Translating Kapitanskaya dochka: bowing to the ground

[Robert Chandler]

Dear all,

Does everyone agree that Masha’s forehead touches the ground when she says
farewell to her father in the following lines?      Маша, бледная и
трепещущая, подошла к Ивану Кузмичу, стала  на колени и
поклонилась  ему  в землю.  Старый комендант  перекрестил  ее  трижды; потом
поднял  и,  поцаловав, сказал  ей  изменившимся голосом:  "Ну,  Маша,  будь
счастлива. Молись богу: он  тебя не оставит.

I also have a more general question.  I keep stumbling over words like
‘zhiteli’, ‘narod’, ‘ploshchad’’, ‘ulitsy’.  The problem is that I do not
have a clear enough mental image of Belogorskaya krepost’ .  Above all I
have no idea of the size of the civilian population.  Some previous
translators translate ‘zhiteli’ as ‘townspeople’.  This would be convenient,
but it makes Belogorsk seem bigger than I had imagined.

These are questions that one tends not to think about unless one is
translating something and has to make choices between one word and another.
Has anyone come across anything I might find helpful about this kind of
background detail? 

Best Wishes,

Robert

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