находиться на пансионе, to board (to be provided with regular meals, services, lodgings).
Данилевский, Grigory Petrovich Danilevsky (182^-1890), Russian and Ukrainian writer, author of popular historical novels (Princess Tarakanova, Burnt-Out Moscow, etc.).
Фонвизин, Denis Ivanovich Fonvisin (1745–1792), Russian writer, author of the comedies The Dunce and The Brigadier.
Щепкин, Mikhail Semyonovich Shchepkin (1788–1863), Russian actor, one of the founders of Realism on the Russian stage. He played with great success in Gogol’s comedies and was on friendly terms with him.
инспектор, here hist.: schoolmaster in a public school. He supervised his pupils’ daily life, tuition, etc.
Chapter 2
форейтор (hist.; Ger. Vorreiter), postilion, one who rides as a guide on a horse attached to a coach.
плошка, a primitive lamp, a vessel with oil and a wick.
департамент (hist.), department of a ministry in pre-revolutionary Russia.
коллегии (hist.), here, a state institution. In the 18th and early 19th centuries the collegia were higher executive bodies in charge of different administrative branches. They were abolished in favour of ministries, but the Foreign Affairs Collegium continued to exist until 1832.
Полевой, Nikolai Alexeyevich Polevoi (1796–1846), Russian journalist, writer and historian, publisher of Moskovsky telegraf (Moscow Telegraph) — one of the finest Russian magazines. Polevoi is the author of the many-volumed History of the Russian People, several long stories, novels and plays.
Опекунский совет (hist.), Custody Board in charge of orphanages, which also engaged in savings-bank activities.
инспектор русской труппы (hist.), official who supervised the repertory of the Imperial Theatre’s Russian company of actors (along with a Russian company, St. Petersburg also had a French company).
без нарочитого педалирования, without special emphasis.
столоначальник (arch.), head of a department.
"Отечественные записки", Annals of Our Country, a progressive journal published in St. Petersburg in 1839-84. V. Belinsky was head of the journal’s criticism section in 1839-46.
малороссийский, Ukrainian; before the Revolution, the Ukraine was also known as Malorossia.
Жуковский, Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky (1783–1852), Russian poet, author of the romantic ballads Lyudmila, Svetlana, and other works. He was also a renowned translator of poetry into Russian.
Плетнёв, Pyotr Alexandrovich Pletnyov (1792–1865), Russian poet, critic and journalist, editor of the journal Sovremennik (The Contemporary).