Tolstoy and the Subaltern

A junior-ranking officer in the army, below captain.

“In the glade, some way from the road, Poltorátsky, and his subaltern Tíkhonov, two officers of the 3^rd Company, and Baron Freze, an ex-officer of the Guards who had been reduced to the ranks for a duel, a fellow-student of Poltorátsky’s at the Cadet College, were sitting on drums. Bits of paper that had contained food, cigarette stumps, and empty bottles lay scattered round the drums. The officers had some vodka, and were now eating, and drinking porter. A drummer was uncorking their third bottle. Poltorátsky, although he had not had enough sleep, was in that peculiar state of elation and kindly careless gaiety which he always felt when he found himself among his soldiers and with his comrades, where there was a possibility of danger.” 

Leo Tolstoy, Hadji Murád (1903).