"crystal palace"

[calbert at tiac.net]

Kevin:

> > The one Dostoevsky refers to is likely the one built for Catherine
> > in ice......
> 
> Huh, I'd never heard of that.  When did they do that?

My Billington is buried deep in the garage, but I recall there being a 
mandate from Catherine the Great to build an Ice Palace to 
commemorate some, probably imagined, great moment in Russian 
history. If I remember the story correctly, I think Catherine made 
one of her "out of favor" paramours endure some humiliation on a 
"crystal" mattress.

> P & V have a footnote here:
> 
>  "...an allusion to...the Novel _What is to Be Done?_ (1863) by
>  Chernyshevsky, one of D.'s main ideological enemies and the target
>  of much of the satire in _Notes_.  C.'s thought combined the
>  humanitarian socialism of the 1840s with the utilitarianism of the
>  60s....

What is to be Done? (Shto Shluchilos?) is regarded by most 
russians as the poster work of bad fiction wedded to naive politics. 
Chernishevsky is a favorite butt of jokes in language, lit, and history 
classes.....His May Day pin was once the pride of my collection.....


love,
cfa