Provincial Secretary

Reading notes

• On the Nail §1 provincial secretaries

  The twelfth rank in the Table of Ranks, one step above a collegiate registrar -- still a minor clerkship, not a genuine promotion.

• A Story Hard to Give a Title To §2 provincial secretary

  The twelfth of fourteen ranks in Peter the Great's Table of Ranks -- a minor, low civil-service grade, making Ottyagaev's grandiose self-comparison to Renan and Spinoza absurd.

• The Tutor §6 provincial secretary

  The twelfth (second-lowest) rank in Imperial Russia's civil-service Table of Ranks -- Udodov is a retired minor clerk, which underlines both his blustering self-importance and his inability to pay Ziberov.

• Vint §85 a three, seeing as I'm a provincial secretary

  Provincial Secretary (gubernsky sekretar), class XII in the Table of Ranks -- one of the lowest grades, reduced here to a lowly three.