figure
Lazar Isakich
also: Лазарь Исакич, арендатора
A Jewish tenant-farmer (arendator) on Kamyshev's estate, invoked by Kamyshev as an example of someone who supposedly does not take offense at the antisemitic abuse and slurs habitually directed at him -- a detail the story presents without endorsing, as evidence of Kamyshev's casual cruelty and the precarity of the tenant's position.
Reading notes
- In a Foreign Land §37 a kike and a mangy cur... his sidelocks
This line contains casual antisemitic slurs and abuse (Russian "жидом," "пархом") directed by Kamyshev at his Jewish tenant-farmer, and a reference to payes/sidelocks, the traditional uncut temple curls worn by observant Jewish men, which Kamyshev treats as an object of mockery to grab at. The story does not endorse this abuse -- Champagne's retort in the next line ("But he's a slave!") registers it as degrading -- but Chekhov gives it undisguised voice through Kamyshev's own words, reflecting casual antisemitism common in the era's Russian gentry milieu. This edition renders the slurs directly rather than softening them, so the reader can see plainly what the story is depicting.
- In a Foreign Land §37 tenant-farmer
Translates "арендатор" (arendator), a person who leases and works agricultural land from its owner -- Lazar Isakich's economic dependence on Kamyshev, spelled out here, is the story's implicit explanation (via Champagne's objection in the next line) for why he cannot afford to protest the abuse.