Sazhen

Reading notes

• The Captain's Uniform §94 a sazhen

  A sazhen is a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of length, roughly 2.13 meters (about seven feet).

• Мужики §121 a fathom high

  The source's сажень, a traditional Russian unit of length equal to about seven feet (2.13 meters); rendered here as "fathom" rather than the corpus's more common "sazhen" because the sentence is figurative (a pillar of flame, not a measured distance) and "fathom" reads more naturally in English for a vivid height comparison.

• At the Wolf-Baiting §21 two sazhens

  The sazhen was a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of length, roughly 2.13 meters (about seven feet); "two sazhens" measures how little ground the wolf covered before the dogs brought it down.

• To the Chekhovs, 21 June 1890. Amur pod Pokrovskoy. §3 I've never been to China, but I saw it from three sazhens away

  A sazhen is a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of length equal to roughly 2.13 meters (about seven feet); "three sazhens" is Chekhov's comic exaggeration of how close the grounded steamer sits to the Chinese bank of the Amur, which here forms the Russo-Chinese border -- close enough, he jokes, to let him claim on returning home that he has technically "seen China" without ever setting foot in it.

• At Sea (a sailor's story) §22 sazhen

  A traditional Russian unit of length equal to about seven feet (2.13 meters), used here to measure the narrator's distance from the bed.

• The Fair §36 a square sazhen

  The sazhen, a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of length equal to roughly 2.13 meters; a piece of chintz one square sazhen in size stands in for the booth theater's entire curtain and wings.