The Brothers Karamazov

^[16]Tartar yoke: the period of Tartar domination of Russia (1237-1480), the Tartars, or Tatars, who invaded Russia from Central Asia, were of Turkish and Mongol origin.

^[17]the fall of Constantinople: Constantinople (Istanbul), capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and ecclesiastical center of Orthodoxy, fell to the Turks in 1453.

^[18]PaissyVelichkovsfey: (1722-94), “the father of the Russian elders” (G. P. Fedotov, The Russian Religious Mind [Belmont, Mass , 1975], 2:394), canonized by the Russian Church in 1988. Dostoevsky owned a copy of the 1854 edition of his translation of the homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian, a seventh-century monk; the book is mentioned twice in B.K. St. Isaac, whose spiritual influence has been very great, seems also to have influenced Dostoevsky’s elder Zosima, particularly in his reflections on hell and divine love (see Terras, pp. 22-23).

^[19]Kozelskaya-Optina: pilgrims of all classes visited this celebrated hermitage, among them Dostoevsky, who drew from it a number of details for the monastery in : B. The elder Zosima is thought to be modeled in part on the elder Amvrosy of Optina (1812-91), canonized by the Russian Church in 1988, six months after the hermitage was restored to the Church by the Soviet authorities.

^[20]All catechumens, depart: an exclamation that occurs at a certain point in the Orthodox liturgy. A catechumen is a person preparing for baptism, hence not yet “in” the Church The catechumens are asked to depart, only the “faithful” remaining for the Eucharist. This monk, by his disobedience, made himself “unfaithful”—hence his departure.

^[21]EcumenicalPatriarch: title of the Patriarch of Constantinople, the highest administrative authority of the Greek Orthodox Church and its exarchies.

^[22]Whomade me ...: see Luke 12:14.

^[23]Un chevalier parfait: “A perfect knight.”

^[24]von Sohn: victim of an actual murder case in Petersburg in 1870.

^[25]WheninRome ...: a substitute for the Russian saying Fyodor Pavlovich actually uses: “Don’t take your ordo | monastic rule ] to another monastery,” which is more apropos.

^[26]hieromonks: a hieromonk is a monk who is also a priest.

^[27]schism: the reforms of the patriarch Nikon (1605-81) caused a split, or “schism,” in the Russian Orthodox Church, the “Old Believers” refusing to accept his changes.

^[28]punctuality . . .: a popular saying in Russia, attributed to Louis XVIII.

^[29]Napravnik: E F. Napravnik (1839-1916), Russian composer, first Kapellmeister, or director, of the Mariinsky (now Kirov) Theater, the imperial opera and ballet theater in Petersburg.

^[30]Diderot: Denis Diderot (1713-84), French philosopher and writer, founder of the Encyclopédie, an atheist and materialist. He was invited to Russia in 1733 by the empress Catherine the Great (1729-96) and spent five months there.

^[31]Metropolitan Platon: (1737-1812), bishop of the “metropolis” of Moscow, a famous preacher and Church activist.

^[32]The fool hath said . . .: Psalms 14:1, 53:1.

^[33]Princess Dashkova ... and ... Potiomkin: Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova (1743-1810), writer, president of the Russian Academy, and a close friend of the empress Catherine. Grigory Alexandrovich Potiomkin (1739-91), general and statesman, the most famous and influential of Catherine’s lovers.

^[34]Blessed . . .: Luke 11:27.

^[35]Teacher ... what should I do ... :see Luke 10:25, Mark 10:17, Matthew 19:16.

^[36]father of a lie ... son of a lie ...: see John 8:44, where the “father” refers to the devil. The phrase and its correction may be a first hint at later developments concerning Ivan.

^[37] some holy wonder-worker ...: the reference is to St. Denis of Paris (third century ad); the source, however, is not the Lives of the Saints, but Voltaire, who tells this jesting story about St. Denis in the notes to his play The Maid of Orleans (1774).

^[38]read from the Lives of the Saints . . .: Miusov and his French informant are unaware (which is the point) that saints’ lives are not read in the Orthodox liturgy.

^[39]three months short of three years old. Dostoevsky’s son Alexei died at this age in 1878.

^[40]Rachel of old . . .: Matthew 2:18 (quoti’ jjeremiah 31:15).

^[41]Alexei, the man of God: St. Alexis, a Greek anchorite who died around 412 a.d., is much loved in Russia, where he is known as “Alexei, the man of God.” There is a folk legend of his life, from which Dostoevsky may have drawn. Alexei Karamazov is referred to several times as a “man of God.”