person
Sheremetev family
Sheremetev
also: шереметьевский, Sheremetev's
One of the wealthiest noble families of Imperial Russia; their name became a byword in idiom for extravagant, freeloading spending ("at Sheremetev's expense").
Reading notes
- To Al. P. Chekhov, 23 February 1892. Moscow. §3 at Sheremetev's expense
"На шереметьевский счет" ("at Sheremetev's expense") is the standard idiom already documented in this corpus (family:sheremetev) for extravagant, freeloading spending, trading on the immense wealth of the Sheremetev noble family. TRANSLATOR NOTE (uncertain): the headnote flags a possible additional layer here -- the Sheremetev family also had a well-known private fire brigade/fire-insurance association in Moscow, which would sharpen the joke (Sasha should "put out fires" specifically at Sheremetev's -- i.e. the fire-insurance world's -- expense) beyond the generic idiom. That more specific topical reading could not be confirmed from the letter alone and is flagged here as unresolved rather than asserted.