Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

On the bridge across the Kur (in VN's novel Bend Sinister, 1947, the river that flows in Padukgrad and Omigod) one of the soldiers says that his cousin, the gardener, lives in Bervok and Krug mentions Bervok's grand apples:

Another soldier came up idly juggling with a flashlight and again Krug had a glimpse of a pale-faced little man standing apart and smiling.

'I want some fun too,' the third soldier said.

'Well, well,' said Krug. 'Fancy seeing you here. How is your cousin, the gardener?'

According to Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla), the surname Lukin comes from Luke:

On the bridge across the Kur (in VN's novel Bend Sinister, 1947, the river that flows in Padukgrad) one of the illiterate soldiers calls the grocer "ved'min syn [son of a witch]:"

Another soldier came up idly juggling with a flashlight and again Krug had a glimpse of a pale-faced little man standing apart and smiling.

'I want some fun too,' the third soldier said.

'Well, well,' said Krug. 'Fancy seeing you here. How is your cousin, the gardener?'

In VN's novel Bend Sinister (1947) Krug recalls the words of his late wife Olga, 'togliwn ochnat divodiv [the daily surprise of awakening]!':

The characters in VN's novel Bend Sinister (1947) include Krug's friend Ember (a Shakespeare specialist). Three months of the year, September, November and December, end in ember. In Krylov's fable Lzhets ("The Liar," 1811) the Liar uses the phrase kruglyi bozhiy god (the whole God's year):

Из дальних странствий возвратясь,
Какой-то дворянин (а может быть, и князь),

The characters in VN's novel Bend Sinister (1947) include Mariette, the Krugs' housemaid who was sent by Paduk to spy on Adam Krug and his son David:

The name of the dictator of Padukgrad in VN's novel Bend Sinister (1947), Paduk seems to hint at glitay abozh pauk (the spider), in Chekhov's story Chelovek v futlyare ("The Man in a Case," 1898) a nickname that Kovalenko gave Belikov:

In VN's novel Ada (1969) Demon Veen (Van's and Ada's father) dies in a mysterious airplane disaster above the Pacific. Describing his father's death, Van Veen mentions a series of strange newspaper garbles:

Furnished Space, l’espace meublé (known to us only as furnished and full even if its contents be ‘absence of substance’ — which seats the mind, too), is mostly watery so far as this globe is concerned. In that form it destroyed Lucette. Another variety, more or less atmospheric, but no less gravitational and loathsome, destroyed Demon.

The characters in VN's novel Bend Sinister (1947) include Krug's friend Ember. Three months of the year, September, November and December, end in ember. In Kuprin's humorous story Putanitsa ("A Mix-up," 1897) the doctor asks Pchelovodov (whom the doctor believes to be mad) what month it is now: 

— Продолжайте, продолжайте, пожалуйста, я вас слушаю, — сказал главный врач с притворной ласковостью. Но я еще не дошел до эпизода с моим пробуждением, как он вдруг огорошил меня вопросом:

The main character in VN's novel Bend Sinister (1947), the philosopher Adam Krug is the author of 'Mirokonzepsia' ("The World-Conception"):