowing the Decembrist movement. Sergei Muravyov-Apostol (1796–1826) and Mikhail Bestuzhev-Riumin (1801–26), the hanged Decembrists leaders, had served in it.
15. Russia again returned… smouldering: The Semyonovsky revolt was quelled, but the Decembrist movement had begun. Pushkin’s image of the ‘spark responds to a line in a poem sent to him from Siberia by the Decembrist Prince Alexander Odoevsky: ‘From a spark a flame will burst’.
16. Foregathering… reciprocating greetings: The reference is to the conspiratorial Russian lunches’ held by the Decembrist Ryleyev, who liked to stress his Russianness by serving only Russian food and drink.
17. Nikita’s… debate: Nikita Mikhailovich Muravyev (1796–1843) was one of the most active members of the secret societies, formulating a plan for a constitution. He was sentenced to twenty years’ hard labour. Pushkin knew him in the lycée. Ilya Andreyevich Dolgorukov (1798–1848) was a member of the Union of Welfare, one of the main Decembrist organizations. No action was taken against him as a result of the intervention of his commanding officer, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich.
18. Lunin… decisive measures: Mikhail Sergeyevich Lunin (1787–1845), guards officer, reveller and member of all the Decembrist societies. His decisive measures’ refer, it seems, to a plan for assassinating the Tsar put forward by him in 1816. Pushkin befriended him on leaving the lycée.
19. Noëls were brought and read by Pushkin: Pushkin was not present here, since he was not admitted to conspiratorial meetings. In any case, the occasion he refers to took place in Moscow in 1817. But he read his noëls at other gatherings. The noël is a French Christmas carol with a topical reference. Pushkin’s noëls are political parodies of the form. Only one remains.
20. Yakushkin: Pushkin met Ivan Dmitrievich Yakushkin (1793–1857) in 1829 in St Petersburg and again in the South. One of the topics of the Moscow meetings in 1817 was Alexander’s rumoured plan to move his residence to Warsaw and transfer part of Russia to Poland. It was this prospect that fired Yakushkin’s impulse to assassinate him. Portraits of Yakushkin give an impression of dejection, apparently caused by unhappy love.
21. the lame Turgenev: Nikolai Ivanovich Turgenev (1789–1871), Decembrist. Pushkin saw the brothers Turgenev, Alexander and Nikolai, frequently in St Petersburg between 1817 and 1820, writing his famous ode ‘Liberty’ (1817) in their flat. Nikolai’s influence can also be felt in the poem ‘The Village’ (1819), which deplores serfdom. The emancipation of the serfs motivated Nikolai’s entire career. In 1824 he left for Western Europe, returning in 1856, when the Decembrists were amnestied. The limp in his left foot was the result of a childhood illness.
22. 16: This stanza is defective. There is a gap of two syllables in the middle of line 9, indicated by dots. Nor does the last word in line 9, ‘tiranov (‘tyrants), rhyme with the last word in line 12, ‘sklonyaya (‘inclining / persuading) except on the second syllable (‘a’/’ya’), although they fit metrically. My ‘tyrants’/‘inclining misrhyme in a similar way. The stanza moves from the activities of the Northern Society of the Decembrists to those of the South.
23. Kamenka: An estate on the Dnieper, belonging to V. L. Davydov, where the Southern Decembrists met and Pushkin stayed during his exile in Kishinev.
24. Tul’ chin: a small town in the Podolsk province housing the headquarters of the Second Army under the command of Count Wittgenstein (1768–1842) and the central group of the Southern Society.
25. Pestel’: Pushkin met Pestel’ in Kishinev, remarking that he was one of the most original minds he knew.
26. a cool-headed general: Sergei Grigor’ evich Volkonsky (1788–1865), a leader of the Southern Society, sentenced to twenty years hard labour.
27. Muryavyov: To be distinguished from Nikita Muravyov in note 17 above. He is Sergei Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol, mentioned in note 14.
28. ’Twixt a Lafitte and a Cliquot: This means during either dinner or supper: the meal would begin with Lafitte, a dry wine, and end with champagne, Cliquot.
Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin
(Series: # )
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