Solovyov and Larionov Page 2
kitchen, he was working on something that went beyond
simply training himself in pronunciation: he was, as he characterized it, eliminating the provincialism within himself.
Solovyov’s thesis advisor, the eminent Professor Nikolsky, played an important role in Solovyov’s development. After
reading his student’s first important paper, which was
devoted to Russia’s conquest of the Far East, the professor invited Solovyov to his office, where he said nothing for a long time, blowing on the paper tube of a Belomorkanal cigarette all the while (he had taken a liking to those cigarettes while working at the forced labor site bearing the
same name).
‘My friend,’ said the professor after lighting the cigarette,
‘scholarship is dull. If you don’t get used to that notion, it will not be easy for you to pursue it.’
The professor requested that Solovyov delete from his
paper the words great, triumphant, and only possible. He also asked his student if he was familiar with the theory according to which Russians squandered the energy granted to them
by conquering expanses of inhuman dimensions. His student
was not. Prior to acquainting Solovyov with this theory,
Prof. Nikolsky requested that he delete the phrase phenomenon indicating progress, too. The author of the paper was 580VV_txt.indd 9
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asked to pay special attention to the formatting of bibliographical and persuasive footnotes. A careful look at this aspect of the paper revealed that the only properly formatted footnote was ‘Ibid., 12.’
To be utterly candid, the majority of what Prof. Nikolsky
said seemed like nitpicking to Solovyov, yet it was this very discussion that formed the basis of a friendship between
professor and student. The professor was at that age when
his quibbles could no longer be offensive to the young man and Solovyov’s own history, which was anything but simple, did its part in forcing his advisor to show more leniency
toward his student.
Prof. Nikolsky never tired of repeating to his mentee that, as a rule, pretty phrases in scholarship are misguided, and the beauty of those phrases is based on their alleged universality and an absence of exceptions. But—and here the
cigarette in the professor’s hand would trace a smoky
ellipsis—that absence is spurious. No exhaustive truths exist (hardly any exist, the professor corrected himself, bringing the statement into accord with his own theory). For each a there is always a b and a c to be found, as well as something that no letters can convey. An honest researcher takes all that into account, but his pronouncements cease being beautiful. Thus spoke Prof. Nikolsky.
At some point, Solovyov’s blue-eyed romanticism gave
way to a pronounced inclination toward precision, so this
was a time when he discovered a particular beauty: the
beauty of reliable knowledge. This was a time when the
young man’s papers started to be mottled with enormous
quantities of exhaustive and meticulously formatted foot-
notes. Footnotes became for him more than an occasion to
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express respect for his predecessors. They revealed to him that there was no one realm of knowledge where he,
Solovyov, would be first, and that scholarship is, to the
highest degree, a process that is bequeathed. They were
representatives of great, all-encompassing knowledge. They watched after Solovyov and educated him, forcing him to
rid himself of approximate and uncertain assertions. They
blew open his smooth school-based exposition, because a
text, just like existence itself, cannot exist without conditions.
Solovyov inserted footnote after footnote, marveling that
he had managed to get by without them at the beginning
of his scholarly career. When footnotes began accompa-
nying nearly every word he wrote, Prof. Nikolsky was forced to stop him. He announced to Solovyov, in passing, that
scholars usually get by without footnotes at the end of their careers, too. The young researcher felt disheartened.
Despite Solovyov’s expectations, the Pacific Ocean—to
which he fought his way in his first important paper—did
not become his primary topic. Prof. Nikolsky was able to
convince his student that the most important part of history takes place on a continent. Only a strong familiarity with that part of history gives a researcher the right to leave dry land from time to time. After a wrenching internal struggle, Solovyov decided to postpone setting sail.
Solovyov came to appreciate Petersburg fully during his
five university years. He began wearing high-quality but
unostentatious clothing (clothing becomes more colorful
when advancing south, and not only in Russia), referenced
the powers that be with the short word they, and took a liking to evening strolls on Vasilevsky Island. His habit of taking strolls continued later, after renting an apartment on 580VV_txt.indd 11
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the Petrograd Side (Zhdanovskaya Embankment, No. 11).
He would walk home after finishing his work at the library.
Sadovaya Street. Summer Garden. Troitsky Bridge. In the
winter, when the Summer Garden was closed (in accordance
with its name) and its statues were boarded up in boxes,
Solovyov would choose another route. He would reach the
Neva River via Griboedov Canal and then turn on to
Dvortsovy Bridge, after walking past the Winter Palace
(which was open year-round, unlike the Summer Garden).
At home, he would place his soaked boots on the radiator.
By morning they would turn white, from the salt scattered
by the yard workers.
Solovyov came to love the Public Library’s special winter
coziness: Catherine the Great’s figure in a half-frosted window, pre-war lamps on the tables, and the barely audible whispering of those sitting behind him. He liked the indescribable library scent. That scent united the aromas of books, oak shelves, and worn runner rugs. All libraries smell that way. The
snow-covered, one-story village library where the young
Solovyov had borrowed books smelled that way. It was an
hour and a half’s walk from the Kilometer 715 station; Solovyov stopped by the library after school before heading back to his station. He would sit, half-facing the elderly librarian Nadezhda Nikiforovna’s desk, while she searched for his books somewhere behind the cabinets. As he awaited Nadezhda
Nikiforovna’s return, Solovyov would examine his violet
fingers, which he sank into his rabbit-fur hat. Her voice would emerge from behind the cabinets from time to time.
‘ Captain Blood: His Odyssey?’
‘Already read it.’
He read everything. The village library became his first
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true revelation and Nadezhda Nikiforovna was his first love.
Unlike the houses by the railroad, the library was very quiet and did not smell of railroad ties. Mixed in with the fabulous library potion was the smell of Red Moscow perfume. This was Nadezhda Nikiforovna’s perfume. If there was anything
Solovyov felt was missing later, in his Petersburg life, it was likely Red Moscow.
‘ In Search of the Castaways?’
Her quiet voice made goosebumps sl
owly descend down
Solovyov’s spine. After licking a fingertip, Nadezhda
Nikiforovna would pull his library card out of the drawer
and enter the necessary notation. Fascinated, Solovyov
followed the movement of her large fingers, with their dulled nails. A cameo glistened on her ring finger. When she placed a book on a shelf, Nadezhda Nikiforovna’s ring grazed the
wood and the cameo produced a muffled plastic sound. That
sound took on an extraordinary elegance, almost an elite
quality, in Solovyov’s ears because it was so unlike the clanging of train carriage couplers. Later, he would qualify it as world culture’s first bashful knock at the door of his soul.
More often than not, Solovyov did not come to the library
alone: he was with a girl named Leeza, who lived in the
house next door. Leeza was not allowed to walk home by
herself and was ordered to wait for Solovyov at the library.
She would sit some distance away, silently observing the
book exchange process. Sometimes she would borrow some-
thing Solovyov had already read. Solovyov immediately
forgot about Leeza after coming home. He would recollect
all the details of his visit to the library, indulging himself in dreams of married life with Nadezhda Nikiforovna.
It should be emphasized that he was eight years old then
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and his dreams were fully virtuous. Remote as he was from
civilization’s hotbeds (and based on Nadezhda Nikiforovna’s expression, from those hotbeds’ settled ashes, too), Solovyov vaguely imagined the tasks of marriage, as well as the ways it takes its course. As it happened, that village library was his sole link to the outside world, ruling out the availability not only of erotic publications but of suggestive illustrations in periodicals as well. Nadezhda Nikiforovna censored new
acquisitions in her free time, ruthlessly cutting those items out.
There is nothing surprising in the fact that five years later, when their instincts were awakening, Solovyov and Leeza
were deprived of all manner of guidance in that sphere and progressed by groping along, in the literal sense of the word.
Nevertheless, when the adolescent Solovyov engaged in sex
in later years, he did not consider himself unfaithful to
Nadezhda Nikiforovna. The idea of marriage, which had
so warmed his heart as a child, lost no attraction for him then, either. The change took place only upon recognizing
that certain things should not be demanded of Nadezhda
Nikiforovna.
Leeza’s surname—Larionova—does not lack interest in
this present narrative. This present narrative is inclined to accentuate various resemblances and coincidences because
there is meaning in any similarity: similarity opens up
another dimension and alludes to a true perspective, without which one’s view would certainly hit a wall. In taking on
research into General Larionov’s life and work, Solovyov
bore in mind his own previous familiarity with that same
surname. He placed significance on such things. Needless
to say, the young researcher could not yet explain the role 580VV_txt.indd 14
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of the Larionovs in his life, though even then he felt the role would not be secondary.
As happens more often than not with events that are
intended to occur, Solovyov’s research topic came to him
by chance. Another graduate student, Kalyuzhny, had
worked on the topic before Solovyov. Yes, this pleasant fellow lacked all manner of scholarly energy and, really, most likely any energy whatsoever. His efforts were sufficient for him to make his way to some academic beer joint and settle in
there for the entire remainder of the day. Kalyuzhny
regarded the general sympathetically and experienced an
undeniable curiosity regarding his fate. The primary thing he did not understand was that (and here Kalyuzhny’s index finger slid along a glass) the general had remained alive.
Over the course of several years, Kalyuzhny retold Dupont’s classic research to everyone who sat down at his table. This long retelling obviously wore him out in a real way because he did not write a single line during those years of unending narration. Gathering his last strength, graduate student
Kalyuzhny unexpectedly did what the general had not
brought himself to do in his day: he left the country.
Kalyuzhny’s further fate is unknown.
Solovyov’s fate is known, however, and, according to the
unanimous opinion of his colleagues, it was up to him to
replace his drop-out associate. Only a few months after
entering graduate school, Solovyov delivered a paper at a
conference: ‘Studying the Life and Activity of General
Larionov: Conclusions and Outlooks.’
The conclusions that Solovyov drew and the outlooks he
summarized made a most favorable impression on the schol-
arly public. The paper testified not only to the young
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researcher’s well-organized mind but also, in equal measure, to his deep insight into the topic. The climax of the paper, which evoked extraordinary animation in the hall, was his
introduction of corrections to data in Dupont’s monograph
that had been considered unshakable until that day.
And so, it turned out that there were only 469 soldiers
on record in the 34th Infantry Division of the 136th
Taganrog Regiment, not the 483 soldiers Dupont asserted.
It also emerged that the French researcher had, on the other hand, reduced the number of soldiers in the 2nd Native
Division of the Combined Cavalier Brigade to 720 (the true number was 778). Dupont did not shed full light on the
role of Colonel Yakov Noga (1878–?) in the Crimean
campaign; however, the officer’s level of education had
clearly been overstated: the French researcher mistakenly
indicated that Noga graduated from the Vladimir and Kiev
cadet corps, though he graduated only from the Vladimir
(named for Saint Vladimir) Kiev Cadet Corps. Solovyov set
forth a series of more minor quibbles with the French
monograph, but in this case one must think it permissible
to limit discussion to the examples cited above. Even they are enough to characterize the quality of the young scholar’s work and his unwillingness to blindly trust his
predecessors’ authority.
This was Solovyov’s finest hour. Dupont hid behind a
marble column in the conference hall as she listened to
Solovyov’s paper. According to the accounts of those who
saw her at that moment, the French historian’s eyes were
brimming with tears. A person less dedicated to scholarship might have been offended by all the corrections that
Solovyov introduced. That person might have become
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embittered or, who knows, shrugged their shoulders and
snorted with disdain. Or said, let us suppose, that the specified clarifications held an extremely relative value in
explaining the Crimean events of 1920. But Dupont was
not that sort of person. At Solovyov’s ‘Thank you for your attention,’ she
ran out from behind the column and
embraced the presenter. Was that ardent scholarly embrace—
which combined sobbing and smudged mascara and a
prickly mustache—not a triumph of sincere values and
evidence of the sanctity of the great international solidarity of researchers?
Standing behind the lectern, her faced streaked with
mascara, Dupont recalled everyone who had devoted them-
selves to researching the post-revolutionary period at various times. She referred, with particular emotion, to Ieronim A.
Ratsimor, who had conceived of, but not managed to
complete, the monumental Encyclopedia of the Civil War.
‘He died on the letter K,’ Dupont said of the deceased,
‘but if he could have held on for just one more letter, our level of knowledge about General Larionov would have
been different, completely different. But now we see,’ and with these words the researcher once again drew Solovyov
to herself, ‘our worthy successor. Now we can feel calm
about leaving.’
The polite Solovyov initially wanted to object to what
Dupont had said, to ask that henceforth she continue
engaging in the work that was so important to everyone,
but she would not allow it. With a sweep of her huge hand, she seemed to conjure out of thin air her monograph about
the general, which she then forcefully pressed to Solovyov’s chest. After kissing him again in parting, she marched across 580VV_txt.indd 17
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the conference hall and vanished into the duskiness of a
corridor.
She called him from Paris. Positively everything about
the young researcher interested her: his views on history
overall, his biases in terms of methodology, and even—this was completely unexpected—his material standing. Unlike
all the other areas, Solovyov found no intelligible answer to her question about the matter. Dupont herself deduced the
reality of the Russian scholar’s material standing: it was simply lacking.
Stunned by that circumstance, Dupont delved into the
reasons for such a somber state of affairs. Standing firm on determinist positions, the representative of French historical scholarship lined up a long cause-and-effect chain. There is no point in citing it in full: the events Dupont referred to are well known to any Russian schoolchild, though perhaps