person
Yuri Fyodorovich Samarin
Yu. Samarin
also: Ю. Самарин, Yuri Samarin, Y. F. Samarin
Almost certainly the Slavophile writer and publicist Yuri Fyodorovich Samarin (1819-1876), whose photograph Chekhov reports seeing displayed as a sample card on a fortune-telling "physico-chemical apparatus" along with those of Suvorov, Adelina Patti, and Leikin himself; named only by surname and initial in the source, so the identification, while probable given his public renown, is not certain from this letter alone.
Reading notes
- To N. A. Lei Kin, 5 October 1888. Moscow. §6 Yu. Samarin
Almost certainly the Slavophile writer and publicist Yuri Fyodorovich Samarin (1819-1876), a public figure whose photograph would plausibly circulate commercially -- but named only by surname and initial in the source, so treat the identification as probable rather than certain.