"Stalin's Ghost"

[Emily Saunders]

For my senior seminar as an undergraduate I had to present a talk on  
the correspondence that took place between Pushkin and his friends.  I  
do not remember the name of the source book that I took most of my  
information from -- it was a collection of letters with editorial  
comments -- but the gist of the matter so far as I remember it was 1)  
Pushkin and Co. fully expected their letters to be published as  
literary works at some point; 2) it seemed to be in vogue to talk a  
lot and in detail about sex and bodily functions; and 3) there was a  
lot of "shagging" going on.  One letter in particular comes to mind,  
though I cannot remember the author, where the writer commented on  
visits from friend X, who mentioned where he had slept last night, and  
from Pushkin, who mentioned where he hadn't.  Perhaps if there was/is  
no actual diary to bring to an "artsy salon" it was this general  
content that Cruz Smith had in mind.

Emily Saunders


On Feb 22, 2008, at 3:00 PM, David Powelstock wrote:

> I have a guess: It's fiction, so he just made it up.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of mipco
> Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 5:51 PM
> To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
> Subject: [SEELANGS] "Stalin's Ghost"
>
> Martin Cruz Smith is well known for his novel "Gorky Park" and the  
> movie
> based on it.
> In his recent novel "Stalin's Ghost" published in 2007 on page 277  
> there is
> the paragraph:
>
> "One evening was devoted to Pushkin. It was a salon. Everyone  
> brought in
> their favorite verse. Very artsy. I brought Pushkin's diary. It had  
> all the
> women he shagged in intimate detail. The man could write."
>
> Who can guess what "Pushkin's diary" is he writing about?
>
> Michael Peltsman
> --
> M.I.P. Company
> P.O.B. 27484
> Minneapolis, Minnesota 55427 USA
> http://www.mipco.com
> mp at mipco.com
> phone:763-544-5915
>
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