Samson or Simeon? (Concerning the Name of the Station Master in A. S. Pushkin’s Story)

The name of Vyrin, the main character of Pushkin’s The Station Master, has varied even in his lifetime publications. The reason is that, due to an oversight of a copyist or a typesetter, The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin, published in 1831 and сopyedited by P. A. Pletnev, gave his name as Simeon, while his daughter’s name was Avdotya Samsonovna. In the errata printed at the end of the book, eight amendments to the texts of the stories were indicated. One of them specified that «Simeon» should be read as «Samson». The next edition of Belkin’s Tales, published in 1834, was prepared by Pushkin himself. He corrected all the errors indicated in the 1831 edition, except one: Vyrin’s name remained the same, Simeon. The subsequent editors of Pushkin’s collected works took various stands concerning the will of the author.