Order of St. Anna

Reading notes

• Anna on the Neck §10 the Order of St. Anna, second class

  The story's title and central irony turn on this decoration. The Order of St. Anna was an imperial Russian order of merit awarded to civil and military officials; its lower grades, including the second class referenced here, were worn as a cross on a ribbon around the neck. Because the saint's name, Anna, is also an ordinary woman's name (and the heroine's own name), Modest Alexeich's superior can joke that a man decorated with the order while married to a quarrelsome wife named Anna has 'three Annas: one in the buttonhole, two on the neck' -- one worn as a medal, one worn, in effect, as a spouse. The whole story replays this pun literally: Modest Alexeich ends the story having acquired both the Anna, second class, and, functionally, a second decorative 'Anna' in his transformed wife. See the headnote for the full account of the title pun.

• Pictures from the Recent Past §3 an Anna

  The Order of St. Anna, here worn at the neck (a mid grade of the decoration), signals a civil or military rank of modest but genuine standing -- exactly the kind of respectable cover Rykov's bank needed among its favored clients.

• The Cross §5 Anna

  The Order of St. Anna, another common imperial Russian decoration of modest rank, offered here as the host's second guess.

• My Ranks and Titles §8 Anna

  The Order of St. Anna, an imperial Russian decoration; its second-class version was worn on a ribbon round the neck ('Anna on the neck'), the phrase the narrator puns into a literal disagreeable woman.

• Both Better §47 he has the Anna order

  Wearing the Order of St. Anna in a photograph signals the vicar's (the uncle's more respectable relative's) modest official distinction, contrasted with Pupkin's own squalor.

• The Decoration §23 an Anna entire

  The Order of St. Anna, a step above the Stanislaus in prestige -- Tramblyan's own borrowed decoration, whose reveal turns mutual disgrace into mutual relief.

• St. Peter's Day §6 an Order of St. Anna at his neck

  The Order of St. Anna was an imperial Russian order of chivalry awarded for civil and military service; worn 'at the neck' (rather than as a lesser breast decoration) signaled a mid-level grade of distinction, fitting the pompous retired general.

• A Woman's Happiness §8 Анну первой степени

  The Order of St. Anna, 1st Class, was one of the Russian Empire's state honors, awarded chiefly for distinguished civil or military service -- cited here to underline the absurdity, in Probkin's telling, that a decorated general can be reduced to a scolded husband by his own wife.