The characters of LATH include the poet Boris Morozov and the critic Hristofor Boyarski. Boris Morozov (1590–1661) was a Russian statesman and boyar who led the Russian government during the early reign of tsar Alexey Mikhaylovich, whose tutor and brother-in-law he was. But he is not as famous as his sister-in-law, Boyarynya Morozova (1632-75), one of the best-known partisans of the Old Believer movement (see also Surikov's painting).

While morozy (frosts) is a stock rhyme of rozy (roses), morozov (of the frosts) rhymes, in Hodasevich's Sorrentinskie fotografii ("The Sorrento Photographs," 1926), with rozov (is pink):

Опять, как на неверном снимке,
Весь в очертаниях сквозных,
Как был тогда, в студёной дымке,
В ноябрьской утренней заре,
На восьмигранном острие,
Золотокрылый ангел розов
И неподвижен - а над ним
Вороньи стаи, дым морозов,
Давно рассеявшийся дым.

Hodasevich speaks of the golden-winged angel on the spire of the Peter-and-Paul Cathedral (the burial place of Russian emperors) in St. Petersburg that looks pinkish in a frost-hazy November morning. In the 1920s Hodasevich lived in Sorrento with Gorki, the writer who is mentioned in LATH:

From behind a more or less Doric column I overheard him [the critic Basilevski] asking my naive gentle Annette had she any idea why I hated so fiercely Gorki (for whom he cultivated total veneration). Was it because I resented the world fame of a proletarian? Had I really read any of that wonderful writer's books? Annette had looked puzzled but all at once a charming childish smile illumined her whole face and she recalled The Mother, a corny Soviet film that I had criticized, she said, "because the tears rolling down the faces were too big and too slow." (2.9)

The memoir essays in Hodasevich's Necropolis (1939) include "The End of Renata", "Bryusov", "Andrey Bely" and "Gorki". Renata (Nina Petrovskaya) is a character in Bryusov's novel Ognennyi angel ("The Fiery Angel", 1908) set in sixteenth century Germany, in which Bely served as a model for Madiel (the fiery Angel). While Bely was often compared to an angel (in her memoir essay Plennyi dukh, "The Captive Spirit"*, 1934, Marina Tsvetaeva compares Bely to the angel in H. G. Wells's novel The Wonderful Visit, 1895), Bryusov was often compared to a demon. Demon poverzhennyi (Demon Thrown Down) is a famous painting by Vrubel, the artist whose last painting was the portrait of Bryusov (1906). According to Vadim Vadimovich, Vrubel has portrayed his father whose society nickname was Demon:

My father was a gambler and a rake. His society nickname was Demon. Vrubel has portrayed him with his vampire-pale cheeks, his diamond eyes, his black hair. What remained on the palette has been used by me, Vadim, son ofVadim, for touching up the father of the passionate siblings in the best ofmy English romaunts, Ardis (1970).

Tsvetava's essay on Bryusov is entitled Geroy truda ("The Hero of Toil", 1925). The characters of LATH include the novelist Suknovalov, author of the popular social satire Geroy nashey ery ("Hero of Our Era"):

I recognized the critic Basilevski, his sycophants Hristov and Boyarski, my friend Morozov, the novelists Shipogradov and Sokolovski, the honest nonentity Suknovalov, author of the popular social satire Geroy nashey ery ("Hero of Our Era") and two young poets, Lazarev (collection Serenity) and Fartuk (collection Silence). (2.4)

Geroy nashego vremeni ("Hero of our Time") is a novel (1840) by Lermontov. As he speaks to Vadim, Oks (Osip Lvovich Oksman) confuses Lermontov's Princess Mary (a character in Hero of our Time) and Tamara (a character in Lermontov's poem Demon, 1829-41) with the heroine of Vadim's first novel Tamara (1925):

"Look," he cried, "how many copies are out. All of Princess Mary is out, I mean Mary--damn it, I mean Tamara. I love Tamara, I mean your Tamara, not Lermontov's or Rubinstein's. Forgive me. One gets so confused among so many damned masterpieces." (ibid.)

Mashen'ka ("Mary", 1926) is, of course, VN's first novel. But Tamara** is also a poem (1841) by Lermontov beginning: V glubokoy tesnine Dar'yala... ("In Dar'yal's deep gorge..."). Dar'yalski is the main character in Bely's novel about sectarians Serebryanyi golub' ("The Silver Dove", 1909).

As to Hristofor Boyarski, Kleopatra Petrovna Hristoforova (a Moscow merchant woman) is mentioned by Bely in his three-volume memoirs and by Tsvetaeva in her memoir essay on Bely "The Captive Spirit". Also, in his ruthless silhouette of Gorki Aihenvald calls the author of Mat' ("The Mother") "the Columbus of all discovered Americas" (Hristofor is the Russian form of Christopher, Columbus's first name).