concept
Szlachta
szlachta
also: шляхта, Polish gentry
The hereditary noble estate of the historic Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, encompassing a broad class from wealthy magnates down to landless petty gentry; the colonel invokes the szlachta's reputation for hospitality to explain why he was welcomed into Count Boyadlovsky's household despite the count's own absence.
Reading notes
- It Was She! §7 the szlachta are a hospitable people
Szlachta (шляхта) was the hereditary noble estate of the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ranging from great landed magnates to poor, landless petty gentry; by 1843 it had no formal political standing under Russian rule, but the term remained in ordinary use for the Polish gentry class, whose manor-house hospitality to a passing Russian officer is exactly what shelters the colonel here.