person
Semyon Nikolaich
also: Семен Николаич, Semyon Nikolaich, the townsman in blue trousers, обыватель в синих панталонах
Lyashkevsky's landlord, a plump, idle townsman who spends the story's day sitting on a bench, cracking sunflower seeds, dining with a neighbor, and dozing -- the object of Lyashkevsky's running tirade against provincial inertia.
Reading notes
- Obscure People §2 parasites and idlers
The story's title, "Обыватели" (Obyvateli), literally means "townsfolk" or "residents" but carries a period connotation close to "philistines" or "the settled, unthinking petty-bourgeoisie" -- Chekhov uses the same word both neutrally, for the class of small-town property owners, and pointedly, in Lyashkevsky's mouth, as an epithet for their idleness.