The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Literature

famous image from Chapter 8 of Eugene Onegin, p. 105. magnitizdat recordings of illegal music smuggled into the Soviet Union and

distributed illicitly, p. 238. Mat'-syra-zemlya Moist-Mother-Earth [Russian order is “Mother - Moist -

Earth”], p. 61. Mednye lyudi “Bronze Folk,” title of a chapter from Andrei B´ıtov’s Pushkin

House that parodies Dostoevsky’s epistolary novel, Poor Folk [Bednye lyudi],

p. 237. Mednyi vsadnik The Bronze Horseman, a narrative poem by Aleksandr Pushkin,

p. 237. Milon “Dear One,” speaking name from Denis Fonvizin’s comedy The Minor

(1781), p. 86. mit'k´ı eccentric followers of artist Dmitry Shagin in the 1970s; painters, poets,

filmmakers, and performance artists with an anti-work ethic, p. 42. Mitrofan “Mama’s Boy” (Greek), speaking name from Denis Fonvizin’s comedy

The Minor (1781), p. 86. Moskva Moscow, p. 183.

nachinaetsia begins, is beginning, p. 164.

narodnost' people- or folk-mindedness; a value precious to Slavophile thinkers

in the nineteenth century and revived as a socialist realist concept in the

1930s, suggesting that art should be accessible and appealing to the masses

by drawing on their traditions, language, melodies, rhythms, and values,

p. 200. nech´ıstaya s´ıla unclean force. One of many euphemisms for the devil, p. 61. nedorosl' “minor,” a young man in tsarist times who had not yet passed the

literacy exam qualifying him for obligatory civil service - and for marriage,

p. 86. Nepustov “Not-Shallow,” speaking name from Catherine the Great’s comedy O!

The Times! (1769), p. 85.

272 Glossary

noga foot, leg, p. 242.

novyi slog “The new style,” p. 94.

O´chered' The Queue, a novel by Vlad´ımir Sorokin, p. 239.

o´cherk sketch (as a literary genre popular duringthe second half of the nineteenth century, a brief descriptive narrative in the Realist style), p. 156.

ogon' fire, p. 62.

okno window, p. 61.

o´ko eye, p. 61.

Old Believer one who refused to accept the official reforms of the Russian Orthodox Church under Patriarch Nikon in the seventeenth century, p. 30.

Orgbyuro acronym for the Organizational Bureau of the Union of Soviet Writers, p. 198.

o´ttepel' Thaw; period of diminished arbitrary government persecution, such as the post-Stalin years under Khrushchev, p. 220.

Ottsy i deti Fathers and Children (novel by Ivan Turgenev), p. 55.

part´ıinost' party-mindedness; a socialist realist concept whereby every act is a political act and the source for all correct knowledge is the Communist Party, p. 200.

Peresmeshnik ´ıli slavenskie skazki The Mocker, or Slavic folk tale, p. 91.

perestroika lit. “Restructuring”; liberalizing reforms in the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s, p. 18.

Petrushka tragicomic hero of Russian puppet theatre, related to the tradition of Pierrot, Punch and Judy, etc., p. 40.

pletenie sloves lit. word-weaving - an aesthetic technique associated with pre-modern Russian prose texts that involves assonance, alliteration, and repetition to produce a rhythmic, lyrical effect, p. 81.

plut (pronounced ploot) rogue, rascal, Russian picaro, p. 47.

Polovtsians pagan tribes to the southeast of Kiev in medieval times, p. 44.

poputchiki (pl.) lit. “fellow travelers,” a term coined by Leon Trotsky in the early 1920s to refer to non-Bolshevik or apolitical writers who were nevertheless not hostile to the new regime, p. 196.

poshlyi vulgar, trivial, banal, p. 49.

poshlost' vulgarity, banality, p. 50.

poshlyak a vulgar, banal or trivial person, usually with commercial or consumer values, p. 49.

Pravdin “Mr. Truthful,” speakingname from Denis Fonvizin’s comedy TheMinor (1781), p. 86.

pravednik (f. pravednitsa; pl. pravedniki) righteous person, p. 29.

proizvol arbitrary political will or license; the exercise of power for its own irrational sake, or to intimidate, p. 194.

Proletkult acronym for “proletarian culture,” a radical organization of writers from the urban working class that flourished for several years after the Revolution, p. 195.

Glossary 273

prorok prophet, p. 109.

Prostakova “Mrs. Simpleton,” speaking name from Denis Fonvizin’s comedy The Minor (1781), p. 86.

Raskol 17th C. schism in the Russian Orthodox Church, p. 59.

samizdat lit. “self-publishing,” the underground circulation of texts in Soviet-era

Eastern and Central Europe, p. 238. samovar lit. “self-cooker,” a metal urn with spigot and internal tube for boiling

water for tea, p. 32. samozvantsvo lit. self-naming, pretendership, as in “pretender to the throne,”

usurper, p. 118. Shinel' “Overcoat.” Title of a short story by Nikolai Gogol, 1842, p. 117. shut (pronounced shoot) jester, p. 39. shutka joke, p. 41.