1904: 21 Jan. 1902. 25 Morozov begged Anton to take a share too; he secured Anton's consent by undertaking to recover as investment the 5000 roubles that was owed by Konshin for Melikhovo. 26 See PSSP, 10, 454, 462. 27 He distrusted radicals, too, after placing in the Yavuzlar sanatorium a 'medical student' called Grinevich, who had died of a twisted gut before the inmates could lynch him as a police spy. 28 Cut from Perepiska, 1934; see OR, 331 76 20: Olga's letters to Anton, 1 -15 Mar. 1902: 8 Mar. 29 See OR, 331 105 4: Masha's letters to Olga, 1902. 30 See OR, 331 82 62: Misha's letters to Masha, 1902: 30 Mar. 1902. 31 In contrast, Lika Mizinova visited Misha's family and they had a 'most amusing excellent evening'. Misha ended this letter by asking Masha to extract 5 or 6000 roubles from Anton to build a dacha, where Anton could spend the summer fishing and Misha eventually retire. 32 Cut from Perepiska, 1934; see OR, 331 76 21: Olga's letters to Anton, 16-31 Mar. 1902: 31 Mar. 33 Cut from Perepiska, 1934; see OR, 331 76 22: Olga's letters to Anton, Apr. 1902: 4 Apr. 34 See OR, 331 77 16: Olga's letters to Masha, 1902: 6 Apr. 1902. 35 For this tentative diagnosis I am grateful to Dr Pavel Houris of Corfu and Sister Jane Kondou. 36 Franzensbad was the Suvorins' favourite watering hole. 37 See PSSP, 10, 522. 38 See PSSP, 11, 361. 39 See OR, 331 48 79a: Olga Kundasova's letters to Anton 1892-1904. 40 See V vospominaniakb, 583-96. 41 See OR, 331 77 10: Olga's letters to Evgenia Chekhova, 1900-2: 24 June 1902. 42 See Harvey Pitcher, Lily: An Anglo-Russian Romance, Cromer, 1987; see OR, 331 59 2: Lily Glassby's letters to Anton, 1902. 43 See OR, 429 3 12: Masha's letters to Bunin, 1901-3: 5 Aug. 1902. 44 See OR, 331 105 4: Masha's letters to Olga, 1902: 17 Aug. 45 See OR, 331 77 16: Olga's letters to Masha, 1902: 24 Aug. 1902. 46 See Perepiska, 1936, 369-71. 47 Only Chekhov, Korolenko and a mathematician, Markov, resigned over Gorky. 48 Meyerhold blamed Knipper for alienating him from Chekhov. 49 Suvorin did not come, but began sending Chekhov copies of the forbidden revolutionary newspaper Liberation, which Suvorin coded as 'works of Ezhov'. 50 Cut from Knipper-Chekhova, 1972; see OR, 331 76 27: Olga's letters to Anton, Dec. 1902. 51 Cut from Knipper-Chekhova, 1972; see OR, 331 76 31: Olga's letters to Anton ii 1903. 52 See PSSP, 11, 442. 53 See OR, 331 81 66: Evgenia's letters to Masha, 1891-1914: 20 Jan. 1903. 54 For a fuller account of the genesis of The Cherry Orchard see the author's The Cherry Orchard: Catastrophe and Comedy, New York, Twayne, 1994. 55 See OR, 331 59 80: Aleksandr Sumbatov's letters to Anton, 1889-1903: 12 Feb. 1903. 56 At this juncture Anton was receiving many confessions from unhappily married friends: he had a desperate letter from his old admirer Shcheglov, whose wife had betrayed him for years. See OR, 331 50 6i: Ivan Leontiev- Shcheglov's letters to Anton, 1900-4. 57 See PSSP, 11, 470. 58 See MXaT, 5323/44-62: Sanin's letters to Lika, 1903: 16 May. 59 See OR, 331 82 62: Misha's letters to Masha, 1902-4: 6 June 1903. 60 See OR, 331 82 62: Misha's letters to Masha, 1902-4: 8 June 1903. 61 See PSSP, 11, 542, and Gitovich, Letopis', 758. 62 See Gitovich, Letopis', 758-9. 63 See LN87, 319-56. 64 Cut from Pis'ma, 1939: see OR, 331 3227: Aleksandr's letters to Anton,
1903.
65 See PSSP, 11,562. 66 See Vvospominaniiakh, 597-9. 67 See PSSP, XIII, 497. 68 See PSSP, 11, 598. 69 See RGALI, 2540 1 160: Evgenia's letters to Vania, 1888-1905: 27 Oct. 1903. 70 Cut from Knipper-Chekhova, 1972: see OR, 331 77 4: Olga's letters to Anton, 1-16 Nov. 1903. 71 Tania Shchepkina-Kupernik's memoirs record an almost identical scene. 72 See MXaT, 5323/44-62: Sanin's letters to Lika, 1903: 14 Dec. 73 See OR, 331 77 11: Olga's letters to Evgenia, 1903-4: 29 Dec. 1903. 74 There was reason to let Andreeva go: she had been denouncing Knipper and Nemirovich-Danchenko to Stanislavsky; she was fainting on stage; Gorky had fallen in love with her (while everyone felt for Gorky's wife, who had OA); Andreeva's husband was accused of embezzling. (In 1905 Andreeva was reinstated. Her career as a Bolshevik and as Gorky's consort was assured.) 75 Cut from Knipper- Chekhova, 1972: see OR, 331 77 6: Olga's letters to Anton, 15-29 Feb. 1904. 76 This mad desire to cross Siberia again was stimulated by new grounds for jealousy. Olga casually mentioned on 16 March that she had met her first love, the mill-owner Dimitri Goncharov, and that, despite his illness, he
75
75
624
625
ANTON CHEKHOV
wanted to act with her in the Moscow Arts Theatre. 77 Cut from Knipper-Chekova, igjz: see OR, 331 77 8: Olga's letters to Anton, Apr. 1904: 15 Apr. Anton hints at relations with Krestovskaia in his letter to Suvorin from a Blagoveshchensk brothel. 78 See OR, 331 79 31: Masha's letters to Evgenia, 1903-14: 9 May 1904. 79 See OR, 331 77 18: Olga's letters to Masha, 1904: 22 May. 80 See RGALI, 2540 1 483: Masha's letters to Misha, 1884-1904: 27 May 1904. 81 See PSSP, 12, 353. 82 SeePSSP, 367, 374, 377. 83 I am grateful to M. A. Sheikina for this information. 84 See OR, 331 66 78-124: telegrams to Olga Knipper-Chekhova, July
1904.
85 See Pis'ma A. S. Suvorina kV.V. Rozanovu, SPb, 1913, 10. For a fuller account of that morning, see A. Rostovtsev, 'Pamiati Chekhova' in Obozrenie teatra, 2-7 July 1914. 86 See RGALI, 2540 1 478: Aleksandr's letters to Misha, 1883 -1904: 4 July 1904. 87 SeeLN68, 618-9. 88 In 1909 Suvorin's Istoricheskii vestnik published a scandalous and venomous expose by Ezhov which portrayed Chekhov as a conceited mediocrity. 89 See Shcheglov's diary, which, however, found her Cherry Orchard 'could have been more entertaining' (LN68, 486). 90 See OR, 331 79 13: documents on the Chekhov inheritance. 91 See RGALI, 2540 1 150: Aleksandr's letters to Vania, 1898-1905: 9 Sept. 1904.
626
92 See RGALI, 2540 1 478: Aleksandr's letters to Misha, 1883-1904: 9 Sept. 1904. 93 After Bunin left, Masha had a flirtation, which ended in 1912, with Baron Stuart, the purchaser of Melikhovo; Aleksandr Smagin pined all his life for her. 94 See RGALI, 5459 1 402: Aleksandr's letters to Natalia, 1908: 5 Nov. 95 In 1939, with uncharacteristic liberalism, the Soviet state published Aleksandr's letters to Anton, and his wayward genius was recognized. See his son's memoirs in M. A. Chekhov, 1986. 96 See OR, 331 77 18+ and 331 105 7+: Masha's and Olga's fifty-year correspondence after Anton's death is a little known mine of biographical and historical material. 97 See OR, 331 84 38: Nikolai Aleksandrovich Chekhov's notebooks. 98 In die mid 1930s a woman, apparendy his wife, wrote to Masha from a prison camp. Masha hid the letter behind a stove; in the 1940s, when it was found by a secretary, Masha destroyed it. 99 See Vladimir Knipper, Pora galliutsinatsii, 1995. Olga Tschechowa's daughter 'proved' her Aryan blood by sending to Sumy, under German occupation, for her grandmother, Natalia Golden's, wedding certificate, where Jewishness was not mentioned. 100 Her obituary, as Princess Bariatinsky, is in The Times, 5 Sept. 1921.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Works I have found particularly useful are asterisked. All quotations are translated from the standard edition of complete works and letters. Place of publication is Moscow unless indicated. Chekhov V writings
IN RUSSIAN
*A. P. Chekhov, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii i pisem (PSSP): 1-18, works [referred to as I-XVIII]; 1 -12 (+ indices), letters [referred toasi-12], 1973-83. Some items missing from PSSP can be found in: A. B. Derman, ed., A. P. Chekhov Sbornik dokumentov…, 1947 [inc. student post-mortem report]. A. P. Chudakov, ' 'Neprilichnye slova' i oblik klassika' in Literaturnoe Obozrenie, 1991, 11, 54. 'Podtsenzurnyi Chekhov' in Kuranty, 8 Sept., 1993, 9 [lists some cuts in
PSSP 1-4.
L. Shcheglov [allegedly after Chekhov], Sila gipnotizma in Zhizn' vverkh nogami, SPb, 1911.
IN ENGLISH
Michael Frayn (tr.), Chekhov: Plays, London, 1993 [actable versions of the mature plays]. Constance Garnett (tr.), (revised D. Rayfield) The Chekhov Omnibus, London, 1994 [classic selection of prose fiction]. Ronald Hingley (tr.), The Oxford Chekhov (complete mature works) 9 vols, T972Gordon McVay (tr.), Chekhov: A Life in Letters, Folio Society, London, 1974 [best selection]. Donald Rayfield, 'Sanitising the Classics' in Comparative Criticism 16, Cambridge, 1994, 19-32. Brian Reeves (tr.), The Island of Sakhalin, London, 1993.
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