Excise Official

Reading notes

• Ferment of Minds §3 excise officer

  A local official responsible for collecting excise duties (chiefly on alcohol) -- a standard fixture of provincial Russian town life.

• The Only Remedy §33 excise official

  An akciznyi chinovnik, an official who collected excise duties (on alcohol, tobacco, and similar goods) in Imperial Russia, a post notorious in satirical writing for corruption and bribe-taking -- the brother-in-law's own past extortion scandal is the story's grim comic hinge.

• Ivanov §14 an excise official

  Renders "акцизный" -- an official who collected excise duties (chiefly on alcohol) in Imperial Russia. Kosykh's profession is barely mentioned again after the cast list; his entire character is instead built around his single, comic obsession with the card game vint (see the note at \S539) and his gossiping resentments, of which his ugly remark about Ivanov and "the Jewess" at \S747 is one instance.

• The Husband §6 акцизный

  The akciznyi (excise official) collected state duties on liquor, tobacco, and similar taxed goods -- a modest, often looked-down-upon civil-service post, associated in satirical writing with corruption, coarse manners, and heavy drinking, all traits Chekhov piles onto Shalikov from his first appearance.