On a certain “balkanism” in Pushkin’s writings

The author of the paper attempts to give a historical commentary to the famous passage from “Eugene Onegin”, where one can read about a custom “of hospitable ancientry” — to entertain one’s visitors with jam during dinner time. The author traces a connection between the poet’s notice and the Balkan “ceremony of serving”, which was widely spread in Serbia and noticed by local antiquities scholars and memoirists. The paper raises up a question, whence the poet borrowed the information about such a custom. It is cleared out that the thorough studies of the Russian table ceremonial and the Russian everyday life keep silence on such a practice. The author puts forward a hypothesis that Pushkin could oversee the Balkan custom in the house of Jovan Riznich he visited during his Odessa exile. Pushkin was in love with Amalia Riznich and some of his poetical works were supposedly addressed to her. By referring to the Balkan custom in his verse novel, making this custom a part of the everyday life of Russian provincial landlords, Pushkin gave his beloved a secret sign. Thus the detail of everyday life turned out a part of an encoded intimate message.