Subject
Re: [NABOKOV-L] From Eros,Sore and Rose (festering ressentment
and "draoncles")
and "draoncles")
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Dear Jansy,
Vasiliy Ivanovich Rukavishnikov's nickname was Ruka, not "Rukka." Ruka (accented on the ultima) happens to be Russian for "hand," "arm." The surname Rukavishnikov comes from rukavishnik, "the person who makes рукавицы, mittens." There is a Russian saying: держать в ежовых рукавицах ("to rule with an iron rod;" literally: "to hold in hedgehog gaunlets"). It was famously used by Pushkin in his tale The Captain's Daughter (1836). As a reader of Speak, Memory knows, Vasiliy Ivanovich's father (Ivan Vasilievich Rukavishnikov, VN's maternal grandfather, 1841-1901) had a terrible temper. Like his famous namesake, the first tsar of Russia Ivan the Terrible (1530-84, btw., his name and patronymic was also Ivan Vasilievich), he probably ruled in his estate with an iron rod, держал всех в ежовых рукавицах. One also remembers Ezhov (from ёж, Russian for "hedgehog"), the head of Stalin's secret police in the 1930s.
Otherwise, I don't see any connection between dracunculi, uncle Ruka and orchids in Ada.
best,
Alexey
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Vasiliy Ivanovich Rukavishnikov's nickname was Ruka, not "Rukka." Ruka (accented on the ultima) happens to be Russian for "hand," "arm." The surname Rukavishnikov comes from rukavishnik, "the person who makes рукавицы, mittens." There is a Russian saying: держать в ежовых рукавицах ("to rule with an iron rod;" literally: "to hold in hedgehog gaunlets"). It was famously used by Pushkin in his tale The Captain's Daughter (1836). As a reader of Speak, Memory knows, Vasiliy Ivanovich's father (Ivan Vasilievich Rukavishnikov, VN's maternal grandfather, 1841-1901) had a terrible temper. Like his famous namesake, the first tsar of Russia Ivan the Terrible (1530-84, btw., his name and patronymic was also Ivan Vasilievich), he probably ruled in his estate with an iron rod, держал всех в ежовых рукавицах. One also remembers Ezhov (from ёж, Russian for "hedgehog"), the head of Stalin's secret police in the 1930s.
Otherwise, I don't see any connection between dracunculi, uncle Ruka and orchids in Ada.
best,
Alexey
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/