[17] Arshin = 2·33 feet.
[18] Pet name for Alexandra.
[19] A light jacket worn in the hot weather.
[20] The name given to Ivan the Terrible’s lifeguards and executioners.
[21] Chinóvnik, Russian word for official.
[22] Ivan Milostivni, one of the innumerable saints of the Greek Church.
[23] The allusion is to the double eagle in the arms of Russia.
[24] Vobla is a kind of fish of the size of Prussian carp, and is caught in the Volga.
[25] Au revoir.
[26] Untranslatable pun on the two last syllables of svidánia; Dania means Denmark, Schvezia, Sweden.