The Zone (23 page)

p. 105,
Do you like Lollobrigida
: Gina Lollobrigida (1927 – ), an Italian actress and sex symbol, very popular in Europe in the 1950s and ’60s.

p. 125,
a Stakhanovite feat of labour
: Alexei Stakhanov (1906 – 77), became a Stalinist model worker after mining an enormous amount of coal in one shift, and gave rise to the Stakhanovite movement, encouraging workers to produce significantly over their quotas.

p. 126,
a valiant Chekist… colonel in the GPU or the NKVD, condemned by Khrushchev as an associate of Beria and Yagoda
: For the Cheka, GPU, NKVD and Yagoda, see second note to p. 74 and note to p. 79. Nikita Khrushchev (1894 – 1971) was Stalin’s eventual successor. He initiated the de-Stalinization of the USSR in 1956 in his “secret speech” denouncing Stalin’s methods to the Twentieth Party Congress. Lavrenty Beria (1899 – 1953) was the brutal leader of the NKVD during the Second World War, responsible for the operation of the Gulag and enormous numbers of summary executions. He was executed on Khrushchev’s orders.

p. 126,
Yulian Semyonov or the brothers Vayner
: Yulian Semyonov (1931 – 93) and Georgy and Arkady Vayner (1938 – 2009, 1931 – 2005 respectively) were popular Soviet writers of detective fiction.

p. 126,
Yemelyan Pugachev… escaped prisoners
: Yemelyan Pugachev (1742 – 75) was the leader of one of Russia’s largest armed rebellions against the authorities.

p. 137,
You quote her Gogol with Belinsky
: Nikolai Gogol (1809 – 52), considered one of the most important writers of the nineteenth century. Vissarion Belinsky (1811 – 48), influential literary critic and intellectual.

p. 148,
Mensheviks, Social Revolutionaries
: Political parties frequently at odds with the Bolshevik Party before their eventual suppression.

p. 149,
General Wrangel and the White Army
: Pyotr Wrangel (1878 – 1928), General of the White Army during the Russian Civil War (1917 – 23).

p. 151,
Stanislavsky
: Konstantin Stanislavsky (1863 – 1938), pioneering director and developer of the “Stanislavsky System”, which aimed to make actors relate closely with their roles.

p. 153,
Krupskaya
: Lenin’s wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya (1869 – 1939).

p. 154,
the seventh of November
: The anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917 (the seventh of November in the Gregorian calendar adopted after the revolution).

p. 154,
the ‘Varshavyanka’
: An early twentieth-century Polish revolutionary song.

p. 157,
a poem by Mayakovsky
: Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893 – 1930), Russian Futurist poet and Soviet propagandist, often seen as the exemplar of Soviet art.

p. 163,
Slave of the MVD
: See note to p. 74.

p. 169,
home-brewed chacha
: A strong traditional Georgian spirit similar to vodka.

p. 169,
Dzavashvili’s saksan
: Another name for a
kinzhal
, a Caucasian dagger.

p. 170,
Vai me! Arunda
: “Oh God! Don’t!” (Georgian).

p. 177,
fur-lined Chukchi slippers
: Traditional slippers as worn by the Chukchi people, from the Chukchi Peninsula near the Bering Sea.

Copyright © Sergei Dovlatov, 1982
Translation © Anne Frydman, 1984
Notes © Oneworld Classics, 2011
Author photo © Nina Alovert, 1980

 

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the Publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

 

The Zone
first published in Russian as
by
in 1982
This translation first published in the US by Alfred A. Knopf in 1985
This revised translation first published by Oneworld Classics Ltd in 2011