Speaking of Annensky's penname, Nik. T-o, I forgot
to mention that in Ilf and Petrov's "The Twelve Chairs" (chapter XXX, "In
the Columbus Theatre") Bender and Vorob'yaninov watch the avant-garde stage
version of Gogol's Zhenit'ba ("The Marriage"), whose author is a
certain Nik. Sestrin. While his shortened first name coincides
with the first part of the cryptonym "Nik. T-o", Sestrin's surname comes from sestra, "sister". As the
performance begins, the actor playing Podkolyosin's valet Stepan gives his
cues standing on his hands (cf. Mascodagama in Ada).
Nik. T-o = nikto (nobody). Stepan and nikto (read backwards) meet
in Stepan Nootkin, old Van's old valet (5.1). In fact,
step + anon + nikto = Stepan
Nootkin
Alexey Sklyarenko