person
Akim Lvovich Flekser (Akim Volynsky)
Flekser
also: Аким Львович Флексер, Акim Volynsky, Аким Волынский, A. L. Volynsky
Akim Lvovich Flekser (1861-1926), critic and philosopher who wrote under the pen name Akim Volynsky and was closely associated with the journal Severny Vestnik; Chekhov suspects Flekser and "the womenfolk" of having pushed the journal's editor Lyubov Gurevich into a ruinous editorial course.
Reading notes
- To A. S. Suvorin, 13 May 1891. Aleksin. §3 Flekser and the womenfolk
Akim Lvovich Flekser, who wrote criticism under the pen name Akim Volynsky and was closely tied to Severny Vestnik's editorial circle; Chekhov suspects Flekser, along with unnamed women in Gurevich's circle ("бабы"), of having steered her into taking on the journal.
- To A. S. Suvorin, 18 May 1891. Aleksin. §11 Monsieur Phylloxera
Renders "M-r Филоксера," Chekhov's mocking nickname for the critic Akim Lvovich Flekser (pen name Akim Volynsky), built on "phylloxera," the vine louse that was devastating European vineyards through the late nineteenth century -- a play on Flekser's surname (from German "Flocke"/pest imagery is not the connection; rather the joke trades on Filoksera as a grotesque-sounding pseudo-French society name, in keeping with the letter's mock-elevated "M-elle"/"M-r" address for both editors) paired with his role, as Chekhov saw it, as a blight on the journal. Same figure named plainly as "Флексер" ("Flekser") five days earlier in the companion letter to Suvorin, which this letter's headnote and the corpus's existing entity both cross-reference; the two letters share the identical complaint (Flekser and Gurevich ruining Severny Vestnik) and confirm the identification of "Monsieur Phylloxera" as Flekser.