‘Plainspoken about Jew and Gentile’: Vladimir Nabokov, the legacy of Russian liberalism, and the Jewish question

ABSTRACT Vladimir Nabokov modelled his moral and political values on those of his father, V. D. Nabokov, especially revering his defence of Russian Jewry. This paper attempts to clarify broad-brushstrokes accounts of V. D. Nabokov, demonstrating how his ambivalent approach to the ‘Jewish Question’ evolved as a result of his Russian liberalism. Using contemporary accounts and revisiting primary sources, this challenges the hagiographic legacy built by his son and critics. In turn, this allows for a more refined understanding of Vladimir Nabokov’s literary engagement with the ‘Jewish theme’, his sacred relationship with his father, and the limitations of inherited liberalism.