5 In Seeing Chekhov: Life and Art, Michael C. Finke makes much of Chekhov’s habit of facing the camera.
6 Simmons. Chekhov: A Biography. 113. At the age of nineteen, departing from Taganrog, on his official “ticket of leave” for study in Moscow, his height was listed as 6′1″ and his characteristics as “dark auburn hair and eyebrows, black eyes, moderate nose, mouth and chin, long unmarked face, special marks: scar on forehead under hairline.” (Rayfield. Anton Chekhov: A Life. 1997. 69.)
7 Translated by Heim and Karlinsky, Anton Chekhov’s Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentary. 367. [To Grigory Rossolimo, October 11, 1899.]
8 Works. Vol. 4. 276–278.
9 Letopis’. 216. [January 1, 1886.]
10 Pis’ma. Vol. 1. 174.
11 Works. Vol. 4. 279–281.
12 (Gemorroy Dioskorovich Lodkin.)
13 Translation by Constance Garnett.
14 Magarshack. Chekhov: A Life. 76. [To Leykin, June 25, 1884.]
15 Hingley. A Life of Chekhov. 56.
16 Magarshack. Chekhov: A Life. 131. [To Ezhov, October 27, 1887.]
17 Translated by Rosamund Bartlett. Chekhov: A Life in Letters. This and the subsequent quotations from the letter to Alexander come from pages 48–51.
18 Pis’ma. Vol. 1. 569.
19 Rosamund Bartlett, whose excellent translation I am quoting here, uses “Newspaper” for Gazette. Since the original Russian title of the newspaper is Gazette (“Gazeta”), and I refer to it as the Petersburg Gazette throughout, I have rendered her Newspaper as Gazette here and beyond.
20 Pis’ma. Vol. 1. Moscow: 1974. 402–403.
21 Translated by S. S. Koteliansky and Philip Tomlinson. The Life and Letters of Anton Tchekhov. 55. [To Alexander Chekhov, April 1883.]
22 Magarshack. Chekhov: A Life. 10.
23 Published on the Russian Life blog for Chekhov’s 162nd birthday (January 29, 2022). When I translated it I didn’t realize that Constance Garnett had already translated “The Fiasco” perfectly well as “The Blunder.” (My blunder.)
24 There is a lively, seven-and-a-half-minute video version of “Neudacha” (Russian) starring Anna Tambova available on YouTube (youtube.com/watch?v=elK1f4mXSdk) that carries what I think Chekhov would think is an appropriate tone and energy, a full-blast farce with an impressive soundtrack (“La donne è mobile” from Rigoletto). The director switches up the buffoonery so that it’s the father rather than the mother who botches the blessing by grabbing instead of the ikon a still-life of a watermelon. There are other changes, but the basic situation, parents hoping to trap a suitor into a legal engagement, remains.
25 Translation by Peter Sekirin.
26 Chekhov rewrote “Tips for Husbands” as “Boa Constrictor and Rabbit” in the spring of 1887.
27 An illustration by Nikolay Chekhov.
28 Pis’ma. Vol. 1. 405. Rosamund Bartlett explains: “Tatyana’s Day, on January 12, marked the date of the foundation of Moscow University in 1755 and the commencement of the winter vacation. It was celebrated by students, faculty and alumni with much revelry, a tradition revived in 2004.” (Anton Chekhov: A Life in Letters. 79.)
29 Rayfield. Anton Chekhov: A Life (1997). 123.
30 Pis’ma. Vol. 1. 181. [To Rozanov, January 14, 1886.]
31 This story, translated by Kathleen Cook-Horujy, can be found in Anton Chekhov: Complete Works in 5 Volumes. Vol. 2: Stories 1886–1887. Moscow: Raduga Publishers. 1988. “Complete,” however, is a misrepresentation in the series’ title. There are many stories gone missing, particularly the ones sympathetic to religious feelings.
32 Mikhail Chekhov. Anton Chekhov: A Brother’s Memoir. 95–96.
33 Rayfield. Chekhov: A Life (2021). 9, 685.
34 Pis’ma. Vol. 1. 182. [To Dyukovskiy, January 16, 1886.]
35 Ibid., 183–185. [To Bilibin, January 18, 1886.]
36 Magarshack. Chekhov: A Life. 100. [To Bilibin, January 18, 1886.]
37 Rayfield. Anton Chekhov: A Life (1997). 123 [To Leykin, January 19, 1886.]
38 Works. Vol. 4. 511.
39 Pis’ma. Vol. 1. 185. [January 19, 1886.]
40 Translation by Constance Garnett.
41 Works. Vol. 4. 321–324.
42 Ibid., 325.
43 Translation by Constance Garnett.
44 Works. Vol. 4. 544.
45 Ibid., 543.
46 Ibid., 543–544.
47 Pis’ma. Vol. 1. 188. [To Leykin, January 28, 1886.]
48 Levitan proposed to Maria Chekhova at Babkino; Levitan never married. (See Laffitte. Chekhov, 1860–1904. 100.)
49 Pis’ma. 187. [To Leykin, January 28, 1886.]
50 Letopis’. 223. [End of January 1886.]
51 Translated by Heim and Karlinsky. Anton Chekhov’s Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentary. 56. [To Aleksei Suvorin, February 21, 1886.]
February 1886
1 Translated by Louis S. Friedland. Letters on the Short Story, the Drama, and Other Literary Topics. 97–98. [To Avilova, April 29, 1892.]
2 Translated by Heim and Karlinsky. Anton Chekhov’s Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentary. 46. [To Viktor Bilibin, February 1, 1886.]
3 Hingley. A Life of Chekhov. 72–73.
4 Pis’ma. Vol. 1. 192–194. [To Alexander Chekhov, February 3, 1886.]
5 Translation by Peter Sekirin, A Night in the Cemetery and Other Stories of Crime and Suspense. 148–150.
6 Letopis’. 226. [By February 14, 1886.]
7 Pis’ma. 195–197. [To Bilibin, February 14, 1886.]
8 Translated by Heim and Karlinsky. Anton Chekhov’s Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentary. 47. [To Bilibin, February 1, 1886.]
9 Chekhov was nervous, suggests Rosamund Bartlett, about the notoriety of New Times’ right-wing news slant: “whatever its politics, New Times was considerably more prestigious as a place to publish than The St. Petersburg Newspaper [Gazette]. And it provided him with a greater creative freedom than he had enjoyed elsewhere. […] But he also felt uneasy about contributing to a publication that was held in derision by the liberal intelligentsia, and immediately began to worry that he would be barred from publishing in literary journals as a result.” (Bartlett, Chekhov: Scenes from a Life, 144.)
10 Translated by Constance Garnett.
11 The only English translation, by Lydia Razran Stone, is excellent, published in Chtenia. (Vol. 3, No. 4, 2010.)
12 Works. Vol. 4. 364.
13 Pis’ma. 200–201. [To Leykin, February 20, 1886.]
14 Letopis’. 228. [Around February 18, 1886.]
15 Laffitte. Chekhov, 1860–1904. 89.
16 Chekhov’s behavior and social activities were forever “liberal” and progressive, and yet he always sought independence from any political movement. He preferred to be free to write and act as he liked. New Times, for all its autocratic propaganda, granted him that. The biographer Michael C. Finke observes: “Chekhov’s political sentiments clearly leaned left, but they were also largely private. He addressed suffering, injustice, and governmental brutishness with a clinical eye for what he might actually do to help rather than an ideological perspective that told him what he should write and say. He did his part to create change through private philanthropy and unrecompensed medical practice, but he avoided public statements, propagandistic art, and membership in any party.” (Finke, Freedom from Violence and Lies: Anton Chekhov’s Life and Writings. 141–142.)
17 Translated by Louis S. Friedland. Letters on the Short Story, the Drama, and Other Literary Topics. 38. [To Suvorin, February 21, 1886.]
18 Translated by Heim and Karlinsky. Anton Chekhov’s Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentary. 56. [To Suvorin, February 21, 1886.]
19 Pis’ma. Vol. 1. 202.
20 Translation by Constance Garnett.
21 Translation by Constance Garnett.
22 Letopis’, 229–230. [February 23–24, 1886.]
March 1886
1 To Suvorin (the second letter of August 18, 1891), quoted in Richard Carter, “Anton P. Chekhov, MD (1860–1904): Dual Medical and Literary Careers.” 1557.