The Enchanted Wanderer and Other Stories

by Nikolai Leskov

  17. wanderers: The Russian word strannik (“wanderer”), as in the title of the present work, can mean anything from a real pilgrim to a simple vagabond.

  18. passport: See note 13 to “The Sealed Angel.”

  19. St. Mitrofan’s: Both a church and a monastery in Voronezh (see note 16 above).

  20. Saracens … Prince Bova: The term “Saracen” is synonymous with “Muslim” in Russian folk tales. Eruslan Lazarevich and Prince Bova are heroes of such tales.

  21. Tartars in kibitkas: In Russia, a kibitka (from the Tartar kibit) was a covered carriage or sleigh; among nomads of the steppe it was a round felt tent, sometimes mounted on a wheeled platform.

  22. Ryn Sands … Khan Dzhangar: The Ryn Sands are a territory of approximately 25,000 square miles of long hummocky dunes between the lower Volga and Ural Rivers north of the Caspian Sea. Khan Dzhangar or Zhangir (d. 1845) was the last khan of the Bukey or Inner Horde of Kazakhs that moved about on the Ryn Sands. He carried on an important trade in horses and entered Russian government service in 1824.

  23. from the apostle Paul: See Galatians 3:28 (“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus”). Also Colossians 3:11.

  24. Holy God: The chant known as the Trisagion (“Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us”), sung during the Orthodox liturgy and in the burial procession.

  25. from Khiva: The Khivan khanate, on the territory of present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, was hostile to Russia during the earlier nineteenth century. Its capital, the city of Khiva, fell to the Russian army in 1873, after which it was made a “protectorate.”

  26. Nicholas the Wonderworker: St. Nicholas (ca. 270–343), bishop of Myra in Lycia (Asia Minor), is one of the most widely venerated saints in Christendom, and obviously not a Russian.

  27. the Keremet: Among the peoples of the Volga-Ural region, the Keremet or Kiremet were generally evil spirits, but the word also refers to the sacred groves the spirits lived in, where sacrifices to them were performed.

  28. the Menaion: The Menaion, from the Greek word for “month,” is a collection of Orthodox liturgical texts and saints’ lives for each day of the month throughout the year.

  29. banknotes … missing: Russian banknotes were distinguished by color: five-rouble notes were blue, ten-rouble notes gray, twenty-five-rouble notes red, and one-hundred- or two-hundred-rouble notes white.

  30. “The Skiff”: A popular song to words by the soldier-poet Denis Davydov (1784–1839), a hero of the Napoleonic Wars.

  31. Go away … burning coal?: Words from the popular song “Go Away, Don’t Look,” by Alexander Beshentsov (ca. 1811–82), first published in 1858.

  32. the dragon Gorynych: A three-headed green dragon from Russian epic songs (byliny), who walks on his hind legs and spits fire.

  33. Nizhny: That is, Nizhny Novgorod, a major Russian city. The fair in Nizhny, world-famous in the nineteenth century, attracted millions of visitors every year. It was also known as the Makary Fair, because it originally took place outside the walls of the monastery of St. Macarius in the Nizhny region. In 1816 a fire destroyed the buildings that housed the fair, and in 1817 it moved to Nizhny proper.

  34. the marshal of the nobility: In 1785 the empress Catherine the Great issued a Charter of the Gentry, organizing the Russian nobility into provincial assemblies, each headed by a marshal chosen by his peers.

  35. Alyonushka … called out to her: “Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka” is a Russian folktale in which a little brother turned into a white kid saves his sister from a wicked witch.

  36. Suvorov: Field Marshal Alexander Vasilievich Suvorov (1729–1800), reputed never to have lost a battle, was one of only three Russian military men to bear the title of generalissimo. He was something of an eccentric and was much loved by his troops.

  37. crown peasants: The category of “crown peasant” was created by the emperor Peter the Great, designating peasants who lived on land belonging to the crown, paid rent, but were personally free, though restricted in their movements.

  38. a show-booth on Admiralty Square: Until 1873, popular shows similar to the medieval mystery and morality plays were staged in wooden booths on Admiralty Square in Petersburg during the Christmas and Easter seasons.

  39. a messenger … in the flesh: A misquotation of 2 Corinthians 12:7: “there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.”

  40. “Resist … flee from you”: James 4:7.

  41. the Wet Savior: Also known in Russia as the “First Savior” or the “Honey Savior,” this is the feast of the Presentation of the Cross, celebrated on August 1.

  42. St. Tikhon of Zadonsk: Tikhon of Zadonsk (1724–83) was made bishop of Voronezh in 1763, but in 1769 he retired to the monastery in Zadonsk where he spent the rest of his life. An important spiritual writer and a wonderworker, Tikhon was canonized in 1861 and his “life” was published in 1862.

  43. Solovki … Zosima and Sabbatius: That is, to the monastery on the Solovetsky Islands founded in the fifteenth century by Sts. Zosima and Sabbatius.

  Singlemind (1879)

  1. the reign of Catherine II: Catherine II, the Great, born in Pomerania in 1729, married the Russian emperor Peter III and became empress of Russia after his assassination in 1762. She ruled until her death in 1796.

  2. Prince Gagarin’s dictionary: A Universal Geographical and Statistical Dictionary, by Prince S. P. Gagarin, published in 1843.

  3. “in trouble … hut on fire”: Frequently quoted lines from the poem “Red-Nosed Frost” (1863), by Nikolai Nekrasov (1821–78).

  4. memorial notices for old women: That is, lists of names of the living or dead to be prayed for during the liturgy.

  5. Burns or Koltsov: The Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759–96) and Alexei Koltsov (1809–42), often called the Russian Burns, were both close to simple country life and wrote stylized peasant songs.

  6. Neither … frightened him: Words remarkably close to Herodotus’s praise of the Persian couriers in his Histories (8:98): “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” which became the unofficial motto of the U.S. Post Office.

  7. The ox … against my fury: The passage is a quotation from Isaiah 1:3–24, with some modifications and a number of omissions.

  8. the “dry bones” of Ezekiel’s vision: The reference is to Ezekiel 37:1–10, the prophecy on the dry bones, which is read during the Orthodox service of Holy Friday.

  9. the Voltaireans … against it: An allusion to words spoken by the mayor in act 1, scene 1, of The Inspector General (1836), by Nikolai Gogol (1809–52): “That’s how God Himself made it, and the Voltaireans shouldn’t go talking against it.”

  10. “In the sweat … bread”: Part of God’s curse on Adam (Genesis 3:17–19).

  11. a beshmet … hooks: A beshmet is a man’s knee-length jacket, of Turkic origin, belted at the waist, open below, and fastened up to the neck with hooks or buttons.

  12. The Great Lent … approaching: In the Orthodox Church, the Great Lent is the forty-day fast period preceding Holy Week and Easter.

  13. that the spirit may be saved: See 1 Corinthians 5:5 (“To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus”).

  14. The Solovetsky Monastery: See note 43 to “The Enchanted Wanderer.” The monastery was sometimes used as a place of banishment and “re-education.” Under the Soviets it was turned into one of the harshest hard-labor camps.

  15. Lanskoy … Kostroma: Sergei Stepanovich Lanskoy (1787–1862) was governor of Kostroma province from 1831 to 1834, and later served as minister of the interior (1855–61). In that office he was instrumental in bringing about the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, the same year in which he was made a count.

  16. the zertsalo:
A three-sided pyramid of mirrored glass topped by a two-headed eagle, which stood on the desk of every Russian official. It was introduced by Peter the Great as a symbol of law and order, each face of the zertsalo being engraved with words from one of his decrees.

  17. my garment … wedding feast: See Matthew 22:11–12, the parable of the wedding feast (“And when the king came to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?”).

  18. principalities and powers: Words used by St. Paul in Ephesians 1:21 and Colossians 1:16 referring to the angelic hierarchy, here applied ironically to government authorities.

  19. Theophany water … inheritance: The feast of Theophany (Epiphany), celebrated on January 6, includes the blessing of water for church and home use by immersing a cross in it with accompanying prayers. The quoted words, however, come from the troparion (a short hymn) for the two feasts of the Holy Cross, and ultimately from Psalm 28:9.

  20. the Offenbachian mood: Meaning a frivolous spirit, from Jacques Offenbach (1819–80), the well-known French composer, author of nearly a hundred operettas full of risqué humor and contemporary satire.

  21. Blessed … Lord: Words from Psalm 118:26, repeated in Luke 13:35 and Matthew 11:9 in reference to Christ, and also used in the Orthodox liturgy.

  22. for a wicked servant it’s little: See the parable of the master and his three servants in Matthew 25:14–30 and Luke 19:12–27.

  23. Voltaire … empress … Chrysostom … Pavel Petrovich: The empress Catherine the Great (see note 1 above) corresponded with Voltaire for fifteen years. St. John Chrysostom (349–407), archbishop of Constantinople and one of the most important Byzantine theologians, was called Chrysostomos (Greek for “golden mouthed”) in tribute to the eloquence of his preaching. Pavel Petrovich Romanov (1754–1801), the son of Catherine the Great and Peter III, became emperor in 1796 and reigned for five years before he was assassinated. In 1773, he was married to Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt (1755–76), who died in childbirth three years later.

  24. stump duties … tax on timber: The newly imposed tax on timber was calculated by the number of stumps. Maria, the first daughter of the emperor Alexander I (1777–1825), lived for only a year.

  25. St. Vladimir’s Cross … nobility: The Order of St. Vladimir was established in 1782 by Catherine the Great, in honor of Grand Prince Vladimir of Kiev (ca. 958–1015), the “baptizer” of Russia. It was one of only two orders that granted the bearer the rights of hereditary nobility.

  26. “three righteous men”: The first book publication of “Singlemind” in 1880 included the following foreword:

  Without three righteous men no city can stand.

  A certain great Russian writer was dying before me for the forty-eighth time. He is still alive, just as he went on living after his forty-seven previous deaths, observed by other people and in other circumstances.

  He lay before me, alone, splayed out on the boundless sofa and preparing to dictate his last will to me, but instead he began to curse.

  I can relate unabashedly how it went and what consequences it led to.

  The writer was threatened by death through the fault of the theatrical-literary committee, which was just then killing his play with an unflinching hand. No pharmacy had any medicine against the racking pains this inflicted upon the author’s health.

  “My soul is wounded and my guts are all twisted inside me,” said the sufferer, gazing at the ceiling of the hotel room, and then, shifting his gaze to me, he suddenly shouted:

  “Why are you silent, as if your mouth’s stuffed with devil knows what? You Petersburgers all have some kind of nastiness in your hearts: you never say anything to console a man; he could just as well give up the ghost right in front of your eyes.”

  It was the first time I had been present at the death of this extraordinary man and, not understanding his mortal anguish, I said:

  “How can I console you? I can only say that everybody will be extremely sorry if the theatrical-literary committee cuts your precious life short with its harsh decision, but …”

  “Not a bad beginning,” the writer interrupted. “Kindly keep talking and maybe I’ll fall asleep.”

  “As you wish,” I replied. “So, are you sure that you’re now dying?”

  “Am I sure? I tell you, I’m almost gone!”

  “Splendid,” I said, “but have you thought well about whether this grief is worth your expiring on account of it?”

  “Of course it’s worth it; it’s worth a thousand roubles,” the dying man moaned.

  “Right. Unfortunately,” I replied, “the play would hardly bring you more than a thousand roubles, and therefore …”

  But the dying man did not let me finish: he quickly raised himself on the sofa and cried:

  “What a vile way to reason! Kindly give me a thousand roubles and then you can reason all you like.”

  “Why should I pay for someone else’s sin?” I said.

  “And why should I be the loser?”

  “Because, knowing how things go in our theaters, you described all sorts of titled persons in your play and presented them as each one worse and more banal than the other.”

  “Ahh, so that’s your consolation! According to you, one must describe nothing but good people, but I describe what I see, brother, and all I see is filth.”

  “Then something’s wrong with your eyesight.”

  “Maybe so,” the dying man replied, now thoroughly angry, “but what am I to do if I see nothing but abomination in my own soul and in yours? And thereupon the Lord God will now help me turn from you to the wall and sleep with a peaceful conscience, and I’ll leave tomorrow despising all my native land and your consolations.”

  And the sufferer’s prayer was answered: he “thereupon” had an excellent night’s sleep, and the next day I took him to the station; but then, as a result of his words, I myself was overcome by a gnawing anxiety.

  “Can it be,” I thought, “that in my or his or any other Russian soul there really is nothing to be seen but trash? Can it be that all the goodness and kindness ever noticed by the artistic eye of other writers is simply stuff and nonsense? That is not only sad, it’s frightening. If, according to popular belief, no city can stand without three righteous men, how can the whole earth stand with nothing but the trash that lives in my soul and yours, dear reader?”

  That was terrible and unbearable to me, and I went in search of righteous men, vowing that I would not rest until I had found at least that small number of three righteous men without whom “no city can stand.” But wherever I turned, whoever I asked, everyone answered me in the same way, that they had never seen any righteous men, because all men are sinful, but one or another of them had occasionally met good people. I began taking notes. Whether they’re righteous or unrighteous, I thought, I must collect all this and then try to see “what in it rises above the level of simple morality” and is therefore “holy to the Lord.”

  These are some of my notes.

  The number of righteous men in Leskov’s work went well beyond three, as the reader will see, but the cycle as such was never published and Leskov cut the foreword in later printings.

  The Devil-Chase (1879)

  1. bread and salt … metropolitan’s …: The offering of bread and salt was the traditional way of greeting important persons on their arrival. A metropolitan is an Orthodox bishop or archbishop in charge of churches in a major city or regional capital.

  2. Filaret’s catechism: See note 3 to “The Enchanted Wanderer.” Metropolitan Filaret’s catechism, written in the strict manner of Roman Catholic catechisms and first published in 1823, presented the fundamentals of Orthodox teaching. It was continually reprinted until 1917 and has been republished, to the dismay of many, since the collapse of the Soviet regime in the 1990s.

  3. the Yar: A famous restaurant, founded in 1826 and still in existence, located in the Petrovsky Park, which
was then a suburb of Moscow.

  4. neither … them: See the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Luke 16:26 (“And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence”).

  5. the Black King in Freiligrath: Ferdinand Freiligrath (1810–76) was a German poet and liberal activist. In his poem “A Negro Chieftain,” a captured black chieftain, when forced to beat a drum at a fair, beats so furiously that he breaks the head.

  6. Walpurgisnacht: The eve of May 1, the day of St. Walburga, an eighth-century English missionary and martyr. On that night, according to German tradition going back to the seventeenth century, witches hold their sabbath on Mount Brocken, the highest of the Harz Mountains.

  7. Kuznetsky: Since the eighteenth century, Kuznetsky Most (literally “Blacksmith’s Bridge”) has been one of the most fashionable and expensive shopping streets in Moscow.

  8. the All-Glorious: An icon of the All-Glorious Mother of God in one of Moscow’s convents.

  9. the trepak: A fast Cossack dance in 2/4 time.

  Deathless Golovan (1880)

  1. “big fire” in Orel: There were several major fires in Orel during the first half of the nineteenth century. The “big fire” referred to here is probably the one in 1848, which destroyed much of the town.

  2. “a big part … memory”: A paraphrase of lines from the poem “Monument,” by Gavrila Derzhavin (1743–1816), which is in turn a paraphrase of the Exegi monumentum (“I have built a monument”) of Horace (65–8 BC), the closing poem of his third book of odes.