person
Navagin
also: Действительный статский советник Навагин, the Active State Councillor Navagin, the general
An Active State Councillor (a senior 4th-rank civil official, addressed as "Your Excellency") who, finding an unexplained signature from a mysterious "Fedyukov" on his visitors' list every Christmas and Easter for thirteen years, is talked by his spiritualist wife into séances to summon the unknown man's spirit -- only to discover the truth is a vain, harmless local deacon.
Reading notes
- A Secret §1 Active State Councillor
"Действительный статский советник" was the 4th of the fourteen ranks in the Table of Ranks, equivalent to a major-general in the military ladder and addressed as "Your Excellency"; it marks Navagin as a senior civil official, which is part of the joke -- an eminent, self-important man reduced to obsessing for weeks over an anonymous signature.