concept
Akaky Moskovsky (Suvorin's pseudonym)
Akaky of Moscow
also: Акакий Московский, Akaky Moskovsky
A satirical pen-name used by Aleksei Suvorin for at least one Novoye Vremya piece, playing on Gogol's downtrodden clerk Akaky Akakievich fitted with the epithet "Moskovsky" ("of Moscow") to cast a Petersburg columnist as a provincial nobody commenting on Moscow affairs. Chekhov first teases Suvorin about the pseudonym in passing in (3 December 1891, section 10: "Akaky Moskovsky is thoroughly worthy of becoming a staff contributor to Novoye Vremya"); eight days later, in (11 December 1891, section 5), Chekhov reports that a piece written under this name had taken a public swipe at the Moscow philanthropist Morozova, genuinely hurting her, and gently rebukes Suvorin for it. Distinct from (an unrelated scatological joke-alias on a different envelope) and from the fictional Gogol character himself.
Reading notes
- To A. S. Suvorin, 3 December 1891. Moscow. §10 Akaky Moskovsky
Evidently a running private joke or pseudonym shared between Chekhov and Suvorin -- jestingly proposed as deserving a staff position at Novoye Vremya. The Gogolian first name "Akaky" (echoing Akaky Akakievich of "The Overcoat"; compare the corpus's other Akaky wordplay at and, both invented comic names built on the same stock first name) paired with the adjectival surname "Moskovsky" ("of Moscow") suggests a generic, faintly absurd stand-in identity rather than a real named individual; the letter gives no further context to identify a specific referent, and none is otherwise attested elsewhere in this corpus as currently indexed. Left genuinely unresolved rather than guessed at.
- To A. S. Suvorin, 11 December 1891. Moscow. §5 Akaky of Moscow
Suvorin's own satirical pseudonym, under which he had evidently taken a jab in print at Morozova's famine-relief efforts. The name plays on Gogol's downtrodden clerk Akaky Akakievich, a stock joke-name for a humble or put-upon persona, here fitted with "Moskovsky" ("of Moscow") to disguise a Petersburg columnist as a provincial nobody. Chekhov had teased Suvorin about the same pseudonym eight days earlier, in section 10 ("Akaky Moskovsky is thoroughly worthy of becoming a staff contributor to Novoye Vremya"), suggesting it was a running bit between them; here, having seen its real-world sting firsthand, Chekhov reports the joke landing badly on its actual target.