Hannah Bartoshesky

pg. 8 — Sonya, "Sonechka"
The protagonist at the start of the story. Sonya means wisdom and our protagonist is both well-read and understanding of others. She is described as a homely bookworm. She escapes reality through indulging in classic Russian literature, and eventually works in a library. She is quite thin and tall, often associated with warm browns, and is described as camel-like with her long eyelashes over her beady brown eyes and long forhead. Due to her early experiences with rejection as a youth and the hard times in Russia she lives through, she is depicted as perpetually greatful: feeling undeserving of any good fortune that comes her way. After her marriage to Robert Victorovich she develops into an incredibly loving, patient, and hardworking house-wife. Over the course of the story however she grows old, losing even the meager beauty she had in her youth, and becoming less and less central to the narrative of the story. 

pg. 8 — Efrem
Sonya's older brother. He is called the family satirist and teases Sonya for her appearance.

pg. 8 — Sonya's elder sister, “safely married”
She comforts Sonya about her brothers teasing, but as an already married woman, demonstrates the importance of appearances for marriage. She also appears to be a rather careless mother, losing her four-year-old daughter down a well.

pg. 10 — “the late 1920’s and Lenin’s laissez-faire New Economic Policy was on its last legs”
The New Economic Policy (NEP) implemented under Lenin in 1922, was an economic system with a sort of free market and capitalism both under state control. This system was implemented in reaction to the economic decline prior to and during the Russian Civil War (1918-1922) and replaced the complete nationalization of industry with a mixture of privatley owned small enterprises and state controled  banks, foreign trade, and large industries. The NEP was later abandoned in 1928 when the government was struggling to obtain enough grain to feed the urban workforce -- the shortages prompted a takeover of farmland and a collectivization of agriculture under state control. In 1931 the state reinstated its control over all industry and commerce.

pg. 10 — Sonechka’s father
An mechanically-minded man, who once ran his own watch shop but resigned himself to working in a watch factory despite an aversion to mass-production. This wasone a prudent move based on the later centralization of all industries and the fall of the New Economic Policy. His career decision is one of several examples of the lifestyle changes forced by the shifting political climate in Russia at the start of the book.

pg. 10 — Belorussia
Where Sonechka's father originated. Officially known today as the Republic of Belarus, it's borders have been continually shaped by conflict but it is located to the West of Russia and surrounded by the neighboring countries of Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. It became the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (Byelorussian SSR) after the Russian Civil War, and then became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922.

pg. 10 — Sonechka's Mother
An industrious woman who sews simple frocks to make some money during hard times.

pg. 11 — great literature of nineteenth century Russia
The 19th century is traditionally referred to as the "Golden Era" of Russian literature; it does not refer to any particular school or movement but includes several, and notably Romanticism and Realism. Romanticism permitted a flowering poetic talent such as Vasily Zhukovsky and Alexander Pushkin who is considered by many to be the founder of modern Russian literature. Realist writers included the influential Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Ivan Turgenev.

pg. 11 — Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881), was a famous and enormously influential Russian novelist and short-story writer, known for the exploration of pathological states of mind that lead to insanity and themes such as suicide, poverty, and morality in his writing. He had immense influence on 20th-century fiction. Dostoyevsky is best known for his novella Notes from the Underground and for four long novels, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Possessed, and The Brothers Karamazov. 

pg. 11 — Turgenev
Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883) was a Russian novelist, poet, and playwright  and a part of the realist movement. He wrote realistic and positive portrayals of the Russian peasantry and more critical examinations of the Russian intelligentsia who were pushing the country into a new era. His major works include the short-story collection A Sportsman’s Sketches  and the novels Rudin, Home of the Gentry , On the Eve, and Fathers and Sons . 

pg. 11 — Leskov
Nikolai Leskov (1831-1895) was a Russian novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and journalist (sometimes writing under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky). He wrote mainly fiction and satirical fiction addressing societal issues, and is credited with creating a comprehensive picture of contemporary Russian society through his work. His major works include Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, The Cathedral Clergy, The Enchanted Wanderer, and The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea.

pg. 11 —  St. Gregory Palamas
A Byzantine Greek prominent theologian and ecclesiastical figure of the late Byzantine period.

pg. 11 — Pausanius
A Greek writer, traveler, and geographer who lived in the 2nd century A.D. during the the time of Roman emperors Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. He is best known for his Description of Greece in ten books: his first-hand account of sights of historical and cultural interest in the Peloponnese and central Greece.

pg. 11 — Pavlov
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian physiologist. He is best known for his work in classical conditioning; famously he trained a dog to salivate at a specific triggering sound, which had been previously associated with the sight of food. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1904 for his work on digestive secretions.

pg. 12 — “The War began”
This refers to World War II which began in 1939 and ended in1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries and directly caused an estimated 50–56 million civilian and soldier deaths, with an additional estimated 19–28 million deaths from war-related disease and famine. This event is framed as a toxic struggle between superpowers, not a war that will beneficially change the structure of society or benefit anyone besides those in power. Here we begin to see some of Ulitskaya's political commentary; the character Robert states "as regards winning, you and I will always be losers, whichever of those cannibals wins the war.... It is of no importance for us. In either case the human being is destroyed, private life is forfeit" (p.24). It is this war that also forced Sonechka to take refuge in Sverdlosk, and begin working in the library basement.

pg. 12 —  Sverdlovsk
Now known as Yekaterinburg, Russia. This city is located in Western Siberia along the banks of the Iset River.

pg. 12 — Robert Victorovich
Sonechka's husband. When he meets Sonechka he has just finished  five years in the labor camps. He is a free-spirited and well known artist, who is quite prolific, intellectual, and very popular in the creative community. Even during the difficult relocations his family undergoes during tumultuous times in Russia, he finds new mediums for artistic exploration. Unfortunately, he is often quite condescending and ultimately unfaithful to his wife, and seems to make artistic projects out of the women in his life, viewing them as things to change or capture. He also harbors a sort of indifference to Russian politics despite their impact on his life, perhaps because he sees himself as a sort of international citizen with much of his youth abroad in France, or because he recognizes the futility in worrying about the outcome of these large-scale events.

pg. 13 — Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) was a French philosopher of the French Renaissance. He achieved a sort of humanist revolution in philosophy, moving from a conception of philosophy as a theoretical science to the practice of free judgment. 

pg. 13 — Pascal
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, catholic theologian, and writer. He is best known for his contributions in the fields of fluid mechanics and pressure.

pg. 13 — Elsevier
The House of Elzevir was a Dutch family publishing house founded in 1580.