person
Mustafa
also: Мустафа
A twelve-year-old Tatar boy working as a footman at the restaurant, in tailcoat and white gloves; summoned by Frolov to be mocked with a pointed question about the Mongol-Tatar Yoke and Russia's later dominance, he defuses it with the rehearsed catchphrase "the turn of fate," which Frolov says is the sole reason he is kept on and tipped.
Reading notes
- Drunk §52 "The turn of fate!"
Превратность судьбы ("the turn/vicissitude of fate") is Mustafa's stock answer to Frolov's question about Tatar history, delivered "in a thin voice, in a sing-song tone" -- the cadence of a memorized performance piece rather than a spontaneous reply. Frolov confirms as much at loc 54, saying the boy "makes his fortune" off exactly these two words and "is kept here" for them alone; the moment stages, without commentary, a child's survival strategy of turning a demeaning question into a harmless-sounding catchphrase that satisfies his employer's guests.