... etot staryi obychai kruzheniia ...

[Tatyana Buzina]

Hello,
I am not a great expert on the church wedding ceremony, but Stiva might refer to the part of the wedding which includes going round the "analoi," which is, if we are to believe Multitran, is translated into English as prie-dieu or lectern. To quote an example from Konek-Gorbunok, when Ershov describes the wedding, it goes as follows:

I s nevestoi molodoiu
On obkhodit vkrug naloiu.

Other than that, I don't believe the church would encourage a lot of other kinds of kruzhenie :). 

regards,
Tatyana

>In connection with Anna Karenina's pending divorce (Part 7, Ch. 9), Stiva 
>Oblonsky tells Levin that right after it is finalized, Anna will marry 
>Vronsky. He adds: "Kak eto glupo, etot staryi obraz kruzheniia, "Isaiia 
>likui", v kotoryi nikto ne verit i kotoryi meshaet shchast'iu liudei!"
>After consulting dictionaries, translations, and a native speaker, I still 
>have no clear answer as to the meaning of "kruzhenie", only that it is 
>some kind of habit or activity related to the wedding ceremony.
>I should be very grateful if someone could help clarifying it further.
>
>Best,
>
>Karin Larsen 
>
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-- 
Tatyana V. Buzina,
Associate Professor, Chair,
Dpt. of European Languages,
Institute for Linguistics,
Russian State U for the Humanities

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