concept
Provizor
dispensing chemist
also: провизор
The senior pharmacist-in-charge of a Russian chemist's shop, licensed to compound prescriptions; in "At the Chemist's" his starched, unhurried, Latin-and-German-muttering manner -- reading his newspaper to the last full stop before attending a sick customer -- embodies the story's satire of institutional indifference behind a mask of professional ceremony.
Reading notes
- The Chemist's Wife §2 провизор
Chernomordik is a provizor, the licensed dispensing pharmacist and proprietor of the B. chemist's shop -- the same trade term (and social type) explored more directly in the companion story "At the Chemist's" (v-apteke).