The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Literature

Orgbyuro acronym for the Organizational Bureau of the Union of Soviet Writers, p. 198.

o?ttepel' Thaw; period of diminished arbitrary government persecution, such as the post-Stalin years under Khrushchev, p. 220.

Ottsy i deti Fathers and Children (novel by Ivan Turgenev), p. 55.

part??inost' party-mindedness; a socialist realist concept whereby every act is a political act and the source for all correct knowledge is the Communist Party, p. 200.

Peresmeshnik ??li slavenskie skazki The Mocker, or Slavic folk tale, p. 91.

perestroika lit. “Restructuring”; liberalizing reforms in the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s, p. 18.

Petrushka tragicomic hero of Russian puppet theatre, related to the tradition of Pierrot, Punch and Judy, etc., p. 40.

pletenie sloves lit. word-weaving - an aesthetic technique associated with pre-modern Russian prose texts that involves assonance, alliteration, and repetition to produce a rhythmic, lyrical effect, p. 81.

plut (pronounced ploot) rogue, rascal, Russian picaro, p. 47.

Polovtsians pagan tribes to the southeast of Kiev in medieval times, p. 44.

poputchiki (pl.) lit. “fellow travelers,” a term coined by Leon Trotsky in the early 1920s to refer to non- Bolshevik or apolitical writers who were nevertheless not hostile to the new regime, p. 196.

poshlyi vulgar, trivial, banal, p. 49.

poshlost' vulgarity, banality, p. 50.

poshlyak a vulgar, banal or trivial person, usually with commercial or consumer values, p. 49.

Pravdin “Mr. Truthful,” speakingname from Denis Fonvizin’s comedy TheMinor (1781), p. 86.

pravednik (f. pravednitsa; pl. pravedniki) righteous person, p. 29.

proizvol arbitrary political will or license; the exercise of power for its own irrational sake, or to intimidate, p. 194.

Proletkult acronym for “proletarian culture,” a radical organization of writers from the urban working class that flourished for several years after the Revolution, p. 195.

Glossary 273

prorok prophet, p. 109.

Prostakova “Mrs. Simpleton,” speaking name from Denis Fonvizin’s comedy The Minor (1781), p. 86.

Raskol 17th C. schism in the Russian Orthodox Church, p. 59.

samizdat lit. “self-publishing,” the underground circulation of texts in Soviet-era

Eastern and Central Europe, p. 238. samovar lit. “self-cooker,” a metal urn with spigot and internal tube for boiling

water for tea, p. 32. samozvantsvo lit. self-naming, pretendership, as in “pretender to the throne,”

usurper, p. 118. Shinel' “Overcoat.” Title of a short story by Nikolai Gogol, 1842, p. 117. shut (pronounced shoot) jester, p. 39. shutka joke, p. 41.

skaz the literary device of a folksy, oral, usually digressive narrator, p. 201. skazka folk tale; fairy tale, p. 60. skomorokh (pl. skomorokhi) traveling minstrel, p. 39. Skot??nin “Mr. Pig,” or “Brute,” speaking name from Denis Fonvizin’s comedy

The Minor (1781), p. 86. Slavophile nineteenth-century writers and lay philosophers opposed to borrowing from other national traditions and favoring a uniquely “Russian” culture

untainted by the West, p. 12. sluchai chance, p. 105. smekh laughter, p. 41. sobor synod, assembly; cathedral, p. 61. sobornost' togetherness; a sense of spiritual, ideological, or cultural togetherness,

p. 31. Sofya “Wisdom,” speaking name from Denis Fonvizin’s comedy The Minor

(1781) and also The Brigadier (1769), p. 86. sotsial'nyi zakaz social command, p. 193. soyuz union, p. 198. Starodum “Old Thought,” speaking name from Denis Fonvizin’s comedy The

Minor (1781), p. 86. stolnik a high-ranking official responsible for serving the tsar at table, p. 48. strannik (f. stra?nnitsa) wanderer, p. 36. strastoterpets passion-sufferer, p. 62. Svoi krug “Our Crowd” (title of Lyudm??la Petrushevskaya’s short story),

p. 232.

tamizdat lit. “published elsewhere,” works smuggled out of the Soviet Union and

published in the West, p. 238. toska melancholy, grief, anguish, p. 50. tsarevich son of the tsar (prince, in the Western sense), p. 41. tselostnost' wholeness, p. 31.

274 Glossary

vashe prevoskhod??tel'stvo Your Excellency; the appropriate mode of address for

third and fourth ranks in the Table of Ranks, p. 101. vashe vysokoblagorodie Your High Honor; appropriate for sixth, seventh, or

eighth rank, p. 101. vashe vysokoprevoskhod??tel'stvo Your High Excellency; appropriate for the first

or second rank in the Table of Ranks, p. 101. vashe vysokorodie Your Highly Born; appropriate for the fifth rank in the Table

of Ranks, p. 101. vertet'sya to revolve, spin, p. 62. Vestnikova “Tattler,” speaking name from Catherine the Great’s comedy O! The

Times! (1769), p. 85. vlast' power (political), p. 23. voda water, p. 62. vozdukh air, p. 62.

“Vprok” the title of Platonov’s short story, “For Future Use,” p. 203. vremya time, p. 62. vruchenie sebya self-giving, the giving or “handing over” of oneself without the

motive of personal gain, p. 77.

yurodivy (f. yurodivaya) holy fool, p. 39.

yurodstvo Khrista radi holy foolishness for the sake of Christ, p. 41.

zap??ski notes or diary entries, p. 11.

zastoi Stagnation; usually refers to the years of cultural and economic stagnation

under Brezhnev (1970s-84), p. 220. zemlya earth (as in soil), p. 62. zhitie [pronounced “zhitiyeh”] saint’s life (hagiographic text), p. 62.

People

Afanasiev, Aleksandr Nikolaevich (1826-71) Russian collector of fairy tales,

p. 68. Akhmatova, Anna Andreyevna (1889-1966) p. 30. Works by: “Requiem.” Ak??mov, Nikolai Pavlovich (1901-68) p. 210.

Aksakov, Sergei Timofeyevich (1791-1859) p. 45. Works by: Family Chronicle. Akunin, Bor??s (pseudonym of Grigory Chkhartishv??li, b. 1958) p. 97. Works by:

Azazel' [Eng. The Winter Queen]; Seagull, The: A Comedy and its Continuation. Alexander Nevsky (r. 1236-63) p. 59. Alexander Romanov I (r. 1801-25) p. 24. Alexander Romanov II (r. 1855-81) p. 12. Alexander Romanov III (r. 1881-94) p. 132. Avvakum, Protopop (1620-82) p. 45. Works by: “The Life of Archpriest Avva-

kum, Written by Himself.”