concept
Shoulder-boards (Pogony)
shoulder-boards
also: погоны, pogony
The rank insignia worn on the shoulders of a Russian military or civil-service uniform; a genuine 1884 reform stripped shoulder-boards from certain civil ranks, and the story's characters mistake this narrower change for a sweeping abolition of rank itself.
Reading notes
- They Abolished It! §7 shoulder-boards
Pogony: the insignia worn on the shoulders of a Russian uniform, denoting rank. A 1884 order removed shoulder-boards from certain civilian officials' dress — the narrow, mundane fact that Katavasov's gossip inflates into an apparent purge of rank altogether.