person
Ivan Alexeyevich Vyshnegradsky
Vyshnegradsky
also: Вышнеградский, И. А. Вышнеградский
Russian Minister of Finance (in office 1887-1892), a mathematician and engineer by training. Chekhov mentions his ongoing journey through Asia (an official inspection tour of Central Asia and the Transcaspian region) as the subject of Gorodetsky's telegram, dismissing it as not newsworthy enough to justify sending a paid correspondent. Distinct from the generic office entity used elsewhere in the corpus as an unnamed comic stand-in; here the minister is named and his real 1890 travels are the subject at hand.
Reading notes
- To Al. P. Chekhov, 6 August 1891. Bogimovo. §6 It's high time Vyshnegradsky set up banks of that kind
Ivan Alekseyevich Vyshnegradsky, Russian Minister of Finance 1887-1892, invoked jokingly as the man who ought to found banks that lend to "decent people" with no expectation of repayment -- a passing comic jab at government finance rather than any real financial proposal.