concept
Convict Battalion
convict battalion
also: арестантские роты, arestantskiye roty
A penal labor unit in Imperial Russia to which convicted offenders were sentenced; the narrator reveals at the story's start (and confirms at its end) that he now serves in one, convicted for what he insists was only a dream.
Reading notes
- The Lady with the Little Dog §79 a convict battalion
A penal labor unit in Imperial Russia; Gurov reaches for it, along with the madhouse, as an image of a life with no escape.
- A Dream §9 convict battalions
Arestantskiye roty -- penal labor battalions to which those convicted of crimes were sentenced in Imperial Russia; the narrator's opening aside ("when I was not yet in the convict battalions") frames the whole story as told in retrospect, after his conviction.