In his EO Commentary VN mentions the minor poet Dmitri
Venevitinov (1805-27*): "a somewhat Lenskian figure, [Venevitinov] had... more talent than Lenski, but the
same naive urge to seek spiritual guides and masters."
The maiden name of Venevitinov's mother was Obolenski.
There is Lenski in Bolenski (the banker who married Demon's aunt
Kitty after she had divorced that dreadful old wencher Lyovka Tolstoy, the
writer: Ada, 1.38) and Bolenski in Obolenski. And there would
be Veen (the family name of almost all main characters in
Ada) in Venevitinov, if the third and fourth letters in
"Venevitinov" change places. You may also enjoy the following anagrams
involving Venevitinov and Ivan Golovin (to a Russian eye and ear the name
Van Veen looks and sounds like a "decapitated" version of the name Ivan
Golovin):
istina v vine + veto = Asti +
Venevitinov
in vino veritas + Venevitinov = istina v vine +
veto + Verin ovin
golova + in vino veritas + barn = Ivan Golovin +
satira + brevno
istina v vine - Russ., in wine
(in Veen) is truth
Asti - Asti spumante,
the merry wine mentioned by Mandelshtam in his poem "Ya
p'yu za voennye astry, za vsyo, chem
korili menya..." ("I drink to military asters, to everything I was
reproached with..." 1931)
in vino veritas - Lat., in wine is
truth; in Blok's Incognita the drunks with red eyes of rabbits
(p'yanitsy s glazami krolikov) cry out "in vino
veritas!"
Verin ovin -
Russ., Vera's barn
golova - Russ., head
Ivan Golovin - the hero of
Tolstoy's story "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" (1886); Nivolog's real name; a batman
of Peter I, admiral, Pushkin's great-great-grandfather, a character in Pushkin's
tale about Abram Gannibal, the poet's great-grandfather
satira - Russ., satire
brevno - Russ., log
*according to VN, Venevitinov committed a suicide at the age
of twenty-one (other sources do not confirm it)
Good Jansy was the only one who responded to my cry of
despair. Sad. I thought I had more friends on the List.
(Please note the new address: skylark1970@mail.ru; the old address is
not valid!)
Alexey Sklyarenko