honour' is thought to have hounded Tchaikovsky to suicide. Suvorin was eventually condemned, but 'sentenced' merely to a reprimand. Anton then told a Taganrog journalist: 'When hounds can't catch game, they torture cats.' 18 See OR, 331 59 46: Anna Suvorina's letters to Anton, 1889-1901; quoted in PSSP, 9, 282. 19 See OR, 331 60 64: Konstantin Tychinkin's forty-six letters to Anton, 1896-1902. 20 See OR, 331 52 2e: Lika's letters to Anton 1899; some are in Perepiska, II, 1984, 16-59. 21 See OR, 331 60 43: T. Sukhotina-Tolstaia's letters to Anton, 1896-9. 2 2 The banter hid some mysteries: a letter from Nina Korsh (the daughter of the Moscow theatre owner) had, in a male hand, a note, perhaps not a joke: 'Listen, Chekhov, I must talk seriously. If you invited me only to hear a humiliating refusal, and one transmitted to a girl who has been intriguing against me, then that is vile.' Around 1899 Nina Korsh conceived a child: the father is unknown. In the 1950s Nina Korsh's daughter told the scholar Iu. K. Avdeev that she believed Chekhov was her father, but I have found no written corroboration and Anton's casual references to Nina Korsh and her daughter belie the claim. 23 Levi tan had wished him (8 Feb. 1899, OR, 331 49 2 5g): 'The Lord send you everything except sluts with gonorrhoea.' 24 See PSSP, 8, 472. 25 See the memoirs of Anatoli Iakovlev, whom Anton had tutored as a boy, LN68, 597-604. 26 See OR, 331 60 24: Nadezhda Ternovskaia's letters to Anton, 1899; E. A. Polotskaia, 'Ialrinskaia redaktsia 'Shutochki'' in Chekhoviana, 1993, 101-16. 27 Given Anton's absorption in Olga Knipper, it is unlikely that he came to this brief encounter laden with the erotic angst in which Avilova's memoirs steep this meeting. 28 Quoted in PSSP, 8, 517. 29 See OR, 331 105 i: Masha's letters to Olga, 1899. Some are in Knipper-Chekhova, 1972, II. 30 See RGALI, 549 1 408: Masha's letters to Maria Drozdova, 1898-1905; see PSSP, 8, 516. 31 Marx would break the agreement and print just Chekhov's texts, without the Stanislavsky mis-en-scene, which have only
24
24
620
621
ANTON CHEKHOV
recently been published - as though Brahms's symphonies were printed without dynamics. 32 See Smirnova- Sazonova's diary, LN87, 310. 33 See RGALI, 2540 I 483: Masha's letters toMisha, 1884-1904: 3 Sept. 1899. 34 See OR, 331 63 4Z: Elena Shavrova-Iust's letters to Anton, 1899. Anton left unanswered Shavrova's next letter on 13 Dec. 1899: 'There is in the world a person who has some points of contact with your soul, who loves you hopelessly, from afar, and wants nothing.' 35 See Perepiska, 1934, and OR, 331 76 1: Olga Knipper's letters to Anton, June-Sept. 1899. 36 Cut from Perepiska, 1934. See OR, 331 76 i: Olga Knipper's letters to Anton, June-Sept. 1899. 37 Forty years late, Olga Knipper the grande dame was heard, in a penetrating sotto voce, saying to Nemirovich-Danchenko, 'Volodia, do you remember when you used to call me your vaulting horse?' 38 Masha wrote to Anton 31 Oct. 1899: 'I completely share your liking for Katichka Nemirovich.' 39 See OR, 331 36 72: Emilie Bijon's letters to Anton, 1896-1900. 40 See OR, 331 59 75: Anastasia Suvorina-Miasoedova's letters to Anton, 1889-1900. 41 See S. M. Chekhov, I semie, Iaroslavl, 1970, 179-82. 42 That day, Anton told Sobolevsky, he wanted to be in Monte Carlo, betting on quatre premiers. 43 See Lazarevsky's diary, LN8y, 319-56. 44 See OR, 331 60 62: Anna Turchaninova's letters to Anton, 1895, 1900: 20 May 1900.
NOTES
45 See OR, 331 77 14: Olga's letters to Masha, 1900: 7 June. 46 See OR, 331 64 28: Nikolai Iurasov's letters to Anton, 18981904. 47 See OR, 331 38 14: Olga Vasilieva's ninety-seven letters to Anton,
1898-1904.
48 See OR, 331 92 56: Adolf Levitan's letter, enclosing the request, to Masha. 49 See OR, 331 48 7: Vera Komissarzhevskaia's letters to Anton, 1896-1904: 1 Aug. 1900. 50 See OR, 331 77 14: Olga Knipper's letters to Masha, 1900: 9 Aug. 51 See PSSP, 9, 365. 52 See PSSP, 9, 381: Nemirovich-Danchenko, after Olga's mother, was in the second week of August 1900, the first to be told. 53 See OR, 331 33 126: Evgenia's letters to Anton, 1875- 1904: 26 Sept. 1900. 54 Cut from Perepiska, 1934: see OR, 331 76 5: Olga's letters to Anton, Sept. 1900. 55 See LN68, 621-8, memoirs of Sergeenko's son. 56 Two months later the department store Muir and Mirrielees burnt down in Moscow. (Anton remarked to Tania Shcheplrina-Kupernik in 1899 that to get rid of women playwrights one should invite them to Muir and Mirrielees and burn it down.) Fires in Yalta and Moscow inspired the fire in Three Sisters. 57 See S. M. Chekhov, I semie, Iaroslavl, 1970, 196-8. 58 See Vokrug Chekhova, 357 (Maria Chekhova's memoirs). 59 See OR, 331 105 3: Masha's letters to Olga Knipper, 1901: 3 Jan. 60 Kovalevsky's memoirs of Anton Chekhov are in Vokrug Chekhova, 361-6. 61 See RGALI, 459 2 1233: Nikolai Ezhov's four letters to Suvorin,
1897-1901.
62 See Smirnova-Sazonova's diary,
LN8-J, 311-12.
63 Partially cut from Perepiska 1934; see OR, 331 76 9: Olga's letters to Anton, Feb. 1901. 64 Cut from Perepiska, 1934; see OR, 331 76 10: Olga's letters to Anton, Mar. 1901. 65 See OR, 331 59 46: Anna Suvorina's letters to Anton, 1889-1901: Apr.
1901.
66 See S. M. Chekhov, I semie, 1970,
212-13.
67 See OR, 429 3 12: Masha's letters to Bunin, 1901-3: 8 Mar. 1901. 68 When this poor little rich girl is mentioned in Anton's correspondence with Olga Knipper, his tone is so casual that it would seem that Vasilieva was not the shadow between them. Had Marusia been Anton's child - and I believe she was not - it would be unlikely for a man of Anton's circle not to acknowledge the fact. 69 Olga's account conflicts with what Nemirovich-Danchenko told Stanislavsky, see fn. 52. 70 See RG/ILI, 549 1 49: Shchurovsky's scribbled notes, a mix of abbreviated Russian, Latin and German, on two sides of a sheet of paper, will need further deciphering. 71 Not in Knipper-Chekhova, 1972, II; see OR, 331 77 15: Olga's letters to Masha, 1901: 18 May. 72 See OR, 331 79 25: Masha's letters to Anton, 1901: the Pis'ma, 1954 text is almost complete. 73 Maria Sergeenko claimed that before the wedding Anton, drinking with friends, deplored men who married actresses, and left saying that he had 'a little business to attend to'. (See LN87, 348.) On that day Anton had a demented plea for a meeting from a teenager Olga L. (See OR, 3 31 49
3-)
74 Olga, as a Lutheran marrying an Orthodox, risked expulsion from her community. 'At Mama's concert our Ober-pastor twice told me off for marrying, so that I was quite frightened. He said that their church cannot leave the matter unpunished… I shall threaten to convert to Orthodoxy.' Cut from Perepiska, 1934; see OR, 331 76 15: Olga's letters to Anton, Nov. 1901: 30 Nov. 75 Cut in Knipper-Chekhova, 1972, II, 20-4: see OR, 331 77 15: Olga's letters to Masha, 1901. PART x Love and Death 1 Anna Chokhova, of whom Olga knew only dimly, had brought her consumptive son. 2 See OR, 331 77 15: Olga's letters to Masha, 1901: 2 June 1901. 3 Partly cut in Knipper- Chekhova, 1972; see OR, 331 105 3: Masha's letters to Olga, 1901. 4 See OR, 429 3 12: Masha's letters to Bunin, 1901-3: 6 June 1901. 5 See OR, 331 77 10: Olga's letters to Evgenia Chekhova, 1900-2. 6 See OR, 331 42 46b: Maria Drozdova's letters to Anton, 1900-4. 7 See OR, 331 73: A. S. Suvorin's letters to Misha, 1890-1902: 10 June 1901. 8 See RGALI, 2540 1 483: Masha's letters to Misha, 1884-1904: 11 Aug. 1901. 9 See OR, 331 38 8: Dr Varavka's letters to Anton, 1901; 331 36 54: A. Bernshtein's, 1901-3. 10 Quoted in PSSP, 10, 322.
622
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11 Cut in Perepiska, 1934; see OR, 331 76 12: Olga's letters to Masha, August 1901: 30 Aug. 12 If Lazarevsky is telling the truth, this belies the love letter that Avilova claims Anton wrote her on his wedding day. 13 Olga Vasilieva seemed to offer no threat: Knipper's mother was giving her singing lessons. 14 Maria Andreeva complained to Stanislavsky of Nemirovich-Danchenko and Knipper's 'close relationship'. 15 She and Evgenia each had a secret monthly 35 roubles from Suvorin, paid via Misha. 16 See RGALI, 2540 1 483: Masha's letters to Misha, 1884-1904: 6 Oct.
1901.
17 See A. Goldenveizer, Vstrecha s Chekhovym in Teatral'naia zhizn', i960, 2, 18. 18 Illness was all around. Anton was a governor of Yalta's sanatorium, gruesomely named Yavuzlar {The Inexorable Ones) for indigent consumptives. 19 See V vospominaniiakh, 698. 20 See PSSP, 10, 452. 21 Cut from Perepiska, 1934: see OR, 331 76 16-18: Olga's letters to Anton, Dec. 1901-Jan. 1902. 22 See PSSP, 10, 447, 459. 23 Cut from Perepiska, 1934: see OR, 331 76 17: Olga's letters to Anton, 1-16 Jan. 1902. 24 See RGALI, 2540 1 483: Masha's letters to Misha, 1884-
