person
Ponimaev
also: Алеша, Alyosha, Alyoshechka
A drunken provincial-secretary clerk who loudly declares himself a 'liberal' refusing to sign the New Year's respects sheet for his superior, then instantly and abjectly capitulates once actually before him.
Reading notes
- The Liberal §3 the provincial secretary Ponimaev
Gubernskiy sekretar' ('provincial secretary'), one of the lowest ranks (13th class) in the Table of Ranks -- a minor clerk, which sharpens the joke of his grandiose talk of 'protest' and 'bondage.'