Leo Tolstoy Archive


Yasnaya Polyana School
Notes


Written: 1862
Source: From RevoltLib.com
Transcription/Markup: Andy Carloff
Online Source: RevoltLib.com; 2021


Leo Tolstoy

[1] Dvorovaya dyevka, the daughter of a serf attached to the bar sky dvor, or mansion-house.

[2] Alekse'i Vasiiyevitch Koltsof (1809-1842), a distinguished poet, by some called the Burns of Russia.

[3] The ponomar, or paramonar, a word derived from modern Greek, airl signifying doorkeeper, sacristan.

[4] One of the domestic servants, formerly serfs, like the little girl mentioned.

[5] Dvorovui, or domestic servant.

[6] Dvornik, generally one who serves in a dvor; also house-porter. Here, one who occupies a dvor, including house and land.

[7] Little Olga.

[8] The fantastic story of a beautiful and wealthy maiden who is in reality a witch, and causes the destruction of the groom who falls in love with her.

[9] Diminutive of Feodor, Theodore; as Semka is of Semyon.

[10] Fifty sazhen.

[11] Contemptuous diminutive of Gavriil, Gabriel.

[12] Batya, shortened form of batenka, little father.

[13] Pra-a-a-shchalte.

[14] Proshchai, a more familiar form than proshchaite. 8 Prozhzhonnui yeruiga, a "burnt-out debauchee."

[15] Dvorniki.

[16] Batya, familiar for batenka, diminutive of atyets, father.

[17] Babushki.

[18] Dyadenka, little uncle.

[19] Gneditch's.

[20] Builinas.

[21] Dumplings, a Malo-Russian dish.

[22] Diminutives of Marfa (Martha) and Olga. 2 Diminutive of Praskovya.

[23] In Russian an unaccented o is pronounced like a.

[24] In the Russian construction builo is impersonal.

[25] "It opened," as of a door.

[26] The concrete examples given by Count Tolstoy would be meaningless in English.

[27] PosJili, shli, shli, nasihishka nashli.

[28] Zdravstvulte gospoda: literally, "gentlemen"; but a peasant always addresses or speaks of a superior as "they."

[29] Kalatchi, small loaves of white bread; kalatchi is one of the few Tartar words that have survived in Russian.

[30] Batya, papa; bat\ pa. Below, when speaking about the church, he calls his father batyushka, which is also the respectful address to a priest.

[31] About nine and a quarter miles. He says: Yekhali, yekkali, proyekhali.

[32] Kalatchi.

[33] A ten-kopeck piece.

[34] From Grisha, diminutive of Grigori, Gregory.

[35] From the copy-book of I. F.

[36] In Russian, Revekka, Isaf, and lakof.

[37] Na batyushka.

[38] From the book of the eight-year-old boy F .

[39] Russian, Rubim. 2 Potiphar.

[40] From the note -book of the lad I. M.

[41] The historic druzhina, from drug, a friend.

[42] A pud is 36.11 pounds avoirdupois; a grivna is ten kopecks, the tenth of a ruble.

[43] 1378 A.D., when Dmitri, Grand Prince of Moscow, conquered the Tartars and expelled them from Northern Europe.

[44] 1612, the accession of Mikhail Romanof under the patriotic lead of the butcher Minin and the Prince Pozharsky after the terrible anarchy that followed the death of the Polish pretender; 1812, the conquest of Napoleon and the French by the Russian national hero Moroz, "Frost"

[45] 1862.

[46] Russia is divided into guberniya (governments), which are subdivided into districts, somewhat like states and counties.

[47] In Russian the same word zemlya (as in Novaya Zemlya) means estate, land or country, and the earth.

[48] Koziuki means with us the class of the meshchanin, or burgess. AUTHOR'S NOTE.

[49] Tula is one of the centers of the samovar manufacture.

[50] Nek/iris ti.

[51] Sie haben ganz Russisch erz'dhlt.

[52] Sie haben nichts gesagt -von den Deutschen Freiheitskampfen.

[53] Lirizm.

[54] We beg leave to call the reader's attention to this ugly picture, so remarkable by reason of its strength of religious and poetic feeling; it bears the same relation to contemporaneous Russian painting as the art of Fra Beato Angelico bears to the art of the successors of the school of Michelangelo. AUTHOR'S NOTE.

[55] As beneath an apple tree.

[56] The Lord have mercy.

[57] Emile Joseph Maurice Cheve, 1804-1864.

[58] Krikun, from krik, a clamor.

[59] Glory to the Father.

[60] Kroshka, crumb; Kiryushka is the diminutive of Kirill.

[61] Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmuller, 1806-1874.