[The Tchirkov and Mikhailovo schools.]
July 13. Opening of the school at Novossiolki which I have had built. The peasants gave me an icon with an inscription. The Zemstvo people were absent.
Braz [painter] does my portrait (for the Tretiakov Gallery). Two sittings a day.
July 22. I received a medal for my work on the census.
July 23. In Petersburg. Stopped at Souvorin's, in the drawing-room. Met VI. T…. who complained of his hysteria and praised his own books. I saw P. Gnyeditch and E. Karpov, who imitated Leykin showing off as a Spanish grandee.
July 27. At Leykin's at Ivanovsk. 28th in Moscow. In the editorial offices of
September 4. Arrived in Paris. 'Moulin Rouge,' danse du ventre, Cafe du Neon with Coffins, Cafe du Ciel, etc.
September 8. In Biarritz. V.M. Sobolevsky and Mme. V.A. Morosov are here. Every Russian in Biarritz complains of the number of Russians here.
September 14. Bayonne. Grande course landoise. Bull-fight.
September 22. From Biarritz to Nice via Toulouse.
September 23. Nice. I settled into the Pension Russe. Met Maxim
Kovalevsky; lunched at his house at Beaulieu, with N.I. Yurassov and
Yakobi, the artist. In Monte Carlo.
October 7. Confession of a spy.
October 9. I saw B.'s mother playing roulette. Unpleasant sight.
November 15. Monte Carlo. I saw how the croupier stole a louis d'or.
1898.
April 16. In Paris. Acquaintance with M.M. Antokolsky [sculptor] and negotiations for a statue of Peter the Great.
May 5. Returned home.
May 26. Sobolevsky came to Melikhovo. Must put down the fact that, in Paris, in spite of the rain and cold, I spent two or three weeks without being bored. Arrived here with M. Kovalevsky. Many interesting acquaintances: Paul Boyer, Art Roe, Bonnie, M. Dreyfus, De Roberti, Waliczewsky, Onieguin. Luncheons and dinners, at I.I. Schoukin's house. Left by Nord-express for Petersburg, whence to Moscow. At home, found wonderful weather.
An example of clerical boorishness. At a dinner party the critic Protopopov came up to M. Kovalevsky, clinked glasses and said: 'I drink to science, so long as it does no harm to the people.'
1901.
September 12. I was at L. Tolstoi's.
December 7. Talked to L. Tolstoi over the telephone.
1903.
January 8. 'Istorichesky Vestnik,' November 1902, 'The Artistic Life of Moscow in the Seventies,' by I.N. Zakharin. It is said in that article that I sent in my 'Three Sisters' to the Theatrical and Literary Committee. It is not true.
