There happened to be in that letter [Disa's letter to her husband] one - only one, thank God -
sentimental sentence: 'I want you to know that no matter how much you
hurt me, you can not hurt my love,' and this sentence (if we re-English it
from the Zemblan) came out as: 'I desire you and love when you flog me.'
(Pale Fire, Kinbote's note to Lines 433-434)
In A. N. Tolstoy's play "The Conspiracy of the Empress" Felix
Yusupov says: Да, да. Я уважаю власть с хлыстом, но не
уважаю власти, когда она под хлыстом ("Oh yes, I respect the authorities
armed with a whip but I don't respect the authorities when they are whipped." A
frivolous pun: под хлыстом also means "under the khlyst," i.
e. under Rasputin, a member of the khlysty sect who
was rumored to be the Empress' lover.) Rasputin was murdered (Act
Four of Tolstoy's play) by Yusupov (whom Rasputin cured of homosexuality)
and his friends in the Yusupov palace on Moyka, near the Nabokov house
in Bolshaya Morskaya street.
Alexey Sklyarenko