1. Minin and Pozharsky were Russian military heroes of the seventeenth century. There is a statue of them in Red Square, and Pozharsky’s outstretched arm and hand are enormous.
2. The full Latin phrase is Caveant consules ne quid detrimenti respublica capiat, meaning ‘Let the consuls take care that the republic is not harmed.’
3. ‘I’ll take the blame! I’ll take all the blame!’
4. ‘under my own steam’.
5. ‘Willing or not’.