As has been pointed out before, Aleksei Maksimovich
Troshcheykin (the main character in "The Event," portrait-painter) is a namesake
of Gorky (pen name of A. M. Peshkov) and Troshcheykin's mother-in-law, Antonina
Pavlovna Opayashin, a namesake (in feminine key) of A. P.
Chekhov.
In "The Model on Portraitists" (1922) N. N. Evreinov
compares six portraits of himself made by different artists. One of
these artists is Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky, VN's "late namesake," while the name of another, S. A. Sorin, reminds one of P. N.
Sorin, a character in Chekhov's play "The Seagull" (1896), and Sirin, VN's
Russian nom de plume. Pyotr
Nikolaevich, the famous writer in "The Event," is a namesake of Chekhov's P. N.
Sorin.
Sorin + Khirin = Sirin +
Khiron (Khirin - a character in Chekhov's
one-act play "The Anniversary;" Khiron -
Chiron in Russian spelling; like Chekhov, the centaur Chiron and Ivan
Vasilievich* Opayashin, Antonina Pavlovna's late husband, were
doctors)
*a namesake of Ivan the Terrible; one of the
portraits of Evreinov was made by Ilya Repin, the author of
"Ivan the Terrible and his Son Ivan on November 16, 1581;" the idea of this
painting (1885) arose in connection with the murder of Alexander II on
March 1, 1881 (when Grinevitsky hurled a bomb), and the execution of the
terrorists; cf. Vagabundova's words in "The Event" (Act
Two):
Может быть, метнёт
бомбу?
А, - хватит
апломбу?
May be, he [Barbashin] will hurl a
bomb?
D'you think he has enough
aplomb?
Btw., Aplombov is the name of the bridegroom in
Chekhov's one-act play "The Wedding;" the name of one of the guests at the
wedding party, Yat', reminds one of Lyubov's words in "The Event" (Act One): "It turned out that I married the
character yat'."
Alexey
Sklyarenko