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Vladimir Nabokov, a Russian-American novelist

Vladimir Nabokov was born on 22 April 1899 in Saint Petersburg,b to a wealthy and prominent family of minor nobility. He was the eldest of five children of liberal lawyer, statesman, and journalist Vladimir Nabokov and his wife, Elena Rukavishnikova.. He spent his childhood and youth in St. Petersburg and at the country estate Vyra near Siverskaya, to the south of the city.

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Nabokov's childhood, which he had called "perfect", was remarkable in several ways. The family spoke Russian, English, and French in their household, and Nabokov was trilingual from an early age. In fact, much to his patriotic father's chagrin, Nabokov could read and write in English before he could in Russian. In Speak, Memory Nabokov recalls numerous details of his privileged childhood, and his ability to recall in vivid detail memories of his past was a boon to him during his permanent exile, and provided a theme that echoes from his first book Mary to later works such as Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle.

The Rozhdestveno mansion, inherited from his uncle in 1916: Nabokov possessed it for less than a year before the October Revolution.After the 1917 February Revolution, Nabokov's father became a secretary of the Russian Provisional Government and, after the Bolshevik (October) Revolution, the family was forced to flee the city for Crimea, not expecting to be away for very long. They lived at a friend's estate and in September 1918 moved to Livadiya, at the time part of the short-lived first Ukrainian Republic; Nabokov's father became a minister of justice in the Crimean Regional Government.

In 1920, Nabokov's family moved to Berlin, where his father set up the émigré newspaper Rul' ("Rudder"). Nabokov followed them to Berlin two years later, after completing his studies at Cambridge.Nabokov stayed in Berlin, where he had become a recognised poet and writer within the émigré community and published under the nom de plume V. Sirin (a reference to the fabulous bird of Russian folklore). To supplement his scant writing income, he taught languages and gave tennis and boxing lessons. Of his fifteen Berlin years, Dieter E. Zimmer wrote: "He never became fond of Berlin, and at the end intensely disliked it. He lived within the lively Russian community of Berlin that was more or less self-sufficient, staying on after it had disintegrated because he had nowhere else to go to. He knew little German. He knew few Germans except for landladies, shopkeepers, the petty immigration officials at the police headquarters."

In 1922 Nabokov became engaged to Svetlana Siewert; she broke off the engagement in early 1923, her parents worrying that he could not provide for her. In May 1923 he met a Jewish-Russian woman, Véra Evseyevna Slonim, at a charity ball in Berlin[4] and married her in April 1925.Their only child, Dmitri, was born in 1934.

In 1936, Véra lost her job because of the increasingly anti-Semitic environment; also in that year the assassin of Nabokov's father was appointed second-in-command of the Russian émigré group. In the same year Nabokov began seeking a job in the English-speaking world. In 1937 he left Germany for France, where he had a short affair with Russian émigrée Irina Guadanini; his family followed, making their last visit to Prague en route. They settled in Paris, but also spent time in Cannes, Menton, Cap d'Antibes, and Fréjus. In May 1940 the Nabokov family fled from the advancing German troops to the United States on board the SS Champlain, with the exception of Nabokov's brother Sergei, who died at the Neuengamme concentration camp on 9 January 1945.

The Nabokovs settled in Manhattan and Vladimir began volunteer work as an entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History.

Nabokov joined the staff of Wellesley College in 1941 as resident lecturer in comparative literature. The position, created specifically for him, provided an income and free time to write creatively and pursue his lepidoptery. Nabokov is remembered as the founder of Wellesley's Russian Department. The Nabokovs resided in Wellesley, Massachusetts, during the 1941–42 academic year. In September 1942 they moved to Cambridge where they lived until June 1948. Following a lecture tour through the United States, Nabokov returned to Wellesley for the 1944–45 academic year as a lecturer in Russian. In 1945, he became a naturalised citizen of the United States. He served through the 1947–48 term as Wellesley's one-man Russian Department, offering courses in Russian language and literature. His classes were popular, due as much to his unique teaching style as to the wartime interest in all things Russian.[citation needed] At the same time he was the de facto curator of lepidoptery at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology. After being encouraged by Morris Bishop, Nabokov left Wellesley in 1948 to teach Russian and European literature at Cornell University, where he taught until 1959. Among his students at Cornell was future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who later identified Nabokov as a major influence on her development as a writer.

Nabokov wrote Lolita while travelling on butterfly-collection trips in the western United States that he undertook every summer. Véra acted as "secretary, typist, editor, proofreader, translator and bibliographer; his agent, business manager, legal counsel and chauffeur; his research assistant, teaching assistant and professorial understudy"; when Nabokov attempted to burn unfinished drafts of Lolita, it was Véra who stopped him. He called her the best-humoured woman he had ever known.

In June 1953 Nabokov and his family went to Ashland, Oregon. There he finished Lolita and began writing the novel Pnin. He roamed the nearby mountains looking for butterflies, and wrote a poem called Lines Written in Oregon. On 1 October 1953, he and his family returned to Ithaca, New York, where he would later teach the young writer Thomas Pynchon.

The grave of the Nabokovs at Cimetière de Clarens near Montreux, Switzerland

After the great financial success of Lolita, Nabokov was able to return to Europe and devote himself exclusively to writing. His son had obtained a position as an operatic bass at Reggio Emilia. On 1 October 1961, he and Véra moved to the Montreux Palace Hotel in Montreux, Switzerland; he stayed there until the end of his life.[13] From his sixth-floor quarters he conducted his business and took tours to the Alps, Corsica, and Sicily to hunt butterflies. In 1976 he was hospitalised with an undiagnosed fever. He was rehospitalised in Lausanne in 1977 suffering from severe bronchial congestion. He died on 2 July in Montreux surrounded by his family and, according to his son, Dmitri, "with a triple moan of descending pitch".His remains were cremated and are buried at the Clarens cemetery in Montreux.

At the time of his death, he was working on a novel titled The Original of Laura. His wife Véra and son Dmitri were entrusted with Nabokov's literary executorship, and though he asked them to burn the manuscript, they chose not to destroy his final work. The incomplete manuscript, around 125 handwritten index cards long, remained in a Swiss bank vault where only two people, Dmitri Nabokov and an unknown person, had access. Portions of the manuscript were shown to Nabokov scholars. In April, 2008, Dmitri announced that he would publish the novel.

Prior to the incomplete novel's publication, several short excerpts of The Original of Laura were made public: German weekly Die Zeit, reproduced some of Nabokov's original index cards obtained by its reporter Malte Herwig in its 14 August 2008 issue. In the accompanying article Herwig concludes that Laura, although fragmentary, is "vintage Nabokov".

In July 2009, Playboy magazine acquired the rights to print a 5,000-word excerpt from The Original of Laura. It was printed in the December issue.

The Original of Laura was published on 17 November 2009.

New reviews from our students from UK

Three of Enjoy Russian language school students have finished their spring Russian language courses in Petrozavodsk, Karelia. We are happy to have opportunity to meet them and will wait to see them here again. Inspire and join our team here!!

 David Hunt, UK

The contest was goof – we had an exam for university and Olga made a special curriculum to help us to prepare. I liked my host family and the location was nice – it was easy to get to school. Unfortunately our cultural program was limited because of the weather, but I enjoyed walking the streets and visiting the museum. The volunteers were excellent. Jana, Anna, Anastasia, Sasha, thank you!

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Steven Barclay, UK

The contest of the lessons was very helpful, especially speaking practice. I was very impressed with the teaching and the teacher responded well to our requests and needs. I liked my host family. The flat was very comfortable and the family was very kind and helpful and provided plenty of food.  The school was very helpful in arranging special cultural activities that I requested personally. All the volunteers were nice and ready to help. It would be nice to have more Russian practice.

Thomas Stonell-Smith, UK

The contest of the course was excellent. We were taught a good mixture of vocabulary and grammar. The contest was very applicable to every day life. Quality of teaching was also excellent. We were encouraged to speak a lot and to express ourselves in Russian which I really enjoyed. Teaching methods were good; we were given a good book and used audio as well. I really enjoyed the place where I stayed. The location was excellent, very close to our school. Host family was nice and did everything they needed to. Also they were not invasive which I liked. The volunteers were extremely nice and willing to help. All the administration was good and I experienced no problems at all. I thoroughly enjoyed my time studying at the school and have gained a lot of good memories. I would highly recommend this school to other students. Petrozavodsk is a nice small town so there is a good environment to learn Russian.

Three Enjoy Russian school students have finished their spring courses!

Three of Enjoy Russian language school students have finished their spring Russian language courses in Petrozavodsk, Karelia. We are happy to have opportunity to meet them and will wait to see them here again. Meanwhile another student from Austria Anabella Tsrepulia has arrived to Petrozavodsk. And John Dawton goes on exploring the city!

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Thomas Stowell-Smith, David Hunt and Robert Hornsbi have received their Russian language certificates! David decided to visit St-Petersburg after leaving Petrozavodsk. He will spend there three days and then continue travelling by visiting Moscow as well. Thomas is staying in Petrozavodsk till next week to enjoy the city in relaxing atmosphere.

A new student from Austria Anabella Tsrepulia is arriving to Petrozavodsk. She spends the weekend in Moscow and starts learning Russian next week.

John Dawton goes on exploring the city! He is accompanied by his family who decided to join him during their vacation. They have visited historical museum where John was more than happy to have an opportunity to try Viking costume.”What a great weekend! Submitted my last two TEFL modules, Chelsea won, my drama club is amazing and I sang today in a concert! So tired but happy!” – John wrote on facebook. 

Segezha

 The city of Segezha is located in the central part of Karelia (approximately on 270 km. to the north of Petrozavodsk), on the west bank of Vygozero, at a confluence of the river of Segezha with it. The basis of the name "Segezha" conducts the origin from Finnish "sees" - pure, light (correctly the name of our city is said with an accent on the second syllable - Segezha).

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   The mention of the village of Segezha is available in lists of settlements of the Olonets province for 1905. In 1915 from communication with construction of the Murmansk railroad on the map of Karelia there was a Segezha station. Later industrial development of edge began. The grown in the 1930th years in connection with construction of pulp and paper mill and timber mill, large working settlement in December, 1943 was renamed into the city, and in 1945 became the center of the administrative region. In 1991 the city of Segezha is referred by the Resolution of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Karelia to category of cities of republican subordination. (is more detailed about stories of Vygozersky edge).

   The Segezhsky area - the industrial center of Karelia. In a social production about 300 enterprises, various on forms of ownership and types of business activity are registered. In the city there is a professional lyceum, 5 schools, 11 preschool institutions, school of arts, sports school and Sports palace, the Center of children's creativity. In the city and the area of 16 club establishments, the methodical center of club work - the Center of culture, Recreation center and technicians of joint stock company, library, since 1998 works the historical and cultural museum and educational center. Near the city there are monuments history of the Great Patriotic War, a nature sanctuary - Voitsky is blown, a monument of national culture and architecture - the village of Nadvoitsa.

   The largest enterprises of the area - Segezhsky pulp and paper mill, Nadvoitsky aluminum plant, Segezhsky LDK. Transport economic relations consist of delivery of oil products, coal, chemical freights, building materials, forest and trade freights and export of production forest, woodworking and pulp and paper industry. The basis of a transport network is made: a railway line St. Petersburg - Murmansk, highways of federal value St. Petersburg - Murmansk, Kochkom - Rebola, the water basin of Vygozero and the Belomoro-Baltiysky channel with an exit in White and Baltic exhausting. In the territory of the area there are generating power supply system sources: Ondsky hydroelectric power station of the cascade of Vygsky hydroelectric power stations of JSC Karelenergo which is a part of RAO UES.

   The Segezhsky area occupies the space of 10,7 thousand km.2 (these are about 6% of the territory of the Republic), its population makes about 50 thousand people, them over 34 thousand live them in the regional center (as of 2002). The area unites 35 settlements, the largest - the regional center Segezha, the settlement of city type of Nadvoitsa (11 thousand), the settlement of Valdai (1.4 thousand). Over 80% of the population - Russians, Karelians and Finns less than 5%. From the South our area borders on the Medvezhyegorsky area, from the West - on Muyezersky, the North - the Belomorsky area. Our neighbors from the East - the Arkhangelsk region.

   Climate of the area moderate and continental with lines of the sea. Duration of steady frosts - 4 months, the coldest month - January, the minimum temperature -46 °, the warmest month - July, the maximum temperature +35 °. Existence of a large number of the rivers, lakes, bogs promotes increase in humidity of air and quantity of fogs; on average in a year 500 mm of rainfall drop out. Soils are presented by podsolic types, differ in low natural fertility, have silvicultural value. The vegetation is characterized, generally coniferous breeds. 

Russian Beauty

Enjoy Russian language school is a part of Initiative Centre organization. It is located in Petrozavodsk, Republic of Karelia. Local citizens can study foreign languages or get more information on abroad education. Lots of contests and events are held by the Center. One of the latest projects is Russian Beauty photo project. Girls of 4-7 years old acted as real models wearing traditional Russian costumes and acting out traditional Russian scenes. We are happy to show you some pictures of them! What exactly Russian do you see on the pictures?

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Nikolay Gumilyov, a man of cruel destiny

2015 was declared as The Year of Literature in Russia. The relevant decree was signed by Vladimir Putin last summer. On the 15th of April, 1886 Nikolay Gumilyov, an influential Russian poet, literary critic, traveler, and military officer was born. He was the first husband of Anna Akhmatova and father of historian Lev Gumilev. A man of cruel destiny was arrested and executed by the Cheka in 1921.

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Nikolay was born in the town of Kronstadt on Kotlin Island. He studied at the gymnasium of Tsarskoe Selo, where the Symbolist poet Innokenty Annensky was his teacher. Later, Gumilyov admitted that it was Annensky's influence that turned his mind to writing poetry.

His first publication were verses I ran from cities into the forest on September 8, 1902. In 1905 he published his first book of lyrics entitled The Way of Conquistadors. It comprised poems on most exotic subjects imaginable, from Lake Chad giraffes to Caracalla's crocodiles. Although Gumilyov was proud of the book, most critics found his technique sloppy; later he would refer to that collection as apprentice's work.

From 1907 and on, Nikolai Gumilyov traveled extensively in Europe, notably in Italy and France. In 1908 his new collection Romantic Flowers appeared. While in Paris, he published the literary magazine Sirius, but only three issues were produced. On returning to Russia, he edited and contributed to the artistic periodical Apollon. At that period, he fell in love with a non-existent woman Cherubina de Gabriak. It turned out that Cherubina de Gabriak was the literary pseudonym for two people, a disabled schoolteacher and Maximilian Voloshin, and on November 22, 1909 he had a duel with Voloshin over the affair.

Gumilev married Anna Akhmatova in April 25, 1910. He dedicated some of his poems to her.On September 18, 1912, their child Lev was born. He would eventually become an influential and controversial historian.

Like Flaubert and Rimbaud before him, but inspired by exploits of Alexander Bulatovich and Nikolay Leontiev, Gumilyov was fascinated with Africa and travelled there almost each year. He explored, helping development of Ethiopia, sometime hunted lions, and brought to the Saint Petersburg museum of anthropology and ethnography a large collection of African artifacts. His landmark collection The Tent (1921) collected the best of his poems on African themes, one of them "Giraffe".

In 1910, Gumilyov fell under the spell of the Symbolist poet and philosopher Vyacheslav Ivanov and absorbed his views on poetry at the evenings held by Ivanov in his celebrated "Turreted House". His wife Akhmatova accompanied him to Ivanov's parties as well.

Dissatisfied with the vague mysticism of Russian Symbolism, then prevalent in the Russian poetry, Gumilyov and Sergei Gorodetsky established the so-called Guild of Poets, which was modeled after medieval guilds of Western Europe. They advocated a view that poetry needs craftsmanship just like architecture needs it. Writing a good poem they compared to building a cathedral. To illustrate their ideals, Gumilev published two collections, The Pearls in 1910 and the Alien Sky in 1912. It was Osip Mandelstam, however, who produced the movement's most distinctive and durable monument, the collection of poems entitled Stone (1912).

According to the principles of acmeism (as the movement came to be dubbed by art historians), every person, irrespective of his talent, may learn to produce high-quality poems if only he follows the guild's masters, i.e., Gumilyov and Gorodetsky. Their own model was Théophile Gautier, and they borrowed much of their basic tenets from the French Parnasse. Such a program, combined with colourful and exotic subject matter of Gumilev's poems, attracted to the Guild a large number of adolescents. Several major poets, notably Georgy Ivanov and Vladimir Nabokov, passed the school of Gumilev, albeit informally.

When World War I started, Gumilyov hastened to Russia and enthusiastically joined a corps of elite cavalry. He fought in battles in East Prussia and Macedonia. For his bravery he was invested with two St. George crosses (December 24, 1914 and January 5, 1915).

His war poems were assembled in the collection The Quiver (1916). In 1916 he wrote a verse play, Gondla, which was published the following year; set in ninth-century Iceland, torn between its native paganism and Irish Christianity, it is also clearly autobiographical, Gumilev putting much of himself into the hero Gondla (an Irishman chosen as king but rejected by the jarls, he kills himself to ensure the triumph of Christianity) and basing Gondla's wild bride Lera on Gumilev's wife Akhmatova. The play was performed in Rostov na Donu in 1920 and, even after the author's execution by the Cheka, in Petrograd in January 1922: "The play, despite its crowd scenes being enacted on a tiny stage, was a major success. Yet when the Petrograd audience called for the author, who was now officially an executed counter-revolutionary traitor, the play was removed from the repertoire and the theatre disbanded."

During the Russian Revolution, Gumilyov served in the Russian Expedition Corps in Paris. Despite advice to the contrary, he rapidly returned to Petrograd. There he published several new collections, Tabernacle and Bonfire, and finally divorced Akhmatova (August 5, 1918), whom he had left for another woman several years prior. The following year he married Anna Nikolaevna Engelhardt, a noblewoman and daughter of a well-known historian.

Despite the hard experiences of real travels and battles, he remained, to the end of his life, a schoolboy entranced by the Iliad of Childhood - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He never outgrew the influence of Mayne Reid, Alexandre Dumas, père, Jules Verne, Gustave Aimard and others."[1] In 1920 Gumilyov co-founded the All-Russia Union of Writers. Gumilev made no secret of his anti-communist views. He also crossed himself in public and didn't care to hide his contempt for half-literate Bolsheviks.

On August 3, 1921 he was arrested by the Cheka on allegation of participation in monarchist conspiracy known as "Petrograd military organization" or Tagantsev conspiracy. On August 24, the Petrograd Cheka decreed execution of all 61 participants of the case, including Nikolai Gumilev. They were shot on August 25 in the Kovalevsky Forest. The case was officially declared as "completely fabricated" and all victims rehabilitated by Russian authorities only in 1992.

Maxim Gorky, his friend and fellow writer, hurried to Moscow, obtained an order to release Gumilyov from Lenin personally, but upon his return to Petrograd he found out that Gumilyov had already been shot.

Eternal Poem

I’m in the days’ embracing limits,

Where even skies are ever gray,

Look through the ages, live in minutes,

And wait for Holy Saturday;

The end of soul’s aimless travels,

Of lucks and troubles peaceful end.

O, come, my day when I’ll be able

To Know, See and Understand.

My soul will be so new and broad,

All, that’s alluring, will be mine.

And I will bless the golden road,

From blind worm and to golden sun.

And he, who went with me wherever,

Trough thunders and the silent peace,

He, who was kind to me in fever,

And cruel when I stayed in bliss;

Who taught me to a wisdom whole,

To fight, reserve, or overcome,

Will turn to me, and leave his pole,

And simply tell me, “We have come.”

My thoughts

Why did you come, my thoughts, in instant,

Like thieves to rob my quiet habitation,

Like vultures, gloomy and malignant,

With thirst for dread retaliation.

My hopes are gone, and ran away my visions,

My eyes were opened by fierce agitation,

And, in the sacred books of new religions,

I read my words, my deals and plans for future actions.

For that, that I with looks so calm and quiet,

Watched them who sailed to victory and glory,

That with my lips I touched the lips in fire,

Which did not have the former sinning story,

That those hands of mine, my own fingers,

Didn’t know a plough, were so thin and pliant,

And that my songs, the rambling meistersingers,

Could only sing, while making a sad sound,

For all this now came repudiation.

Blind men will smash the gentle, deceptive temple,

And thoughts will come into my habitation,

And strangle me, like thieves – a shabby tramper.

Giraffe

Today, I see, your glance is especially sad

And your arms, embracing your knees, especially thin.

Listen: far, far away on the Lake of Chad

Wanders a gentle giraffe.

He is endowed with slender grace and bliss,

And his hide adorned with a magical design

Which the moonlight alone, shattering and rocking

On the wide wet of the lake, dares to rival.

From afar he resembles the colored sails of a ship,

And his gait is smooth as the joyful flight of a bird.

I know that the earth will witness many wonders,

When, at sunset, he hides in a marble grotto.

I could tell merry tales of mysterious lands

Of a black maiden, a young chief's passion,

But you have too long inhaled the heavy mist,

You will believe in nothing but the rain.

And how can I tell you about a tropical garden,

Slender palms, the scent of inconceivable herbs...

Are you crying? Listen...Far off on the Lake of Chad

Wanders a gentle giraffe.