Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov

Reading notes

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 1875. Taganrog. §3 Sasha

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, the eldest of the Chekhov brothers, then living in Moscow while the family summered in Taganrog. Addressee of this letter.

• To N. A. Leikin, 9 May 1885. Babkino. §6 Aloe

  The pen name under which Chekhov's brother Alexander was then writing customs-house sketches after relocating from Moscow to Petersburg; Chekhov teases him for sticking to one narrow subject.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 4 January 1886. Moscow. §1 Quarantine-and-customs Sasha

  A mock-official title, needling Alexander for his humdrum civil-service post at a customs house in Novorossiysk (in "Asia," as Chekhov jokingly calls the south) -- the first of a string of insulting salutations that open this letter as a running joke rather than a real reproach.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 6 April 1886. Moscow. §3 customs-and-quarantine fellow

  A mock-official nickname for Alexander, who worked at this period as a customs official in Novocherkassk (referred to in the letter as "N."); Chekhov opens with comic bureaucratic titling rather than a plain greeting, a running habit in the brothers' correspondence.

• To N. P. and I. P. Chekhov, 28 April 1880. Moscow. §2 Al. P. Chekhov

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, the eldest brother, who supplies the first, deliberately nonsensical section of this composite letter.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 10 May 1886. Moscow. §11 A man of thirty must be positive and have character.

  Alexander Chekhov, born in 1855, was about thirty-one at the time of this letter -- older than Anton by five years, but professionally and personally the less settled of the two brothers, struggling with debt, alcohol, and an unstable home life documented in Anton's other 1886 letters to him (e.g.). The line is characteristic of Anton's tone toward Alexander throughout this period: part exasperated needling, part genuine appeal to his brother's self-respect.

• To N. A. Leikin, 1886. Babkino. §14 Алоэ

  "Aloe": a private family nickname/pseudonym for Anton's eldest brother, the journalist Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, used elsewhere in the correspondence (e.g.) as a joking pen-name reference; here Anton reports Alexander's arrival as a guest at Babkino and, in the same breath, that he has an eye ailment.

• To P. P. Filevsky, 27 October 1880. Moscow. §7 An. P. Chekhov

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's elder brother, care of whose Moscow address this letter was to be delivered.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 27–30 December 1886. Moscow. §8 Tyoma Al. Chekhov

  "Tyoma" (a diminutive, here used almost as a mock-formal first name) paired with the surname in full signature form -- Chekhov ridicules his brother's habit of signing minor, everyday notes with his complete name, as if they were official documents, warning him it looks pretentious.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 1881. Moscow. §2 Alexander

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's elder brother, a journalist and writer prone to drunken scenes; this letter is a formal, mock-legalistic rebuke written after one such episode.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 8 November 1882. Moscow. §3 Alexander

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's eldest brother, a journalist then living apart from the family; the letter's addressee and this early series' habitual butt of Anton's mock-clinical joking.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 12 November 1882. Moscow. §3 Alexander

  Anton Chekhov's eldest brother, a journalist then living in Moscow while translating serialized foreign fiction for the papers; the recurring butt of Anton's mock-scolding letters.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 25 December 1882. Moscow. §3 Alexander Pavlych

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov ("Sasha"), Anton's elder brother, then working for the customs service in Taganrog -- hence the mock-grandiose "catcher of contrabandist-men" greeting.

• To M. M. Chekhov, 7 December 1876. Taganrog. §7 Sasha

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's elder brother, then in Moscow; a frequent correspondent and later a journalist and writer himself.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 25 January 1883. Moscow. §4 Alexander Pavlovich

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's elder brother, then working in St. Petersburg; the addressee of this letter, whom Anton teases with the mock-official title of "chief clerk" (stolonachalnik).

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 17–18 April 1883. Moscow. §2 Alexander Pavlovich

  Anton's elder brother and the letter's addressee, then living with his family in Taganrog.

• To M. M. Chekhov, 1 January 1877. Taganrog. §4 Sasha

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's elder brother, already in Moscow with the rest of the family; the mock-toast on his 'mathematical fame' plays on his university studies.

• To N. A. Leikin, 1883. Moscow. §7 Ag Yedinitsyn

  A pen name Chekhov's elder brother Alexander used when submitting pieces to the humor press; Anton describes him here, thinly veiled, as "my brother, now a clerk" -- a gifted natural humorist derailed by lyricism and journalistic hackwork.

• To M. M. Chekhov, 8 February 1877. Taganrog. §3 Sasha

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's elder brother, a mathematics student whose melodramatic letter from Kaluga -- addressed to 'Father Antony' -- is the occasion for this whole letter's joke.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 15–28 October 1883. Moscow. §3 Alexander Pavlovich

  Anton's eldest brother, then living in Moscow with his common-law wife Anna Ivanovna and their infant daughter. The addressee of most of Chekhov's family letters of this period.

• To N. A. Leikin, 31 December 1883. Moscow. §8 his brother

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's eldest brother, then living in Moscow, whose errand-by-proxy through Palmin annoys Chekhov here.

• To M. M. Chekhov, 29 July 1877. Taganrog. §4 Sasha

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's elder brother, teasingly noted here as mistaking Anton for a nihilist.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 17 January 1887. Moscow. §3 Your Chastity!

  A mock-formal honorific -- parodying the address style used for clergy and dignitaries ("Your Grace," "Your Excellency") -- one of a running set of ironic titles the brothers used with each other; playfully at odds with Alexander's actual common-law domestic arrangement.

• To N. A. Leikin, 26 January 1887. Moscow. §8 Alexander Pavlovich wrote to me

  Chekhov's elder brother Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, himself a journalist and frequent correspondent, whose change of employment Chekhov reports here to Leikin as a small piece of family news.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 30 January 1887. Moscow. §2 Gusev

  A joking nickname ("Goose") Anton uses for his elder brother Alexander in their needling family correspondence.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, February 1887. Moscow. §4 Alexander Chekhov

  Anton's eldest brother, addressed here with mock-official formality ("the nobleman") as the debtor in the ledger conceit.

• To M. P. Chekhova, 11–12 March 1887. Petersburg. §3 Alexander

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's elder brother, then living with a common-law wife ("his lady") in Moscow. The mention of his "low spirits and tendency to get tipsy" is a passing, non-judgmental aside typical of Anton's letters about Alexander's periodic drinking during this period -- concern for a brother under strain, not condemnation.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 19 March 1887. Moscow. §3 Nonentity!

  Mock-abusive salutation typical of Chekhov's letters to his elder brother Alexander; affectionate insult, not genuine hostility.

• To G. M. Chekhov, 23 March 1887. Moscow. §9 To His High Nobility Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov.

  The formal address "His High Nobility" (Его высокородию) is a conventional honorific of the Russian civil-rank system (Table of Ranks), used on envelopes regardless of the addressee's actual rank; it does not indicate that Alexander Chekhov held noble status.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 17 May 1887. Moscow. §3 Dearest Gusev!

  "Gusev" (literally "Goose-man") is one of Chekhov's mock-affectionate nicknames for his elder brother Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, used as a salutation here even though the note itself is addressed on the reverse to Alexander at his real Petersburg address.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 20 May 1887. Babkino. §3 Sasha-Tarakasha

  A comic rhyming nickname for Alexander -- "Tarakasha" plays on "tarakan" (cockroach) -- typical of the family's teasing private idiom.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 3 June 1887. Babkino. §2 Luka Ivanych

  A joking nickname Chekhov uses for his brother Alexander in this letter, part of the habitual run of comic aliases and mock-formal titles the brothers used with each other in their correspondence.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 8–12 July 1887. Moscow. §2 Son of dust!

  A mock-Biblical greeting ("сын персти", literally "son of dust," echoing Genesis' language of man formed from the dust of the ground) addressed to Chekhov's elder brother Alexander -- one of the family's running jokes rather than a real reproach.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, August 1887. Babkino. §2 come crawling out of the privy

  A deliberately crude, scatological opening insult ("из нужника", literally "out of the outhouse/privy") used as mock-astonished praise -- the coarse fraternal register Chekhov reserves for Alexander, meant affectionately rather than as a real slight.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, August 1887. Babkino. §9 You are not a genius, and we have nothing in common.

  A deflating closing jab that undercuts the letter's opening hyperbole ("such a genius"), returning to the brothers' habitual mock-insulting register after several paragraphs of genuine literary engagement.

• To N. A. Leikin, 11 August 1887. Babkino. §10 Alexander

  Chekhov's elder brother Alexander, then living in Petersburg and keeping an eye on the progress of the new book through the press.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 12 August 1887. Babkino. §2 Gusev

  A joking nickname Anton uses here for his elder brother Alexander, the letter's addressee -- one of the family's many private teasing names for each other, unrelated to any story character of the same name.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 3 September 1887. Moscow. §2 Gusev!

  A joking nickname for Chekhov's brother Alexander, the letter's addressee, continuing the brothers' habit of teasing pet-names for one another.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 3 September 1887. Moscow. §8 To Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov,

  Chekhov's elder brother, addressee of the letter; this closing line -- along with the Petersburg address above it -- is the address block written on the back of the letter itself.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 7–8 September 1887. Moscow. §2 Gusev

  A joking nickname for Chekhov's elder brother Alexander, the letter's addressee, continuing the brothers' running habit of teasing pet-names for one another.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 25 September 1887. Moscow. §3 Gusev

  Chekhov's joking nickname for his elder brother Alexander, the letter's addressee, used here to open the mock-itemized "account" that structures the letter's business half.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 6–7 October 1887. Moscow. §2 Gusev

  Chekhov's joking nickname for his elder brother Alexander, the letter's addressee.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 10–12 October 1887. Moscow. §2 Goosey!

  "Гусиных" (genitive plural of "goose"), one of Chekhov's family nicknames/salutations for his brother Alexander -- an affectionate, teasing form of address typical of their correspondence.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 21 October 1887. Moscow. §2 Gusev

  Chekhov's joking nickname for his elder brother Alexander, the letter's addressee, working in St. Petersburg for Suvorin's Novoye Vremya.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 21 October 1887. Moscow. §3 Gusev

  A joking nickname ("Goose") for Chekhov's elder brother Alexander, the letter's addressee, part of the brothers' running habit of teasing pet-names for one another; not a reference to any third person.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 24 October 1887. Moscow. §3 Robber of the pen and swindler of the press

  Part of the brothers' habitual comic register of mock-abusive salutations toward Alexander, the letter's addressee; not a genuine accusation, continuing the running joke that closes the letter with "Your ill-wisher."

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 29 October 1887. Moscow. §3 Gusev

  A joking nickname for Chekhov's elder brother Alexander, the letter's addressee, part of the brothers' habitual comic pet-names for one another; the mock-menacing "commission" that follows is a deliberate scare with no real content.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 29 October 1887. Moscow. §3 Gusev!

  "Gusev" ("Goose") is one of the brothers' habitual joking nicknames for Alexander, the letter's addressee, not a reference to any third party of that name.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 24 November 1887. Moscow. §3 dearest Gusev

  "Gusev" ("Goose") is the brothers' habitual joking nickname for Alexander, this letter's addressee, not a third party -- the same running joke opens most of Chekhov's letters to him from this period.

• To M. P. Chekhova, 30 November 1887. Petersburg. §5 Alexander keeps his spirits up

  A dry, understated aside typical of Chekhov's habit of undercutting a grim domestic report -- here, his brother's common-law wife dying in a squalid sickroom -- with a flat, almost wry remark rather than open sentiment.

• To the Chekhovs, 3 December 1887. Petersburg. §5 Filth, stench, weeping, lying

  Chekhov's blunt description of conditions in his brother Alexander's Petersburg household, where he was lodging on this visit. The harsh language is preserved as written rather than softened: it is Chekhov's own unguarded assessment of his brother's domestic disorder (heavy drinking and a chaotic common-law household were long-running family concerns about Alexander), not an editorial characterization.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 25 December 1887. Moscow. §4 Akaky Spiridonych

  A comic mock-formal pseudonym Chekhov invents for his brother Alexander, combining the first name of Gogol's downtrodden clerk Akaky Akakievich ("The Overcoat") with an invented patronymic, part of the brothers' running private idiom of absurd nicknames.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 25 December 1887. Moscow. §5 Mister Gusev

  The second half of the joking pseudonym for Alexander -- "Gusev" (from гусь, goose) -- continuing the mock-formal salutation begun in the previous line.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 10–11 January 1888. Moscow. §2 Gusinsky

  "Gusinsky" (from "гусь," goose) is a variant of the family's habitual joking nickname for Alexander, this letter's addressee -- compare "Gusev" in and, and "Goosey" more generally in the run of letters from this period.

• To M. P. Chekhov, 16 March 1888. Petersburg. §6 Alexander

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's elder brother, then living in Petersburg; Chekhov delivers rusks (dried bread) sent from home and reports on his family.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 24 March 1888. Moscow. §18 Alexey

  The letter's addressee, Alexander ("Alexey") Chekhov, jestingly threatened -- along with their father -- with demotion to office boy in the earlier, smaller-scale mock courtship.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 4 April 1888. Moscow. §3 Bottomless Pit

  "Прорва" (literally a bottomless pit or chasm, figuratively an insatiable spendthrift), one of the Chekhov family's rough, affectionate private nicknames for Alexander, the letter's addressee.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 1888. Moscow. §2 Guskov

  "Гуськов" (Guskov), a joking nickname Chekhov pins on his elder brother Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov for this letter's salutation -- one of several such family nicknames for Alexander, not a separate person.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 9 June 1888. Sumy. §7 my brother

  Chekhov's elder brother Alexander, per the confirmed cross-reference to letter 435, where Chekhov instructs Alexander to distribute copies of the same new book ("V sumerkakh" / "In the Twilight") to a list of recipients including Shcheglov; not a brother of Shcheglov's.

• To N. A. Leikin, 21 June 1888. Sumy. §6 My brother Alexander

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's eldest brother, here returning to Petersburg with his own children -- a distinct figure from Lazarev and Ezhov (\S4, \S9) and from Pleshcheyev (\S11), and not to be confused with any of them.

• To M. P. Chekhova, 14 July 1888. Feodosia. §3 I don't see anything good in this, Sasha

  An internal apostrophe: Chekhov addresses this thought silently to his brother Alexander as he crosses the steppe, not to Maria, the letter's actual recipient. The two siblings are distinct throughout this letter -- Maria is the addressee, Alexander only a private interlocutor in Chekhov's thoughts.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 24 July 1888. Parokhod "Yunona". §3 Mr. Gusev!

  Referent tracking: "Gusev" is Anton's joking nickname for his older brother Alexander Chekhov, the addressee of sections 1-10, not a separate correspondent.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 29 August 1888. Sumy. §7 my brother

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's elder brother, then working at "New Times" in Petersburg; Chekhov has written asking him to withhold his book earnings and 25% of his fee to help cover the prospective 1500-rouble loan from Suvorin.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 24 September 1888. Moscow. §14 Al. Chekhov

  "Al. Chekhov" is Alexander, the letter's addressee, referred to here by the same byline initials under dispute throughout the letter -- distinct from "An. Chekhov" (Anton) two words earlier in the same sentence.

• To D. V. Grigorovich, 9 October 1888. Moscow. §9 my brother

  The brother is left unnamed in the Russian source itself; the identification with Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's eldest brother and a journalist who published under the family surname, is an INFERENCE from period context and biography, not a certainty stated in the letter. Flagged here as inferred, not confirmed.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 10 October 1888. Moscow. §7 What am I to do about my brother?

  This section is Chekhov's frank, physician's-eye analysis of his brother Alexander's periodic drinking bouts ("запой"), which he explicitly classifies as a psychosis of the same category as morphinism, onanism, and nymphomania, and discusses in terms of heredity from a father, mother, grandfather, or grandmother. This period medical/psychological framing -- now outdated and offensive by modern clinical standards, particularly the equation of alcoholism with onanism and nymphomania as a single class of hereditary "psychosis" -- is translated faithfully and in full, without softening or omission, per the corpus's fidelity standard for period language. It documents Chekhov's own diagnostic vocabulary as a trained physician writing about a family member's addiction, not editorializing added in translation.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 10 October 1888. Moscow. §7 Alexander

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's elder brother, whose drinking bouts are the subject of this section; Chekhov asks Suvorin for his current address so he can write to him directly.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 14 October 1888. Moscow. §5 As for my brother, I have only to thank you

  DISAMBIGUATION -- do not conflate with \S11-12's "Ivan Pavlovich." "My brother" here is Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, the elder brother whose drinking bouts, lying, and hallucinations while drunk are discussed at length in (\S7 of that letter's headnote and glossary); this is a brief, grateful follow-up to that earlier, fuller discussion, not a new incident. Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov, named later in this same letter at \S11-12 as "my teacher-brother" and the addressee of the quoted deacon's letter, is a wholly different brother -- a schoolteacher with no connection to the drinking-and-hallucination thread. The two brothers must be kept distinct across this letter's apparatus.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 3 November 1888. Moscow. §8 and of my brother Alexander, whom he hates

  Chekhov's elder brother Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, already established in this corpus; no further detail on the source of Leikin's antagonism toward him is given and none should be invented.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 16 November 1888. Moscow. §3 Dearest boatswain!

  "Boatswain" (боцман) is a nickname for Alexander used here in the salutation; it is not otherwise attested as an established running epithet for him elsewhere in this corpus's letters -- treated as a one-off affectionate jab rather than a recurring nickname.

• To F. O. Shekhtel, 16 December 1888. Moscow. §4 my brother Alexander

  Chekhov's elder brother Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, then living in Petersburg, through whom Chekhov chances to learn Nikolai's address during this trip.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 2 January 1889. Moscow. §3 Most sage secretary!

  The addressee, Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's elder brother, greeted with the family's habitual mock-official title; the letter's own aside in §8 ('you are... reckoned a journalist') confirms the identification -- Alexander worked as a journalist and had also held clerical/customs posts, the likely source of the joke.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 21 February 1889. Moscow. §3 Brother of mine, living lawlessly and perishing lawlessly!

  Chekhov's habitual joking address to his eldest brother Alexander, mocking his chaotic, unmarried domestic arrangements; the same "lawlessly living" formula recurs elsewhere in the corpus's letters to him.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 25 February 1889. Moscow. §3 Mr. Provincial Secretary

  A mock-formal salutation using Alexander's actual civil rank ('губернский секретарь,' a low-ranking civil-service grade), the letter's opening comic device before the deliberately abusive tone of \S4.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 2 March 1889. Moscow. §3 My good man!

  Addressee: Chekhov's elder brother Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, addressed here with the brothers' habitual gruff-affectionate salutation ("Человек!", literally "Man!" or "Fellow!") rather than by name.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 4 May 1889. Sumy. §10 My brother writes that he is worn out with his play.

  "Брат" ("my brother") is most plausibly Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's elder brother, INFERRED rather than certain: he is discussed by name in the very next section (\S11) as an inexperienced playwright struggling with revisions and false effects, and the two sections read as continuous comment on the same sibling and the same play. The corpus does not rule out a second, unnamed brother's project. Flagged as inference, not certainty. See (the play "Kopilka," first named by that title in \S9 and), plausibly though not certainly the same play referenced here without a title.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 4 May 1889. Sumy. §11 Alexander is suffering from an excess of revisions.

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, named explicitly here as an inexperienced playwright overloading his own revisions with false effects; continuous with the unnamed "my brother" of \S10, per the note there.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 2 July 1889. Sumy. §10 The Drunkard sends you his regards.

  "Пьяница" ("the Drunkard") is Chekhov's own long-running nickname for his elder brother Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov; see the letter addressed to him and opening "Пьяница!" at, which establishes the nickname directly.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 13 August 1889. Sumy. §2 Journalistic lilliputian!

  "Журнальный лилипут" -- one of Chekhov's stock mock-belittling epithets for Alexander, playing on his brother's work as a minor journalist/proofreader; rendered literally to preserve the comic register of the salutation, which substitutes for a normal greeting throughout their correspondence.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 13 August 1889. Sumy. §11 Your brother and benefactor.

  "Твой брат и благодетель" -- Chekhov's recurring ironic-formal sign-off to Alexander, casting himself as the put-upon elder brother dispensing favors and orders; see also the headnote's discussion of this self-mocking title.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 9 September 1889. Moscow. §3 Alcoholismus!

  "Алкоголизмус!" -- a mock-Latinized, faux-medical coinage (the ordinary Russian would be "алкоголизм") substituting for a salutation, one of Chekhov's stock jabbing epithets for Alexander's drinking; rendered as the equally faux-Latin "Alcoholismus!" to preserve the comic, diagnostic-sounding coinage rather than flattening it to the plain "Alcoholism!"

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 7 September 1891. Moscow. §9 The address is correct, I think.

  A brief closing hedge appended to the copied address panel, typical of Chekhov's business notes to Alexander of this period when writing to a temporary or recently changed St. Petersburg address rather than a settled one; compare the similar address-panel-plus-aside construction in the corpus's other terse notes to Alexander from Moscow.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 28 February 1892. Moscow. §3 Literary fire-chief!

  "Литературный брандмайор" ("literary fire-chief/fire-marshal") continues the fireman joke opened five days earlier in ("Пожарный брат мой!", "My fireman brother!"), where Chekhov first hailed Alexander -- newly installed as editor of the fire-safety journal "Пожарный" ("The Fireman,") -- with mock-military fire-service titles. "Брандмайор" was the actual period rank of the chief of a city fire brigade (cf. Moscow's or St Petersburg's brandmayor), so the epithet promotes Alexander from ordinary "fireman" to a comic top rank purely on the strength of his editorship. The instruction to brand the new mailing addresses onto his own chest "with a red-hot iron" keeps the mock-solemn firefighting register going into the letter's practical business.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 4–15 May 1891. Aleksin. §3 two-faced freethinking brother

  The letter's addressee, Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, greeted with the same mock-elevated, faux-solemn diction Chekhov reserves for him elsewhere in this run: "Двулично-вольнодумствующий брат" (a joking coinage suggesting a two-faced, free-thinking hypocrite) and "твое благоутробие" ("your graciousness," a parody of an ecclesiastical honorific), continuing directly into Chekhov's chancery-style "hereby I inform."

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 24–25 July 1891. Bogimovo. §3 photographic and prolific brother

  Chekhov's customary mock-elevated address to Alexander, punning here on "плодовытый" (a coinage combining "prolific"/fertile and the ordinary word for productive) to tease his brother's growing brood of children, immediately picked up again at the end of the same sentence ("your prolificness keeps you from coming").

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 24–25 July 1891. Bogimovo. §4 Sedoy's latest story

  "Седой" ("Grey-hair," i.e. Sedoy) was Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov's own long-running pen name at Novoye Vremya (as "A. Sedoy"), under which he wrote feuilletons and stories for decades; Chekhov is telling his brother, in the third person, that a recent story of Alexander's own has been well received by both himself and Suvorin -- a small, characteristic piece of praise delivered obliquely rather than directly.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 6 August 1891. Bogimovo. §9 His feuilleton about the night-shelter

  A newspaper feuilleton (a topical, often satirical short piece) by Chekhov's elder brother Alexander Pavlovich on the subject of a \textit{ночлежный дом} (night-shelter/doss-house for the homeless poor), cited here as evidence of Alexander's improving professional application.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 6 August 1891. Bogimovo. §3 You fruitful fig tree!

  Chekhov's customary mock-elevated address to Alexander, teasing his brother's growing brood of children with a Biblical-flavored epithet ("плодовытая смоковница," playing on "плодовитый"/prolific); the joke continues through the section with the mother's card-reading to guess the new child's sex.

• Notebooks. Diaries §4024 Alexander

  Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov (1855-1913), Anton's elder brother, himself a journalist on the Novoye Vremya staff, seen here walking down the office stairs with him.