institution
Moscow Committee of Literacy
Literacy Committee
also: Комитет грамотности, Committee of Literacy
A Moscow philanthropic and educational society (Комитет грамотности) that, during the 1891-92 famine, organized canteens for schoolchildren in the affected provinces alongside its ordinary literacy-promotion work. Named here as the object of Varvara Morozova's attention and funds in late 1891, which is why Chekhov does not press her for direct cash and instead secures her promise of the Committee's institutional cooperation should Yegorov want school canteens specifically.
Reading notes
- To Ye. P. Yegorov, 11 December 1891. Moscow. §8 Она увлечена теперь Комитетом грамотности, который устраивает столовые для школьников
The Moscow Committee of Literacy (Комитет грамотности), a philanthropic educational society then organizing school canteens for famine-district children as part of its own relief effort; Morozova's attention and funds are shown here as already committed to this specific channel, which is why Chekhov does not press her directly for cash and instead angles for the Committee's institutional cooperation on Yegorov's district specifically, should Yegorov want school canteens rather than general relief.
- To Ye. P. Yegorov, 14 December 1891. Moscow. §5 Напишите же насчет школьников и их кормления. Я тотчас же помчусь в Комитет грамотности, который поможет Вам.
Follows up directly on, \S8, where Chekhov reported that Varvara Morozova, absorbed in the Moscow Committee of Literacy's school-canteen work, had promised the Committee's institutional cooperation if Yegorov wanted to set up canteens for schoolchildren in his district and would send particulars; here Chekhov asks Yegorov to supply exactly that information so he can take it to the Committee.
- To A. S. Suvorin, 28 February 1892. Moscow. §9 the Committee of Literacy
The Moscow Committee of Literacy (Комитет грамотности), a philanthropic and educational society already documented in this corpus (institution:literacy-committee-moscow); Chekhov is chasing 50 copies of his own "Kashtanka" that Suvorin was to have sent for its use, likely for distribution to schoolchildren, continuing the same famine-relief-adjacent institutional work as the letters of the preceding months.
- To I. P. Chekhov, 1891. Moscow. §2 Literacy Committee
The Moscow Committee of Literacy (\textit{Комитет грамотности}), a philanthropic and educational society promoting popular literacy; here approached, via Tikhomirov, to gather and ship donated books for the schools Chekhov hoped to see established on Sakhalin.
- To V. O. Kononovich, 19 February 1891. Moscow. §6 1,470 booklets for the 5 northern schools, 294 booklets to each
The Literacy Committee attached to the Free Economic Society (a Petersburg-based body, distinct from the Moscow Committee of Literacy named two sentences later, which is attached to the Agricultural Society) supplies the library seed-stock for the five schools in Sakhalin's northern districts; the arithmetic (1,470 / 5 = 294) is exact in the source, one of the letter's many precise, itemized figures characteristic of Chekhov discharging what is essentially a procurement audit rather than personal correspondence.