In my previous post I forgot to mention that Maron
(Russian spelling of Maro) only in the first letter differed from
Baron (cf. Baron Klim Avidov and other Barons in Ada). Btw.,
Baron is a character in Gorky's play Na dne ("At the Bottom"). One also
remembers Pushkin's Covetous Knight.
Maron + Baron = moron + baran
= Morona + barn
Satin = Saint = stain = Stalin - L =
istina - i = Satan + i - a
baran - Russ., ram; sheep
Morona - cf. "a drug which was in itself delightful but a little lethal if
combined with a draught of the cleansing fluid commercially known as
Morona" (Ada, 1.3)
barn - cf. 'baronial barn,' a huge beloved structure three miles away
[from Ardis Hall: 1.19]
Satin - a character in Gorky's "At
the Bottom" (it is the raisonneur Satin who says that Truth [Pravda] is
a free man's God and lying [lozh'], the religion of slaves and
masters)
istina - Russ., truth (cf.
istina v vine, "in vino veritas")
Also, gor'kiy ("Gorky" spelt correctly) means in
Russian "bitter." Cf. Van's, Ada's and Marina's "extravagant tastes" and
Pushkin's exclamation Sladko! ("Sweet!") as mosquitoes bite him in
Yukonsk (1.17). Pushkin actually exclaimed sladko! when mosquitoes bit
him in Priyutino (the Olenins' estate near St. Petersburg) where the poet
courted Anna Olenin. Olenin = O + Lenin.
Alexey Sklyarenko