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• 1 2020-10-07T11:18:13-04:00 The Aviator 169-196 11 Eugene Vodolazkin plain 2020-12-10T19:51:06-05:00

  pg. 171 — typhus
  Typhus, or typhus fever, is a bacterial disease causing headaches, fever, and rashes. In the modern day, due to improvements in sanitation, it is rare, but it was historically quite deadly.

  pg. 172 — Sekirnaya Mountain
  Sekirnaya Mountain, on the Solovetsky Islands, hosted a church where prisoners were put through particularly unobfuscated tortures. In the novel, prisoners here formed the pool from which LAZARUS participants were drawn.
  
  pg. 174 — newsreels
  Platonov sees footage from the prison camp taken around the time he would've been there used in a film about him after his revival. This footage was taken as propaganda. An portion of a nonfiction example of such a tape is viewable here.

  pg. 174 — the Holy Gate
  The Holy Gate at Solovki is an entrance to what was originally a building of the monastery that existed before it became a prison camp. In the novel, Platonov says it is when he stepped through that he felt imprisoned.

  pg. 178 — “the Roman Justitia”
  Justitia is the Roman goddess of justice. She has attributes of the Greek goddesses Dike and Themis.

  pg. 180 — Sportivnaya
  Sportivnaya Station is a stop in the St. Petersburg metro.

  pg. 180 — Kazan Cathedral
  This cathedral was built in the early 17th century and used by the Orthodox Church until it was closed by the Bolsheviks in 1929. Beginning in 1932, it became the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism; in the modern day, the building is both used for religious services and as the Museum of the History of Religion.

  pg. 181 — "Michelangelo’s slave"
  This phrase could refer to one of four unfinished sculptures by Renaissance artist Michelangelo (1475-1564), or to two completed sculptures the Rebellious Slave and the Dying Slave intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II.

  pg. 181 — Discobolus
  The Discobolus (“discus thrower”) is a famous Greek statue depicting a young man throwing a disc, created by sculptor Myron (~480-440 BCE).

  pg. 181 — Apoxyomenos
  The Greek statue Apoxyomenos depicts an athlete scraping off oils and sand as would’ve been necessary after a competition in that time. It was (originally — copies exist) made in approximately 320 B.C by artist Lysippus (~370-300 B.C.E).

  pg. 181 — David
  David is another sculpture by Michelangelo, depicting the Biblical figure of the same name.

  pg. 189 — Karl Marx
  Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a German philosopher who developed the political ideology of communism.

  pg. 190 — Plyos
  Plyos is a small Russian town on the Volga river, northeast of Moscow. Beginning at the end of the 19th century, it was a popular destination for artists and other creative types along with other affluent or intellectual folks.

  pg. 192 — Lazarus
  Lazarus is a Biblical figure. He died of an illness, but then was revived by Jesus four days after his burial.

  pg. 193 — Anzer
  Anzer Island is the second-largest of the Solovetsky Islands. In real life, it housed a hospital for treating typhoid patients in the 1920s; in the novel, this was where the facility which prepared Lazaruses (the Laboratory for Absolute Zero and Regeneration in the USSR) was located.

  pg. 194 — “the Holy Gifts”
  This phrase seemingly refers to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit which, in the Roman Catholic tradition, people receive when they are baptized. The gifts are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.