person
Dmitry Nikolayevich Anuchin
Anuchin
also: Д. Н. Анучин, D. N. Anuchin, пр Анучин, professor Anuchin
Probable referent of "professor Anuchin," a new acquaintance Chekhov reports meeting: almost certainly Dmitry Nikolayevich Anuchin (1843-1923), the Moscow University anthropologist, geographer, and ethnographer prominent in the same Moscow scientific circles as the Bogdanov-Timiryazev dispute Chekhov describes elsewhere in the 1891 correspondence. The letter itself gives only the surname and title, so this identification should be treated as probable, not certain; not to be confused with the unrelated fictional Anuchin of "The Wood Demon".
Reading notes
- To V. A. Vagner, 10 October 1891. Moscow. §8 I have made the acquaintance of professor Anuchin
The source gives only the abbreviated title and surname ("пр Анучиным"). This is very likely Dmitry Nikolayevich Anuchin (1843-1923), the Moscow University anthropologist, geographer, and ethnographer active in the same Moscow scientific circles as the Bogdanov-Timiryazev dispute Chekhov reports to Suvorin that same season -- Moscow's community of university-affiliated naturalists was small enough that an unqualified "professor Anuchin" would most naturally point there. This edition preserves that identification as probable rather than certain, since the letter itself offers no further detail (no first initial, no institutional affiliation, no subject of conversation) to confirm it. Not to be confused with the fictional Anuchin of "The Wood Demon", a comic landowner character with no connection to this real acquaintance.
- To F. A. Chervinsky, 25 October 1891. Moscow. §4 Dmitry Nikolayevich Anuchin is taking in material for the "Sbornik": Devichye Pole, the Morozova house.
Dmitry Nikolayevich Anuchin (1843-1923), the Moscow University anthropologist, geographer, and ethnographer whom Chekhov reports meeting at (10 October 1891, \S8) as "professor Anuchin." Here, two weeks later, Anuchin appears in a more concrete civic role: the person physically collecting submitted material for the famine-relief Sbornik at a named Moscow address (Devichye Pole, the Morozova house), which fits his standing as an established, socially connected university figure being drawn into the relief effort's organizational work rather than only its scientific circles.
- To K. M. Fofanov, 14 November 1891. Moscow. §5 I am sending you a letter from Professor Anuchin, who is in charge of publishing the "Miscellany"
Dmitry Nikolayevich Anuchin, the Moscow University anthropologist and ethnographer whom Chekhov had reported meeting a month earlier (10 October 1891, \S8) and who by late October was collecting submitted material for the Sbornik in person at Devichye Pole. Here, a further two weeks on, Anuchin -- evidently now overseeing the volume's contents in an editorial capacity -- has enlisted Chekhov as an intermediary to press a specific contributor, Fofanov, for a poem he had promised but not yet delivered.