Moscow to begin, at the age of thirteen, a life of drudgery at Gavrilov's. After two weeks Aleksei took to Moscow life, while his mother, Fenichka, grieved, for two months alone and chronically ill, in Taganrog. On 31 July, her bags packed by Anton, with presents from Mitrofan and old Egor, Fenichka arrived in Moscow to live with Evgenia. Her sister hesitated, for Fenichka was a 'grumbler' and a drain on the house, but when the widow arrived Evgenia was ecstatic: 'I talk and I cry when I have to tell her about past grief.' For the next thirteen years the two sisters were almost inseparable, nursing each other, visiting holy relics, cooking and sewing. Pavel was far cooler. He wrote to Anton: 'Mrs Dol1877-9 zhenko arrived… let her not yearn and may she live better than with Aleksei in Taganrog, she has already seen him and upset herself…'
Selivanov and the Kravtsovs had by this time become more of a family to Anton than his own. He was now eighteen. He even contemplated taking Sasha Selivanova with him when he went to Moscow and enquired about the curriculum in the girls' school which Masha was attending. (The Filaret school had compulsory German, strict Religious Knowledge, and no dancing - to the dismay of a vivacious (lossack girl like Sasha Selivanova.) Despite all his extra-curricular work, Anton's marks in May 1878 were excellent. He rejected his mother's pleas to join the family that summer. He roamed the steppes around Ragozina Gully with Petia Kravtsov and gun dogs.
Life in Moscow was less harrowing now that Pavel had found work. Aleksandr and Kolia socialized with the demi-monde of Moscow. By March 1878 Aleksandr had left his 'ungodly' wife. Pavel was overjoyed and called him Sashenka again, but Aleksandr's 'room' was occupied by a tenant. Despite Pavel's long absences, the family found a new subject for quarrelling. On 17 March 1878 Aleksandr told Anton: Vania simply rages. Yesterday he virtually thrashed mother and when father is there he turned out to be such an angel that I still can't get over my astonishment. He really is a nasty piece of work, brother!… He answered that he doesn't have to work, that his affairs are none of his mother's business and that he has to be fed, cared for and nurtured because he was summoned from Taganrog to Moscow!!!… Vania, now seventeen, gravitated away from school to his elder brothers' bohemian life. He went carriage-riding; he serenaded girls. In April 1879 he failed his examinations. Masha also had to retake a year, Misha only just scraped through, and even Kolia failed History of the Christian Church. Kolia was on the road to fame; Aleksandr had returned to the fold, but Vania, Kolia complained to Anton, is trouble. He can't walk past without punching Masha or Misha in the neck… You can't get through to Vania with preaching, he just does nothing, despite the unbearable family quarrels which he is the only reason for… we have rows, violence… I get myself a room which I obviously pay for, and now Vania has moved in with me…
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I' E III I It I II I || I MAN lie was in real danger of servitude, lor Pavel now proposed to put him in a factory. Mimicking the parental tone, Kolia copied out an interminable letter to their father: What's the point of him working two years at a factory and then being recruited for six years as a soldier?… if he is a workman, this reflects badly on you… what will he do with his limited pay?… No, Papa!48 Vania was too big to thrash. In May Pavel reprimanded his errant son: Recently you have become useless, idle and disobedient… How many times have I asked you… your conscience is asleep… you come home at midnight, you sleep the sleep of the dead until noon… Widi God's help and blessing try to find yourself a job in Moscow in a Factory or in a Shop… the Iron foundry or a Technical Institute.49 Vania was saved in 1879 by being examined and passed, thanks to Mikhail Diukovsky, a teacher and close friend of Aleksandr and Kolia. Vania was transformed from lout into student-teacher. Pavel was delighted.
Kolia was to be in more serious trouble. He was only interested in finding a studio where his models could pose for him. He never bothered to register with the military for exemption. He asked Anton to send the necessary papers from Taganrog to Rostov-on-the-Don, but Anton replied only with jokes about him being conscripted. The worse the rows, the more the family longed for Anton, the one member of the family never to shout, hit out or weep. Kolia promised his father: 'You and Mama will be considerate to each other, our submissive brother Anton will come and we shall live, thank God, a glorious life.'
The women of the household had respite from Kolia and Vania in September 1878: their rich relatives, the Zakoriukins and Liadovs, invited them to Shuia, where Evgenia had spent her childhood. Showered with presents and friendship, they returned in early October, and the Chekhov family moved to a more spacious apartment. Still on the notorious Grachiovka attached to the church of St Nicolas, it was a dank basement: all that the inmates could see ,877-9 from the window were the ankles of passers-by. Here the Chekhovs took a lodger: an art student who paid 20 roubles to be fed by Evgenia and taught by Kolia.
Evgenia longed to reunite her family. On New Year's day 1879,.liter the older Chekhovs had returned at 4 a.m. from the Polevaevs, Fvgenia wrote to Anton: I want you to finish your course in Taganrog safely and come to us as quickly as you can. I have never been at peace it's soon two years since we saw each other… I have a lot to tell you, but I can't see well and I don't even want to write… Aleksandr took us to the Artistic Circle Christmas party. Masha danced a lot, tell everybody. On Anton's nineteenth birthday the message was reinforced by Pavel: 'Use every means to lighten Mama's burdensome fate, she is your Only One. Nobody loves you like your Mother.'50 Feeding and clothing her children and a tenant left Evgenia exhausted. By the standards of her class she was living in disgraceful poverty, for she had no servant and stoked the stoves and swept the rooms herself.
Fenichka was bedridden - terrified of fire, she would lie down clothed in all her garments, including her galoshes. She added to the burdens by adopting a stray bitch. When Pavel came home, he offered to help, but complained of giddiness and exhaustion from his labours at (lavrilov's. 'At least come quickly, Fenichka says you're hard-working,' Evgenia begged Anton on 1 March: Every hour I ask God to bring you quickly, but Papa says when Antosha comes he will just go visiting and won't do anything, but Fenichka argues that you are a homebody and a hard worker. I don't know whom to believe… I have no time to sleep. Antosha, on Easter Sunday go to Matins at the St Michael church and then be shriven… Evgenia's eldest sons led unshriven lives. Aleksandr caroused at weddings. Kolia wallowed in misery: his beloved had left him to marry the manager of a hospital; Khelius, his closest friend, died of OA. Rather than come home, Kolia would spend the night at the school where Diukovsky taught. Easily led, he began a dissolute life. He and Aleksandr frequented the notorious pleasure gardens of Strelna that winter. Aleksandr warned Anton in February: 'Kolia is starting new pictures and not finishing them. He's in love again, not that this stops
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him from visiting the Salon des Vari6t6s, doing the cancan there and taking ladies off for all-night vigils.' Tins Bohemianism eclipsed in Evgenia's eyes the prestige of paintings that were used as cover pictures for a satirical weekly. She wanted Anton's support: 'Quickly finish your studies in Taganrog and come as fast as you can, please… I need you to start on the medical faculty… We don't like Aleksandr's occupation, send us our icons a few at a time…'
Kolia too put store on Anton's arrival, promising that with Misha they would walk to St Sergei monastery as soon as he reached Moscow. Perhaps he felt penitent. Now Aleksandr frequented the editorial offices of the weekly magazine Chiaroscuro, where he also published sketches and stories. A new family entered the Chekhovs' lives: the wife of the publisher Nikolai Pushkariov was Anastasia Putiata-Golden. Her two sisters were to play a fateful part in the lives of Aleksandr, Kolia and Anton. The second sister, the Valkyrian Anna Ipatieva-Golden, was already Kolia's mistress.
Anton sent a description of his grandfather's funeral, then faced the examinations on which everything hung. He knew what awaited those who did not qualify for tertiary education: on i March he had registered at a Taganrog recruiting centre. Every examination had to be passed. On 15 May he took the Russian essay: set by the Chief Education Officer in Odessa, the topic reflected the convictions of the Tsar's government: 'There is no greater evil than anarchy'. The examination started at 10.20 a.m. and Anton was the last to finish, at 4.55 p.m. The longest philosophical discourse that Chekhov ever wrote, his essay earned a commendation for its literary finish. The next day Anton took Scripture and gained a '5'; successive days brought History Oral ('4'), Latin ('3') and Latin Oral ('4'). After a fortnight came Greek ('4'), Greek Oral ('4') and Mathematics ('3'). On 11 June disaster nearly struck: in Mathematics Oral Anton failed to multiply fractions correctly, and only after a vote was he conceded the vital '3'. On 15 June 1879, he received a matriculation certificate, signed by Actual State Councillor and Chevalier Edmund Reutlinger, Diakonov, Father Pokrovsky and seven other teachers. Chekhov had been awarded '5's in Religious Knowledge (both examination and course work), Geography, French and German (course work). In Latin, mathematics, physics and natural sciences - the relevant subjects for medicine - he had scored only '3's. He had a '4' for Russian language
