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Explaining the sources for the name, Weisenburger cites Theodore von Kármán (''The Wind and Beyond''. Boston: Little, 1967), and David Seed ("Pynchon's Two Tchitcherines", ''Pynchon Notes'' 5:11-12). Kármán writes the following: "Frank Tchitcherine was of Russian origin, and in fact had been related to the first minister of education in the Kerensky government. This Tchitcherine helped convince the Germans to disclose their hiding place for literally tons on research documents pertaining to the rocket and supersonic flight." It seems that Von Kármán was wrong about both the date and the function. There was only one Chicherin on the Russian political scene at that time. Kerensky's minister of education was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Manuilov A. A. Manuilov], who was in no position to convince the Germans about anything as the two nations were at war while the Kerensky government was in office. (In fact, German rocket research began in earnest only after 1929, when Hermann Oberth published ''Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen''.) On the other hand, Georgy Chicherin, an aristocrat by birth and a lover of German culture, was an ideal diplomatic partner for German foreign ministers Von Brockdorff-Rantzau, Rathenau, and Stresemann.

"Vaslav" is obviously taken from Nijinsky's first name. There is no such Russian name as Vaslav. Originally it was Vatslav but the affricate [ts] was smoothed to [s], perhaps because it was easier for the French to pronounce.

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