- Nabokov now begins to write about his mother's side of the family, the Rukavishnikovs, who are less political than his father's.
- There are certain ancestors Nabokov feels extra-proud of, including a pathologist (think: Dr. House from House), and a young explorer.
- Nabokov feels a connection with the well-published pathologist, since he, too, published scientific papers.
- Before Nabokov became a capital "W" writer, he was an acclaimed scientist, who published papers like "Notes on Neotropical Plebejinae" and "A New Species of Cyclargus Nabokov." (Feeling lost? Here's a tip: they're about butterflies.)
- Eventually Nabokov stopped writing science and turned all of his attention to his novel Lolita, who he says was "a painful birth, a difficult baby." (3.3.1)
- The Rukavishnikov crest is less flashy than the Nabokov one: it's a small furnace.
- The crest is a gesture to the industry of the ancestral folks: they were ore miners. (FYI, Ore = mineral compounds that include precious metals like gold.)
- The Rukavishnikov grandparents both died of cancer when Nabokov was two years old.
- The pair had eight children, five of which died as infants, and one of whom died before Vladimir was born. (Remember Uncle Ruka? He's the only one who lived long enough to be an adult, besides Vlad's mom.)
- His maternal grandfather was a bit of a hothead, and a hunter, whose prized taxidermist bears were used by young Vladimir to measure his height, (getting nearer and nearer to the bears' claws as he grew.)
- Vladimir's mother had a happy childhood, particularly when she got to travel with her aunt in Crimea, a coastal region of Russia, where her aunt met a young Anton Chekhov. (Need a name check in Aisle Here? Learn more about this super-famous Russian writer here.)
- Uncle Ruka was a diplomat but didn't take it too seriously.
- Nabokov explains that the two were close when he was a young boy, but as he grew, it seemed like Uncle Ruka had less and less use for him, until finally, on his fifteenth birthday, Uncle Ruka tells Vladimir he will be his heir. "Je n'ai plus rien à vous dire," he says, or: I have nothing else to say to you. (3.3.5)
- Uncle Ruka wasn't much in Vladimir's life, only swinging by Rozhestveno a month or so in the summer before returning to whatever European city he then called home.
- He traveled a lot, and would bring young Vladimir all manner of trinkets.
- Once, coming back from America, Uncle Ruka brings Vladimir books, including those in a series called Buster Brown. Buster Brown misbehaves and gets spanked, punishment totally foreign to Vladimir. To him, spanking looks like "strange, exotic torture." (3.3.7)