person
Pyotr Apollonovich Gresser
Gresser
also: Грессер, Gresser
Pyotr Apollonovich Gresser, the real Saint Petersburg gradonachalnik (city police chief/prefect) of the period; invoked here purely as a mock threat by Chekhov against Kiseleva and her daughter for "persecuting" him, not a reference to any actual complaint or legal matter.
Reading notes
- To A. S. Suvorin, 16 October 1891. Moscow. §9 Could one not ask Gresser to make the day have not 24 but 44 hours?
Pyotr Apollonovich Gresser, gradonachalnik (city governor / police chief) of St. Petersburg. The joke trades on his real administrative authority over the city's civic order -- as if lengthening the day were a matter of municipal regulation he could simply decree, solving Chekhov's chronic shortage of writing time.
- To M. V. Kiseleva, 28 January 1890. Petersburg. §6 Gresser
Pyotr Apollonovich Gresser was the actual Saint Petersburg gradonachalnik (city police chief/prefect) at the time. Chekhov's threat to "appeal to Gresser" against Kiseleva and her daughter's playful "persecution" is a mock-official escalation for comic effect -- the joke's force depends on the reader recognizing Gresser as a real, named public official, not a generic policeman -- and is not a reference to any actual complaint or legal proceeding.