family
Kharitonenko family
Kharitonenko
also: Харитоненко, Kharitonenko
A wealthy Ukrainian sugar-refining family/dynasty (the Kharitonenko sugar works) with a refinery and local presence near the Lintvaryov estate at Sumy; Chekhov's Sumy-circle acquaintances included fishing enthusiasts from the Kharitonenko refinery, and he invokes the family's wealth as a byword for fine paper in this letter's mock-vain aside.
Reading notes
- To Ye. M. Lintvareva, December 1888. Moscow. §2 Kharitonenko
The wealthy Kharitonenko sugar-refining family, local grandees near the Lintvaryov estate at Sumy where Chekhov summered in 1888 (their refinery supplied fishing companions for Chekhov's outings, per the letter to Suvorin of 30 May 1888). Chekhov's joke -- that his paper outclasses even theirs -- trades on their reputation for wealth.
- To A. S. Suvorin, 2 July 1889. Sumy. §11 the cadet corps that is to be built by Kharitonenko
The Kharitonenko sugar-refining family, prominent near Sumy; the cadet corps referenced here is a Kharitonenko-funded institution, distinct from the earlier mentions of the family's factory and estate elsewhere in this corpus (e.g.).
- To N. A. Leikin, 2 December 1891. Moscow. §5 the sugar manufacturer Kharitonenko died, with whom I was acquainted
The Kharitonenko family were wealthy Ukrainian sugar-refining magnates (the Kharitonenko sugar works, with holdings near Sumy, close to the Lintvaryov estate where Chekhov summered); Chekhov elsewhere in the corpus mentions Sumy-circle acquaintances connected to the Kharitonenko refinery. The source names only the surname "Харитоненко," without a given name or patronymic, so the specific family member who died in autumn 1891 cannot be confirmed from this letter alone; the historically documented founder of the dynasty, Ivan Gerasimovich Kharitonenko, remained active as head of the firm into the 1890s, but the letter's bare surname does not by itself establish which Kharitonenko Chekhov means, and no firmer identification is attempted here.
- To N. M. Lintvareva, 14 December 1891. Moscow. §7 And Kharitonenko has died!
The same death Chekhov had reported twelve days earlier to Leikin as a bare aside among a string of autumn losses (\S5: "Among others, the sugar manufacturer Kharitonenko died, with whom I was acquainted"); here, writing to a correspondent from the Sumy circle where the Kharitonenko sugar-refining family (family:kharitonenko) had local standing near the Lintvaryov estate, the news gets its own one-line section and an exclamation mark, suggesting it carried more direct weight for Lintvaryova than for Leikin. As in, the source gives only the bare surname, so the specific family member is not confirmed from this letter alone.