concept
Moscow merchants as instinct-driven beings
Moscow merchants aside
also: московских купцах, in Moscow merchants
a period-typical, class-inflected rhetorical aside (\S3) in which Chekhov groups "animals," "savages," and "Moscow merchants" together as beings whose higher, non-animal faculties are conditioned by unconscious instinct rather than reason -- a stock dismissiveness toward merchants characteristic of educated Russian usage of the period. Translated directly and faithfully, not softened.
Reading notes
- To A. S. Suvorin, 7 May 1889. Sumy. §3 In animals, in savages, in Moscow merchants,
Translated directly and faithfully, without softening, per the letter's translator's report.