“Hurrah for Karamazov!” Kolya proclaimed ecstatically.
“And memory eternal for the dead boy!” Alyosha added again, with feeling.
“Memory eternal!” the boys again joined in.
“Karamazov!” cried Kolya, “can it really be true as religion says, that we shall all rise from the dead, and come to life, and see one another again, and everyone, and Ilyushechka?”
“Certainly we shall rise, certainly we shall see and gladly, joyfully tell one another all that has been,” Alyosha replied, half laughing, half in ecstasy.
“Ah, how good that will be!” burst from Kolya.
“Well, and now let’s end our speeches and go to his memorial dinner. Don’t be disturbed that we’ll be eating pancakes. It’s an ancient, eternal thing, and there’s good in that, too,” laughed Alyosha. “Well, let’s go! And we go like this now, hand in hand.”
“And eternally so, all our lives hand in hand! Hurrah for Karamazov!” Kolya cried once more ecstatically, and once more all the boys joined in his exclamation.
NOTES
Biblical references, unless otherwise noted, are to the King James Version. Parenthetical references are to Victor Terras, A Karamazov Companion: Commentary on the Genesis, Language, and Style of Dostoevsky’s Novel (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981). The Brothers Karamazov is abbreviated B.K. and sections are identified by part, book, and chapter numbers: for example, 1.3.2 signifies part 1, book 3, chapter 2.
Dedication
Anna Grigorievna Dostoevsky, née Snitkin (1846-1918), was Dostoevsky’s second wife.
[1]the chafings of a mind imprisoned: quotation from Mikhail Lermontov’s poem “Do not, do not believe yourself . . “(1839).
[2]Nowlettest thou ...: from the prayer of St. Simeon (Luke 2:29), read at Vespers in the Orthodox Church.
[3]Proudhon and Bakunin: Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-65), French philosopher, a principal socialist theorist. Mikhail Bakunin (1814-76), Russian radical activist, a leader of the First International, later a major theorist of anarchism.
[4]February revolution . . .: the three-day revolution in 1848 that ended the reign of Louis-Philippe and proclaimed the Second Republic.
[5]souls: before the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, Russian estates were evaluated according to the number of “souls,” or adult male serfs, living on them.
[6] provincial marshal of nobility: the highest elective office in a province, before the reforms of the 1860s. Governors and administrators were appointed by the tsar.
[7]ecclesiastical courts: courts exercising canon law rather than civil law. The Judicial Reform Act of 1864 raised the question of their continued existence, which was much debated in the press, by Dostoevsky among others.
[8] lover of mankind: an epithet for Christ in many Orthodox prayers and liturgical exclamations.
[9]holy fools: a “holy fool” (or “fool in God,” or “fool for Christ”—yurodivyi in Russian) could be a harmless village idiot (cf. “Stinking Lizaveta,” B.K. 1.3.2), but there are also saintly persons or ascetics whose saintliness is expressed as “folly.” Holy fools of this sort were known early in Orthodox tradition. The term reappears several times in B.K., notably in reference to Alyosha.
[10]Il faudrait les inventer. “They would have to be invented.” A variation of Voltaire’s Si Dieu n’existait pas, il faudrait l’inventer (“If God did not exist, he would have to be invented”).
[11]J’ai vu . . .: “I saw the shade of a coachman scrubbing the shade of a carriage with the shade of a brush.” A popular quotation from a seventeenth-century French parody of the Aeneid (book 6, the descent to the underworld) by Charles Perrault and others.
[12]Apostle Thomas: John 20:24-29.
[13] Tower of Babel: Genesis 11:1-9.
[14]Ifthou wilt be perfect. . .: see Matthew 19:21, Mark 10:21, Luke 18:22.
[15]Sinaiand Athos: the monastery of St. Catherine in the Sinai and the many monasteries on Mt. Athos in Greece, both ancient and still active Orthodox monastic centers.
[16]Tartar yoke: the period of Tartar domination of Russia (1237-1480), the Tartars, or Tatars, who invaded Russia from Central Asia, were of Turkish and Mongol origin.
[17]the fall of Constantinople: Constantinople (Istanbul), capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and ecclesiastical center of Orthodoxy, fell to the Turks in 1453.
[18]PaissyVelichkovsfey: (1722-94), “the father of the Russian elders” (G. P. Fedotov, The Russian Religious Mind [Belmont, Mass , 1975], 2:394), canonized by the Russian Church in 1988. Dostoevsky owned a copy of the 1854 edition of his translation of the homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian, a seventh-century monk; the book is mentioned twice in B.K. St. Isaac, whose spiritual influence has been very great, seems also to have influenced Dostoevsky’s elder Zosima, particularly in his reflections on hell and divine love (see Terras, pp. 22-23).
[19]Kozelskaya-Optina: pilgrims of all classes visited this celebrated hermitage, among them Dostoevsky, who drew from it a number of details for the monastery in : B. The elder Zosima is thought to be modeled in part on the elder Amvrosy of Optina (1812-91), canonized by the Russian Church in 1988, six months after the hermitage was restored to the Church by the Soviet authorities.
[20]All catechumens, depart: an exclamation that occurs at a certain point in the Orthodox liturgy. A catechumen is a person preparing for baptism, hence not yet “in” the Church The catechumens are asked to depart, only the “faithful” remaining for the Eucharist. This monk, by his disobedience, made himself “unfaithful”—hence his departure.
[21]EcumenicalPatriarch: title of the Patriarch of Constantinople, the highest administrative authority of the Greek Orthodox Church and its exarchies.
[22]Whomade me ...: see Luke 12:14.
[23]Un chevalier parfait: “A perfect knight.”
[24]von Sohn: victim of an actual murder case in Petersburg in 1870.
[25]WheninRome ...: a substitute for the Russian saying Fyodor Pavlovich actually uses: “Don’t take your ordo | monastic rule ] to another monastery,” which is more apropos.
[26]hieromonks: a hieromonk is a monk who is also a priest.
[27]schism: the reforms of the patriarch Nikon (1605-81) caused a split, or “schism,” in the Russian Orthodox Church, the “Old Believers” refusing to accept his changes.
[28]punctuality . . .: a popular saying in Russia, attributed to Louis XVIII.
[29]Napravnik: E F. Napravnik (1839-1916), Russian composer, first Kapellmeister, or director, of the Mariinsky (now Kirov) Theater, the imperial opera and ballet theater in Petersburg.
[30]Diderot: Denis Diderot (1713-84), French philosopher and writer, founder of the Encyclopédie, an atheist and materialist. He was invited to Russia in 1733 by the empress Catherine the Great (1729-96) and spent five months there.
[31]Metropolitan Platon: (1737-1812), bishop of the “metropolis” of Moscow, a famous preacher and Church activist.