Dear Jansy,
Vasiliy Ivanovich Rukavishnikov's nickname was
Ruka, not "Rukka." Ruka (accented on the ultima)
happens to be Russian for "hand," "arm." The surname Rukavishnikov comes
from rukavishnik, "the person who makes рукавицы, mittens." There
is a Russian saying: держать в ежовых рукавицах ("to rule with an iron rod;"
literally: "to hold in hedgehog gaunlets"). It was famously used by Pushkin in
his tale The Captain's Daughter (1836). As a reader of Speak,
Memory knows, Vasiliy Ivanovich's father (Ivan Vasilievich Rukavishnikov,
VN's maternal grandfather, 1841-1901) had a terrible temper. Like his
famous namesake, the first tsar of Russia Ivan the Terrible (1530-84, btw.,
his name and patronymic was also Ivan Vasilievich), he
probably ruled in his estate with an iron rod, держал всех в ежовых
рукавицах. One also remembers Ezhov (from ёж, Russian for "hedgehog"), the head
of Stalin's secret police in the 1930s.
Otherwise, I don't see any connection between
dracunculi, uncle Ruka and orchids in Ada.
best,
Alexey