The Zone
Page 18
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
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dovlatov, Sergei.
[Zona. English]
The zone : a prison camp guard’s story / by Sergei Dovlatov ; translated from the Russian by Anne Frydman.
p. cm.
Translation of: Zona.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN : 978-1-619-02034-4
1. Political prisoners—Fiction. 2. Soviet Union—Fiction. I. Title.
PG3479.6.O85Z3913 2012
891.73’44—dc23
2011037978
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