Tykanie (addressing with "thou")

Reading notes

• The Deputy, or the Tale of How Desdemonov Lost 25 Roubles §8 He addresses us like servants

  The Russian names the specific grievance more precisely: the superior "thou's" them (tykaet) rather than using the respectful "you" (vy) -- a deliberate, recognized mark of contempt in the Russian civil service, and the clerks' central complaint.

• Thou and You §42 You must say 'you' -- formally. You mustn't address me familiarly!

  This is the story's title joke and the whole reason for the scene. Russian has two second-person pronouns: the intimate/familiar "ty" (thou) and the formal/respectful "vy" (you), roughly like older French tu/vous or German du/Sie -- a distinction English lost centuries ago. Popikov here scolds Filaretov for addressing him with "ty," insisting on "vy" -- even though Popikov himself has used "ty" toward Filaretov in every line of the interrogation up to this point (and continues to afterward). The English translation can only render the demand itself, not the pronoun switch that makes the hypocrisy visible on the page in Russian; a reader of the original sees Popikov's own "ty" sitting right next to his complaint.