One last word about Prince Andronnikov. In 1918,
when he was the head of the Kronstadt Cheka, he received 2 000 000 (two
million; I wonder what is the price of Kinbote's crown jewels?) roubles from the
grand duke Aleksandr Mikhailovich ("Sandro", grand son of Nicolas I) and
his wife (and niece) Ksenia Aleksandrovna (sister of Nicolas II), who fled
to Crimea and thence to France. Gleb Bokiy (after Dzerzhinsky, the second man in
Cheka) found out about it and when bribed next time Andronnikov was caught
red-handed.
Note that Dr Evgeniy
Botkin was executed with the last Russian czar's family.
The name Bokiy (that has bok, "side,"
and kiy, "billiard cue," in it) may remind one of both Nabokov and
Botkin. Bokiy (of whom VN might have never heard, I admit) too was executed in
1937.
Alexey Sklyarenko