AtDtDA(28): They Gathered in the Wardroom and Worried Together

[Dave Monroe]

"They gathered in the wardroom and worried together, in shifts." (AtD,
Pt. IV, pp. 780-1)


zastolye
Russian: group of regulars.

Khuy
Impolite Russian: cock!

Bezumyoff
The name derives from Russian bezumets: madman.

vseznaǐka
Russian: as translated in text. In keeping with the sources he must
have used—many of them contemporary—Pynchon applies a bewildering
assortment of rules in transliterating Russian words.

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_768-791#Page_780


"potentially a hole in the Earth"

 "Was the Tungus Event due to a Black Hole?" Nature, vol. 245,
September 14, 1973, pp. 88-89.

In 1973, Albert A. Jackson and Michael P. Ryan, physicists at the
University of Texas, proposed that the Tunguska event was caused by a
"small" (around 1020 g to 1022 g) black hole passing through the
Earth. This hypothesis fails, as there was no so-called "exit event" —
a second explosion occurring as the black hole, having tunneled
through the Earth, shot out the other side on its way back into space
- nor were there the continuous seismic disturbances that would occur
along the hole's path through the mantle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event#Black_hole

... when all's said and done, there aren't but two really solid
objections to the Jackson-Ryan hypothesis — the theory that it was a
tiny black hole hit the earth that summer morning in June 1908. And
neither of those objections is exactly what you'd call proof positive
that Jackson-Ryan's got to be wrong. Instead, they're both negative
arguments, focused on two things that should have been observed if Al
and Mike were right. Should have been, but weren't.

Those two things are thermal/seismic effects and an "exit event."

http://www.vurdalak.com/


"directly between St. Petersburg"

According to the Guinness Book of World Records (1966 edition), if the
collision had occurred 4 hours 47 minutes later, it would have wiped
out St. Petersburg, the starting point of the Bolshevik revolution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event#Description


"mystical intrigue at Tsarskoe Selo"

Tsarskoye Selo (Russian: Ца́рское Село́; may be translated as "Tsar's
Village") is a former Russian residence of the imperial family and
visiting nobility 24 versts (km) south from the center of St.
Petersburg....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsarskoe_Selo

http://www.virtualpushkin.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=27&lang=eng

Last days at Tsarskoe Selo, being the personal notes and memories of
Count Paul Benckendorff; telling of the last sojourn of the Emperor &
Empress of Russia at Tsarskoe Selo from March 1 to August 1, 1917

http://www.alexanderpalace.org/2006lastdays/

He was brought by the Grand Duchess who was a frequent visitor at
Tsarskoe Selo. They went to the nursery quarters where the Tsar and
Tsaritsa were waiting. As was his peasant custom Rasputin vigorously
embraced and kissed them both.

He then knelt and prayed at the sacred icons in the corner of the
room. Then he went to the child's bed and made the sign of the cross
over him. The feverish child who had suffered in pain many days woke
up and looked at the stranger who began telling him that nothing would
hurt him anymore and he continued rubbing his hands over the boy's
body from head to toe.

Miraculously the child recovered and Father Grigori came repeatedly
telling him stories of life in Siberia. The boy came to call him
little Father. He had asked his governess who the strange man was, and
she who was in a dreamy state answered, "A holy man who will make you
well again. God Himself sent him to your papa and mama." ...

http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/r/Rasputin.html


"stones falling from the sky"

After that such noise came, as if rocks were falling or cannons were
firing, the earth shook, and when I was on the ground, I pressed my
head down, fearing rocks would smash it....

[...]

... a loud knocking (not thunder) was heard, as if large stones were
falling, or artillery was fired....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event#Selected_eyewitness_reports


"the Bol'shaia Igra's own traditional specialty"

"... Padzhitnoff's own specialty being to arrange for bricks and
masonry, always in the four-block fragments which had become his
'signature,' to fall on and damage targets designated by his
superiors." (Pt. I, p. 123)

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_119-148#Page_123


"'Ouspenskian!'"

Ouspenskian nonsense
Russian philosopher P.D. Ouspensky was a disciple of George Ivanovitch
Gurdjieff (c.1872-1949), the Greco-Armenian mystic and philosopher who
founded an influential quasi-religious movement (Fusion guitarist
Robert Fripp is a modern disciple of Gurdjieff's). Gurdjieff's
asserted that human life as ordinarily lived is similar to sleep and,
if one is willing to work to transcend the sleeping state, one could
reach remarkably high levels of vitality and awareness. Ouspensky
mediated Gurdjieff's teachings and Western readers; 77

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/alpha/o.html
http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=O


"'Bolshevik!'"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolshevik
http://www.marxists.org/glossary/orgs/b/o.htm
http://www.marxists.org/subject/bolsheviks/index.htm
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Bolshevik
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSbolsheviks.htm


"a collective amnesia"

Dissociative Amnesia ( Fugue)

Dissociative Amnesia - formerly Psychogenic Amnesia, is a pervasive
loss of memory of significant personal information. This disorder is
characterized by a blocking out of critical personal information.
Dissociative amnesia, unlike other types of amnesia, does not result
from other medical trauma, such as a blow to the head. The predominant
disturbance is one or more episodes of inability to recall important
personal information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature, that
is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness....

http://www.psychnet-uk.com/dsm_iv/dissociative_amnesia.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogenic_amnesia


"a capacitance effect"

A capacitor is an electrical/electronic device that can store energy
in the electric field between a pair of conductors (called "plates").
The process of storing energy in the capacitor is known as "charging",
and involves electric charges of equal magnitude, but opposite
polarity, building up on each plate.

Capacitors are often used in electrical circuit and electronic
circuits as energy-storage devices. They can also be used to
differentiate between high-frequency and low-frequency signals. This
property makes them useful in electronic filters....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/capacitor.htm
http://www.lightandmatter.com/html_books/4em/ch07/ch07.html


Nichevo

Russian: nothing

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_768-791#Page_782