Lieutenant Kijé
Channel: all the knowledge of the universe PRINCIPIA
Date: 2022-01-12

Lieutenant Kijé, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1005415 / CC BY SA 3.0

#1927_short_stories
#Soviet_novellas
#Satirical_works
#Soviet-era_Belarusian_films
#Belarusfilm_films
#Belarusian_films
#Fictional_military_lieutenants
#Fictional_Russian_people_in_literature
#Male_characters_in_literature
#Cultural_depictions_of_Paul_I_of_Russia
A 1934 poster advertising the Soviet film about Lieutenant Kijé.
Lieutenant Kijé or Kizhe （Russian: Пору́чик Киже́, translit. Poruchik Kizhe）, originally Kizh （Киж）, is a fictional character in an anecdote about the reign of Emperor Paul I of Russia,
in which the cover up of a transcription error leads to the creation of a fictional soldier, Kijé, and his rise through the ranks.
When Paul asks to meet the now renowned officer, the creators of the hoax are cornered into a final lie that the soldier has died in battle.
The story was used as the basis of a novella by Yury Tynyanov published in 1928 and filmed in 1934 with music by Sergei Prokofiev.
The plot is a satire on bureaucracy.
The first appearance of the anecdote is in Vladimir Dahl's "Stories of the time of Paul I" （Russian: Рассказы о временах Павла I）, a short piece published in the journal Russkaya Starina in 1870; he reported it as told by his father,
Jochan Christian von Dahl （1764-1821）.
In this original version, a clerk miswrites an order promoting several ensigns （praporshchiki） to second lieutenants （podporuchiki）: instead of "praporshchiki zh ... - v podporuchiki" （"as to Ensigns （names）,
[they are promoted to] Second Lieutenants"）, he writes "praporshchik Kizh, ... - v podporuchiki" （"Ensign Kizh, （other names） [are promoted to] Second Lieutenants"）.
The Emperor Paul decides to promote the nonexistent Kizh to first lieutenant （poruchik）; he quickly rises through the ranks to staff captain and full captain, and when he is promoted to colonel the emperor commands that Kizh appear before him.
Of course no Kizh can be found; the military bureaucrats go thr...