concept
New Year Greeting Sheet
sign-in sheet
also: лист для расписывания
A 19th-century Russian office custom in which clerks and officials signed a communal sheet at the entrance on New Year's Day as a token of paying respects, often substituting for an in-person visit to superiors.
Reading notes
- The Liberal §13 the sheet of paper
The New Year's sign-in sheet kept at a superior's door, on which subordinates recorded their visit of respect in place of (or alongside) calling in person -- the custom the whole story turns on.
- New Year's Great Martyrs §16 Signed the book
A common shortcut within the visiting custom: rather than being received in person, a caller could simply sign a communal greeting sheet left at the entrance, registering the visit as paid without requiring the host's presence. Sinkleteev's repeated 'signed there' marks the calls he managed to abbreviate -- though evidently not enough of them, since most of his stops involve full hospitality, food, and drink.
- Something Lived Through §3 sign the sheet
A 19th-century Russian office custom: on New Year's Day, clerks and officials signed a communal sheet at the entrance as a form of paying respects, often in lieu of visiting superiors in person.