THEATRES AND BALLS November 1840   With winter came short days and frosty nights. Endless evenings by the stoves that enlivened their children’s games and conversations with the cheerful heat and crackling birch firewood. There were sleigh rides on the frozen Volga and endless laughter between lessons in the morning when they were allowed to have snowball fights and ride in a sled around the yard. The grownups no longer participated in these noisy games. There was no greater fun,... Read more

HISTORY OF BELYANKA Late Winter 1840   Vera quietly opened the door to peek inside. If Baba Lena raised her head from behind her desk littered with papers, lined with many plants and bouquets, and, smiling tenderly, looked at Vera from behind the mass of fresh flowers, she would walk in boldly and sit closer to her. If Baba Lena did not notice Vera’s arrival or, even worse, when she saw Vera and remained serious with concerned eyebrows; then Vera... Read more

NEW WINTER Late Winter 1840   “Wake up, girls! It is snowing!” said Nanny Nastya. “Quickly, now. Let’s go sledding!” “Really Nanny?” said Vera, joyfully. “But how? There was so much mud yesterday?” “Well, yes,” said Baba Lena, walking out of her office. “Yesterday there was mud, and at night the wind blew, drove up snow clouds, frost gripped the ground, and by morning everything was covered with snow.” She always got up at 6 a.m., summer or winter. “Look... Read more

LEONID June 1840 It was midsummer and the grove had darkened. The violets, lilies, and lilacs faded. So, too, did the linden trees and multi-colored wild roses. One day after dinner, Aunt Nadya, Lelya, and Vera sat alone in the living room when they heard some kind of commotion in the house. The girls, trying not to make a sound, tip-toed out of the room, closing the doors tightly behind them. The maids were running around to all the rooms,... Read more

THE WARLIKE PARTRIDGE Summer 1840.   Baba Lena had large collections of all kinds of insects. Her office housed wonderful collections full of various animals and birds, antiquities, coins, fossils, and all kinds of rarities. Many learned people were in correspondence with her, and deliberately came from afar to meet her and see her office.[1] She would pin butterflies and beetles in rows in glass boxes with inscriptions above each of them. To add specimens to Baba Lena’s impressive entomological... Read more

MIKHAIL IVANOVICH Summer 1840.   Nanny Nastya was not entirely healthy at the beginning of summer, therefore a young maid named Parasha was temporarily assigned to Vera for games and walks. One morning they were playing “little towns” in the front garden. Parasha broke branches of white and purple lilacs and made little alleys by sticking them into the ground. They built houses from wood chips and pegs; ponds and wells were made from pieces of glass covered with earth,... Read more

THE MELON POND Spring 1840.   Lelya invited the children to go melon planting near a distant pond where they had yet to explore. This was not the pond in the grove of the “large dacha,” but one that was much closer. After breakfast, they set off straight through the melon patch, where watermelons and yellow kalminki ripened on the dug-up soil and warmed by the sun. There were scarecrows placed in all corners, but flocks of sparrows, unafraid, flew... Read more

THE DACHA Spring 1840.   When real spring arrived, Baba Lena removed the double glazing from the windows. She placed flowers on the balconies and on slides in front of the windows of the living room and sofa room. The warm sun shined cheerfully in the sky, The wide Volga overflowed, flooding all the islets and riverbanks with blue waters. The sound of murmuring water mingled with the rumble of wheels and merry chatter from the streets. The alleys were... Read more

EASTER April 19, 1840   Everyone was still sleeping, exhausted from a sleepless night when Vera was awakened by the frequent, cheerful ringing of bells in all the city churches. Vera instantly remembered what Baba Lena had told her about her birthday, and she jumped up on her bed. Baba Lena always got up early and did not tolerate the shutter, therefore the sun shone brightly through the window, behind which sparrows chirped and pigeons cooed, walking importantly along the... Read more

PREPARATIONS FOR THE HOLIDAY April 18, 1840.   Easter Eggs played a very important part at this time of the year, as it was always customary at Easter, on greeting an acquaintance, to press an egg into their hand and give the Paschal Greeting, “Christos voskrese” (“He is risen!”) to which the other person replies, “Voistinu voskrese!” (Truly, He is risen!”) Then then exchanged three kisses (the “kiss of peace”) on alternating cheeks. Some eggs were painted in a variety... Read more