office
Starosta (village elder)
starosta
also: староста
The elected village elder responsible for keeping the commune's tax and arrears records; Denis Grigoryev accuses the unnamed starosta of falsifying the tally of his household's debts and urges the magistrate to check with the district's permanent member instead of trusting him.
Reading notes
- The Restless Guest §9 Старосты
A starosta is a village elder or headman, elected by the peasant commune to represent it in dealings with landowners and officials and to keep order locally -- identifying the hunter as the son of a man of some local standing.
- The Man in a Case §2 village elder
The elected head of a Russian village commune, responsible to the local authorities for its administration -- Prokofy's post here.
- Gooseberries §3 village elder
The elected head of a Russian peasant village commune, responsible for keeping local order and the commune's records; Ivan Ivanych recalls having sheltered from bad weather in this official's shed on an earlier walk.
- Мужики §193 The headman, Antip Sedelnikov
The starosta was the village elder, elected by the peasant commune to keep its tax and arrears records and represent it in dealings with officials and landowners. Antip's youth, poverty, and own irregular tax payments are pointedly at odds with the zeal for authority the office lets him exercise over his neighbors.
- The Malefactor §56 starosta
The starosta was the elected village elder responsible for keeping the commune's tax and arrears (недоимка) records. In the Russian text Denis first raises the starosta's dishonest tally-keeping at section 54 and names his brothers at section 56; this translation compresses/shifts that material so the starosta only appears in English at section 56 ('as for the starosta lying in the tally, that I'd swear to').