person
Yegor Fyodorych Shmakhin
Shmakhin
also: Егор Федорыч Шмахин, Шмахин
The bored, idle chairman of a district council and landowner, marooned on his flooded estate with nothing to do -- the protagonist of "Hopeless (A Sketch)," whose petty rages and aimless pastimes embody provincial gentry ennui.
Reading notes
- Hopeless (A Sketch) §2 chairman of the district council
The zemstvo (district council) was Russia's post-1864 body of local self-government, elected mainly from among the landed gentry; its salaried chairman, as here, was typically a minor local squire with a great deal of idle time.