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Sidorkin (Khlopov's story)
Sidorkin
also: Сидоркин
The church warden (popechitel) in Nikolai Khlopov's submitted short story, who is shown transferring the sexton Iona from one post to another -- a power Chekhov points out belonged only to the bishop, flagging the detail as implausible.
Reading notes
- To N. A. Khlopov, 13 February 1888. Moscow. §6 church warden named Sidorkin
Chekhov's central factual objection to the story: a church elder or warden (starosta / ktitor), however influential, had no authority to transfer a sexton from one post to another -- that power belonged exclusively to the diocesan bishop. He suggests it would ring truer if Iona had simply been transferred for drunkenness.