pg. 105 — Micheas the MorasthiteThis seems to refer to a prophet called Micah the Morasthite. There is a book in the Bible with his writings, which pertain to God's judgement.
pg. 106 — Sloboda
The word "sloboda" comes from a Slavic word for "freedom," and is a kind of free settlement in Ukraine, among neighboring places.
pg. 107 — the Old Style
Russia used its own calendar, the Old Style calendar which is similar to the Julian calendar, until officially switching to the date system favored by the rest of Europe, the Gregorian calendar, on January 1st, 1918. The Russian Orthodox Church, however, still uses the Old Style calendar. Today, they are 13 days off from each other.
pg. 107 — name day
In certain religions traditions, notably including those present in Russia and neighboring Eastern European countries, people are named after saints. The feast day of their namesake saint is considered their name day, and may be celebrated like a birthday instead of or in addition to the person's actual birth day.
pg. 111 — AchillesAchilles is a figure from Greek mythology who was dipped into the River Styx as a baby to grant him invulnerability. While doing this, his mother held him by the heel, and so his heel was his only weak spot.
pg. 114 — SisyphusSisyphus, another figure from Greek mythology, is condemned to push a boulder up a hill—only to have it roll back down—for all of eternity.
pg. 115 — “Meeting of the Emperors in Holstein! Bashi-bazouks slaughtered fifteen thousand in Bulgaria! All is calm on Shipka! Trans-Siberian railroad finished! Tsai Hsun condemned to hara-kiri! Evacuation in Manchuria! Incident in Casablanca!”
These statements all seem to refer to news events, though seemingly a temporally wide swathe of news events. Of the referenced events, the Bulgarian Massacre took place in 1876, the Trans-Siberian Railway was completed in 1904, and the evacuation of Manchuria (a wartime event) happened in 1945.
