Sergei Nikolaevich Yuzhakov

Publicist, sociologist, and critic associated (with Nikolai Mikhailovsky) with the journal "Severny Vestnik" ("The Northern Herald"); Chekhov jokes mock-elaborately here about Yuzhakov's departure from the journal and the soporific dullness of his articles, comparing them favorably to fly-agaric as a sleep remedy, while predicting (correctly, in Chekhov's sarcastic register) that he and Mikhailovsky will return unless they land posts as "Bulgarian ministers" -- a topical jab tied to the mid-1880s Bulgarian succession crisis.