Query re russian usage

[Jules Levin]

I'm reading Kreutser Sonata with my advanced students.
Came across sentence:  ...skazal on i dostal papirosochnitsu i stal
zakurivat'.  The only possible meaning for the last verb in context seems to
be 'start to smoke'.  But I've always assumed (?? ...if not actually read
somewhere) that stat' "to begin" and the za- beginning verbs are mutually
exclusive, i.e., either stal kurit' or zakuril...      Or is this just an
example of the occasional Tolstoy infelicity...?
--Jules Levin


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University of California
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