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Digest of Laws, Volume X
Volume X of the Digest of Laws
also: Свод законов, том X, Svod zakonov, X tom
The tenth volume of the Svod zakonov, the codified body of imperial Russian law, containing the civil code; invoked here for comic pomposity by a man doing nothing more legal than drinking his host's beer.
Reading notes
- My Ranks and Titles §5 Volume X of the Digest of Laws
Svod zakonov, the codified body of imperial Russian law; Volume X held the civil laws. Invoking 'every article' while drinking someone else's beer mocks legalistic pomposity with no legal substance behind it.
- Drowsy Stupor §5 Своде законов / Digest of Laws
The Свод законов Российской империи (Digest/Code of Laws of the Russian Empire), compiled under Mikhail Speransky and first issued in 1832, was the standing systematic compilation of imperial statute -- exactly the kind of dry legal volume a lawyer would keep on his desk, and so an apt object for his small son to raid for pictures. (Chekhov elsewhere invokes it, per this corpus's own entity for the code, for comic pomposity; here the joke runs the other way, as a toddler mines it for horse-and-house doodles.)