Verst

Reading notes

• The Bishop §19 versts

  A pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance, about two-thirds of a mile (roughly 1.07 km).

• Whitebrow §4 Some four versts

  A verst (верста) is a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance, roughly 1.07 kilometers (two-thirds of a mile); four versts is a little under three miles -- the distance from the she-wolf's den to the watchman's winter hut.

• The Wallet §21 some five versts

  The verst was the pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance, roughly 1.07 kilometers (0.66 miles).

• Someone Else's Trouble §3 eighteen versts

  A verst (верста) is a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance, roughly 1.07 kilometers (0.66 miles); eighteen versts is about twelve miles, a morning's carriage drive from the Kovalyovs' dacha.

• The Twenty-Ninth of June (the tale of a hunter who never hits his mark) §6 ten versts

  A verst is a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance, about 1.07 kilometers (two-thirds of a mile) -- the standard measure for describing travel across the steppe.

• Ionych §5 nine versts

  The verst was the standard pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance, about two-thirds of a mile; nine versts is roughly the walk Startsev makes on foot in the story's opening pages.

• The Dead Body §20 версты две

  A verst is a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance, about 1.07 kilometers (roughly two-thirds of a mile); the peasants give Feodosy his remaining route in versts, as was standard for describing travel distances in the countryside.

• The Dead Body §43 Пятьсот верст пешком прошел

  Five hundred versts is roughly 530 kilometers (about 330 miles), underscoring the great distances covered on foot by wandering pilgrims like Feodosy.

• Мужики §9 a verst

  A pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance, about 1.07 kilometers (two-thirds of a mile); used here to set the river, and so the parish church across it, at an easy walking distance from Zhukovo.

• On the River §24 fifty versts

  The raftsman's mental arithmetic -- fifty versts overland against six hundred by the winding river -- captures both the Zhizha's absurd twistiness and the sheer duration of a raft journey undertaken for a few rubles' wage.

• At Christmastime §34 versts

  A pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance, roughly two-thirds of a mile, used here to measure the walk to the station.

• An Unkind Night §53 Проехав верст пять-шесть

  A verst (верста) is a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance equal to about 1.07 kilometers (roughly two-thirds of a mile); the servants' earlier guess of "six versts" and the narrator's confirming "five or six versts" here place Kreshchenskoye at a plausible few miles' drive from the estate.

• The New Villa §3 Three versts

  The verst, a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance of about two-thirds of a mile (1.07 km), is the story's standard measure of how far things are from the village.

• In Autumn §44 versts

  A pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance, about 1.07 kilometers (two-thirds of a mile) -- the standard measure for describing how far the peasant has walked from home.

• Overdid It §1 versts

  A verst (верста) is a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance equal to about 1.07 kilometers (roughly two-thirds of a mile). Thirty to fifty versts is a half-day's journey or more by horse cart over unpaved roads.

• To N. A. Leikin, 27 June 1883. Voskresensk. §4 700 versts

  The verst, a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance (about 1.07 km); 700 versts is roughly the distance from Moscow to St. Petersburg, which Chekhov cites ironically since a Petersburg journalist would be no closer to Moscow events than anyone else.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 27 March 1887. Moscow. §7 12 versts

  A pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance, about 1.07 kilometers (two-thirds of a mile), used here to give the estate's distance from the nearest telegraph and railway.

• A Trivial Incident §20 fifteen versts

  A verst is a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance, roughly 1.07 kilometers (0.66 miles); the narrator's repeated insistence on the fifteen versts already traveled underscores how much is at stake, in mere convenience, for what turns out to be a far larger unspoken drama.

• Village Aesculapiuses §32 twenty versts

  A pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance, about 1.07 kilometers (two-thirds of a mile); the patient has walked roughly thirteen miles on foot to be turned away.

• Murder Will Out (You Can't Hide an Awl in a Sack) §14 ten versts off

  A verst is a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance equal to roughly 1.07 kilometers (two-thirds of a mile); the driver's boast that the old official could be heard shouting from ten versts away is provincial hyperbole about volume, not literal claim.

• A Case from Practice §3 four versts

  A verst (верста) is a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance equal to about 1.07 kilometers (roughly two-thirds of a mile); four versts by horse from the station is a short country drive.

• Darkness §40 A good fifteen versts

  A verst is roughly two-thirds of a mile (about 1.07 km); fifteen versts is close to ten miles, a full day's walk for a peasant with no other means of transport -- the practical cost, on top of every bureaucratic dead end, of simply trying to be heard.

• Difficult People §45 some five versts

  A verst (верста) is a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance equal to about 1.07 kilometers (two-thirds of a mile); five versts describes the length of the ravine bordering the Shiryaev farmstead.

• Difficult People §47 at the hundredth verst

  Pyotr's daydream of a hundred-verst walk toward Moscow (roughly 107 kilometers, or 66 miles) uses the same pre-revolutionary distance unit as elsewhere in the story to give his self-pitying fantasy of dying by the roadside a note of precise, almost bureaucratic detail.

• Visiting Friends §128 versts

  A pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance, about two-thirds of a mile, the standard measure for describing distances across open country.

• On Christmas Night §4 five versts off

  A verst is a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance, roughly 1.07 kilometers (0.66 miles).

• The Witch §15 В трех верстах от церкви

  A verst is roughly 1.07 kilometers (about two-thirds of a mile); the post road runs three versts from the church, close enough that the wind can carry the mail-bells to the watch-house on a wild night.

• The Strays §2 пять верст

  A verst is roughly 1.07 kilometers (two-thirds of a mile); the five-verst walk from the train halt establishes just how far out from the city, and how exhausted and thirsty, the two men already are before the story's real trouble begins.

• The Malefactor §3 hundred-and-forty-first verst

  A verst (versta) is a pre-revolutionary Russian unit of distance equal to about 1.07 kilometers (two-thirds of a mile); giving the exact verst-marker where the watchman caught Denis is a small touch of officialese precision that frames the magistrate's opening recitation of the charge.