The name Fartukov, of the coachman in Ardis the
Second, comes from fartuk (Russ., "apron"). As Brian Boyd pointed
out, Russian coachmen wore aprons (cf. Trofim's words about Blanche:
'Dazhe skvoz' kozhanyi fartuk ne stal by ya trogat'
etu frantsuzskuyu devku.' Even through a
leathern apron I would not think of touching this French wench.
1.41)
In Ilf and Petrov's The Twelve Chairs (chapter 30:
"In the Columbus Theatre") Count Aleksei Bulanov, the hussar who became a monk
and, after the Revolution, earned his living as a cabman in Moscow, is
upset because he can not receive a coachman's apron:
Граф Алексей Буланов был сильно озабочен.
Нахлестывая лошадей, он грустно размышлял о бюрократизме, разъедающем
ассенизационный подотдел, из-за которого графу вот уже полгода как не выдавали
положенный по гендоговору спецфартук. (Count Bulanov was deeply troubled. As
he whipped up the horses, he mused about the red tape that
was strangling the sub-department of sanitation, and on account of which he
had not received for six months the apron he was entitled to under his
contract.)
Alexey Sklyarenko