From Chekhov's story Pripadok ("A Nervous Breakdown,"
1888):
But the face [of a flunkey
in a brothel] was really interesting: a big forehead, gray eyes, a little
flattened nose, thin compressed lips, and a blankly stupid and at the same time
insolent expression like that of a young harrier overtaking a hare. Vasilyev
thought it would be nice to touch this man's hair, to see whether it was soft or
coarse. It must be coarse like a dog's.
One wonders if this dog-faced flunkey isn't red-haired,
like Red Vaska,* the bouncer in a brothel in a story by Chekhov's friend
Gorky?
Из публичного в сумасшедший дом (from the brothel to a
mad house):
One of the simulators in the mad house in Ilf & Petrov's
"The Golden Calf" is человек-собака (the man-dog). Another (a moustached male
decently dressed) affirms that he is a naked woman. The book-keeper Berlaga's
mania is being a viceroy of India.
Another character in "The Golden Calf" uses the phrase k
svin'yam sobach'im ("to the canine swines") and mentions Anton Pavlovich,
the Prince of Wuertemberg. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov died in Badenweiler (a spa in
Baden-Wuertemberg).
*note that Vaska is a form of Vasiliy and the surname Vasilyev
(of Chekhov's hero) comes from Vasiliy
Alexey Sklyarenko