Rossiya, Kama, Loreleya…: deciphering "obscure places" in Ossip Mandelstam's Voronezh "stanzas"

The main object of the study is the often discussed fragment of the verse "Stanzas" (1935) by O.Mandelstam: «И что лиловым гребнем Лорелеи садовник и палач наполнил свой досуг». In the article it is stated that the mentioned phrase "садовник и палач" (the gardener and the hangman) embodies Stalin, and that the word «свой» (his) is a "mask" for the virtual word «мой» (my). The semantic space of the colour concept «лиловый» (lilac) in Mandelstam's semantics is analyzed as well as some other "obscure places" in the verse "Stanzas".