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Nabokov, Vladimir - Pushkin and Gannibal
Nabokov, Vladimir - Pushkin and Gannibal
~ZlBP~4M GAN.NIBAL
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Vladimir Nabokov
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Vladimir Nabokov
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Vladimir Nabokov
thing, but had to yield to number;she accompanied him to the very deck of the small ship,
still nursing the hope that she might obtain by
entreaties the freedom of this muchbeloved
brother or purchaseit with her jewels; but when
she foundthat her tender efforts remainedfruitless to the last, she cast herself in despairinto
the sea and was drowned. To the very end of
his days, the venerable old man[Abram]would
shed tears of the tenderest friendship and love
as he recollected her; for althoughhe was still
very youngat the time of that tragic event, yet
wheneverhe thought of her this vague memory
would becomenew and complete for him; and
this offering [Abramstears] was the better
deserved by her sisterly tenderness since she
had struggled so hard to free him, and since
these two were the only siblings from the same
mother.
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Vladimir Nabokov
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Vladirnir Nabokov
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~725)-
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Vladirnir Nabokov
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Vladimir Nabokov
a fort in Kazanand then to build one in Selenginsk, on the Chinese border--where, incidentally, Lieutenant Gannibal encountered his
former patron, Count Vladislavich-Raguzinski,
who was returning from his Chinese embassy.
Vaguelyaccused of political intrigue, Gannibal
found himself kept at work in Selenginsk and
Tobolskfor a couple of years, and only in the
beginning of Annas reign the governor of
St. Petersburg, Miinnich, needing a good military engineer, had him transferred to a Baltic
fort. In x73I, Gannibal married Evdokia
(Eudoxia) Dioper, daughter of a sea captain,
Andrey Dioper, presumably of Greek origin.
She was unfaithful to him, and so was he to
her. According to documents described by
Stepan Opatovich (in Russkaya starina, i877),
Gannibal, in i73~ , rigged up at his home a
private torture chambercomplete with pulleys,
iron clamps, thumbkins, leathern whips, and
so forth. An obstinate and formalistic man,he
then managedto have his victim imprisoned
by the state for marital betrayal. She stayed five
years in jail, after which--while divorce proceedings were dragging onwshe was more or
less at liberty till i753, whenthe final separation
was accorded; upon which, the unfortunate
womanwas packed away to a remote convent,
where she died. In the meantime, in I736,
Gannibal had married (unlawfully) his mistress
of four years standing, the daughter of another
captain, an army captain this time, named
Matthias Schrberg, Lutheran, of SwedishGermandescent. By this second wife (whose
first name was Christina Regine, according to
the German biography) Gannibal had eleven
children, of whomthe third son, Osip, was to
be Pushkins maternal grandfather.
Gannibalspent a few years as a country squire
on a piece of acquired land, and then went on
building fortresses. In i742, Elizabeth, Peter rs
younger daughter, made him a major general
and four years later granted him the country
seat of Mihaylovskoein the province of Pskov,
which was to be forever linked up with Pushkins name. During these years, Gannibal
provedhimself an expert at arranging fireworks
at state festivals and composingdenunciations
of various officials. In i762, after building his
last fortress and propelling his last rocket, he
was retired and lived in obscure senility for
another twenty years on yet another country
.estate (Suida, near Petersburg), where he died
m i78i, at the advanced age of (probably)
eighty-eight.
Conclusions
E s ~ ~ ~ s the unfinished romance(i827) The
Blackamooro[ Peter the Great (in which
a greatly glamourisedIbrahim is given fictitious
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Vladimir Nabokov
MaxFrisch
Andorra
From a New Play
Authors Preface