...for most other people, alas, it meant
that Marina (after G.A. Vronsky, the movie man, had left Marina for another
long-lashed Khristosik as he called all pretty starlets) had conceived,
c'est bien le cas de le dire, the brilliant idea of having Demon
divorce mad Aqua and marry Marina who thought (happily and correctly) she was
pregnant again. Marina had spent a rukuliruyushchiy month with him at
Kitezh... (Ada, 1.3)
Khristosik (little Christ) and the invisible city of
Kitezh are mentioned in the epilogue to Antichrist. Peter and Alexey
(1904), the third novel of Merezhkovski's trilogy Christ and
Antichrist:
Теперь только заметил он [Тихон], что она уже не беременна, и вспомнил, что на днях
ему сказывал Митька, будто бы родила она мальчика, который объявлен
Христосиком, потому что зачат от самого Батюшки, по наитию
Духа:
"Не от крови-де, не от хотения плоти, не от
хотения мужа, но от Бога родился".
Подумал, куда идёт и зачем? В неведомое
Опоньское царство, или невидимый Китеж-град, в которые уж сам
не верит?
On Antiterra (Earth's twin planet on which Ada is
set) the land from Kurland to the Kuriles is known as Tartary.
(1.3)
One of the diarists in Merezhkovski's novel, Juliana Arnheim
(Princess Charlotte's lady-in-waiting), calls the land she found herself in "the
Moscovite Tartary":
Вот и сейчас, пока я пишу, печальная
действительность напоминает мне, что я не в сладостном приюте Герренгаузена,
этой немецкой Версали, а в глубине Московской Тартарии. (Peter and Alexey, Book Three, "The Diary of Prince
Alexey")
In her diary the lady-in-waiting of Princess Charlotte (poor
Alexey's poor wife) vividly describes Rozhdestveno, Prince Alexey's
estate that two hundred years later VN was to inherit from uncle
Ruka:
12 мая [1715]
Мы в Рождествене, мызе царевича, в
Копорском уезде, в семидесяти верстах от Петербурга...
Кругом лес. Тихо. Только деревья шумят, да птицы
щебечут. Быстрая, словно горная, речка Оредежь журчит внизу под крутыми обрывами
из красной глины, на которой первая зелень берёз сквозит, как дым, зелень ёлок
чернеет, как уголь...
Царевич любит это место. Говорит, жил бы здесь всегда,
и ничего ему больше не надо, только бы оставили его в покое.
Prince Alexey's castle, the jewel of the banks of the Oredezh river, was
sung by Ryleev, the author of Prince Aleksey Petrovich in
Rozhdestveno (1823?). The owner of Batovo, Ryleev is a character
in Merezhkovski's 14 December (see my post "Castles in
Spain").
...the guide will go on demonstrating as he did this
very morning in Florence a silly pillar commemorating, he said, the 'elmo' that
broke into leaf when they carried stone-heavy-dead St Zeus by it through the
gradual, gradual shade... (Ada, 1.3)
The first novel of Merezhkovski's trilogy Christ and
Antichrist is entitled The Death of Gods. Julian the Apostate
(1895) and the second novel, Resurrection of Gods. Leonardo da
Vinci (1900). Florence and Castel Sant'Elmo (medieval fortress near
Naples*) are mentioned in Peter and Alexey (Book Six, "The Prince
on the Run"). Book One of Peter and Alexey is entitled
Peterburgskaya Venera (St. Petersburg Venus) and Book Eight,
Oboroten' (Werewolf). According to Merezhkovski, the tsar Peter I was
not only Antichrist but also a werewolf.
*Naples and Mount Vesuvius are artistically blended with
Moscow and St. Petersburg in Hodasevich's Sorrentinskie fotografii (The
Sorrento Photographs, 1926).
Alexey Sklyarenko