office
Ensign (Praporshchik)
ensign
also: прапорщик, praporshchik
The lowest commissioned officer rank in the imperial Russian Table of Ranks, often held by reserve or retired officers of modest standing; the story's entire farce turns on a real 1884 reform that abolished the active-duty rank (promoting serving ensigns to second lieutenant) while leaving retired ensigns in bureaucratic limbo.
Reading notes
- They Abolished It! §1 retired ensign
Praporshchik (прапорщик): the lowest commissioned officer rank in the imperial Table of Ranks. The story is built on a real 1884 reform abolishing the active-duty rank and promoting serving ensigns to second lieutenant — which the story's characters, none of them well informed, garble into rumors of a much broader abolition of rank itself.