The main character in VN's play "The Event," Aleksei
Maksimovich Troshcheykin, is a namesake of Gorky, while the name and patronymic
of Troshcheykin's mother-in-law, Antonina Pavlovna, are Chekhov's in
feminine key.
In his article "Chekhov and Gorky" (included in the collection
of essays "The Future Ham," 1906) Merezhkovsky says that быт
(daily routine) is over, события (the events*) started. He
also mentions the devil:
Наконец "началось", сорвалось, полетело -- всё
кругом летит, летим и мы, вверх или вниз, к Богу или к чёрту, -- не знаем пока,
боимся узнать, но, во всяком случае, летим, не остановимся, -- и слава Богу!
Кончился быт, начались события.
Btw., быт is mentioned in Mayakovsky's last poem/suicide
note:
Любовная лодка разбилась о быт
(the love boat smashed up on the dreary routine).
V. V. Mayakovsky was VN's "late namesake."
*the 1905 Russian Revolution
Alexey Sklyarenko