Endnotes

  1. From lebyed, a swan.

  2. In the poorer quarters of Russian towns a single room is often let out to several families, each of which occupies a “corner.”

  3. The reference is to a poem of Derzhavin’s.

  4. The reference is to the legend current in the sect of Flagellants. —⁠Translator’s note

  5. February 19, 1861, the day of the Emancipation of the Serfs, is meant. —⁠Translator’s note