Alexei Bezhetsky

Reading notes

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 31 January 1887. Moscow. §8 It wasn't Maslov the general dressed down

  A correction of some piece of gossip or rumor evidently relayed by Alexander -- that a general had reprimanded the military writer Bezhetsky (A. A. Maslov); Chekhov clarifies the officer in question was a different military correspondent, Nikolai Karlovich (otherwise unidentified here).

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 22–23 February 1887. Moscow. §14 Maslov's "Military Men at War" is quite a decent thing.

  Alexander Nikolayevich Maslov, writing as "A. Bezhetsky," author of the 1885 story collection "Voyennye na voyne" ("Military Men at War"); Chekhov's verdict here is warmer than his lukewarm private reaction when he first received the book from Alexander weeks earlier.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 7–8 September 1887. Moscow. §5 Maslov and the Colonel

  Alexander Maslov, the officer-writer publishing as "A. Bezhetsky," named alongside an unidentified "Colonel" (полковник) as two Novoye Vremya-circle figures who, Chekhov reports, do not yet know Alexander at all.

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

  Pen name of Alexei Nikolayevich Maslov, officer and writer; the second suggested contact for placing the theatrical notice.

• To G. M. Chekhov, 17 October 1887. Moscow. §14 "In the Land of the Mantilla and the Castanets"

  A travel book by Alexei Bezhetsky (pen name of Alexei Nikolayevich Maslov) that Chekhov believes he left behind at Georgy's; not otherwise identified further in this letter.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 24 March 1888. Moscow. §21 Maslov

  Alexander Maslov, a writer known by the pen name A. Bezhetsky, part of the Suvorin/Novoye Vremya literary circle.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 1888. Sumy. §6 Maslov

  Alexander Nikolayevich Maslov, who wrote under the pen name A. Bezhetsky -- distinct from Ieronim Ieronimovich Yasinsky, who published as "Maxim Belinsky". The source's bare surname "Маслову" here is this Maslov/Bezhetsky, not Yasinsky.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 1888. Sumy. §6 Tell Maslov to send me his new little book

  A separate, distinct request naming Maslov as the third party involved: Alexander is to relay to Maslov Chekhov's request for a copy of Maslov's own recent book, not to send Chekhov anything himself in this instance.

• To the Chekhovs, 23 July 1888. Feodosia. §5 Bezhetsky

  Alexei Bezhetsky (pen name of A. N. Maslov), another contemporary writer grouped with Korolenko and Chekhov himself as one of Suvorina's supposed "personal enemies" in matters of literary taste.

• To N. M. Yezhov, 8 August 1888. Sumy. §4 Bezhetsky and Chekhov, who have grown lazy

  Alexei Bezhetsky (pen name of Alexei Nikolayevich Maslov), a military writer and fellow "Novoye Vremya" contributor, self-deprecatingly grouped here with Chekhov himself as the paper's supposedly idle fiction writers.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 30 September 1888. Moscow. §6 Бежецкий-Маслов

  Alexei Bezhetsky was the pen name of A. N. Maslov; Chekhov uses the hyphenated double form here (pen name-real name) to identify the same person Suvorin and Pleshcheyev would know only as "Bezhetsky" the writer or "Maslov" the person -- not two men.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 2 October 1888. Moscow. §26 Maslov

  Alexei Nikolayevich Maslov, the writer who published under the pen name "Bezhetsky" (established in an earlier batch); not to be confused with any other figure of the same surname. Chekhov asks after a possible new play from him again in \S25.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 5–6 October 1888. Moscow. §4 Tell Maslov that Yevreinova and the other ladies of "Severny Vestnik" are not to blame

  Alexei Nikolayevich Maslov, writing under the pen name "Bezhetsky", already established in this corpus (see and); not to be confused with any other Maslov.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 10 October 1888. Moscow. §11 Maslov writes to me

  Alexei Maslov ("Bezhetsky"), already established in this corpus (see's headnote and cross-references); the quoted note about marriage advice is a light, teasing item consistent with his established relationship to Chekhov and Suvorin.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 14 October 1888. Moscow. §8 Advise Maslov

  Alexei Maslov, writing under the pen name "Bezhetsky," already established in this corpus (see's and's headnotes); Chekhov's advice that he try vaudevilles instead of full comedies continues their ongoing literary-advice relationship, echoing the exchange about marriage advice quoted at \S11.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 7 November 1888. Moscow. §9 Bezhetsky's "The Seducer of Seville" is not a bad play

  Alexei Bezhetsky (pen name of A. N. Maslov), already established in this corpus via and, the latter of which Chekhov wrote directly to Bezhetsky about placing this same play, "The Seducer of Seville," with Korsh's theater.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 24–25 November 1888. Moscow. §10 Tell Maslov that his play's fate is being decided

  Maslov is Alexei Nikolayevich Maslov, writing under the pen name Bezhetsky (corpus entity), already established in this corpus (see's's, and's headnotes); the play's uncertain fate at Fyodor Korsh's Moscow theater has been a running thread across several recent letters, continued here.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 28 November 1888. Moscow. §7 If Maslov's play were three times worse but ordinary, true-to-life or knockabout, it would have been running at Korsh's long ago.

  Maslov (Alexei Nikolayevich Maslov, pen name Bezhetsky), already established in this corpus (see's's, and's headnotes) as the author of the play whose staging at Korsh's has been uncertain across several preceding letters; this letter adds a specific complaint about the scale of production his play demands.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 17 December 1888. Moscow. §13 to Maslov,

  Alexei Nikolayevich Maslov, pen name Bezhetsky, already established in this corpus (first appearance; see also's's's, and's headnotes) as the playwright and writer in Chekhov's circle; this letter adds only a passing greeting.

• To M. M. Dyukovsky, 7 January 1889. Moscow. §4 Bezhetsky

  Pen name of Alexei Nikolayevich Maslov, a military officer and writer whose fiction Chekhov admired; already established elsewhere in this corpus (see the headnote and its cross-references).

• To A. S. Suvorin, 4 February 1889. Moscow. §9 Maslov

  Alexei Nikolayevich Maslov, writing under the pen name "Bezhetsky", previously established in this corpus; Chekhov contrasts Maslov's contempt for actors with his own new tenderness toward the profession after the "Ivanov" production.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 18 February 1889. Moscow. §9 Maslov, Korolenko, Barantsevich, and Albov

  A list of fellow prose ('fiction') writers grouped with Chekhov and Shcheglov as literary "staff-officers" against the "subaltern officers" of drama: Alexei Nikolaevich Maslov, pen name Bezhetsky; Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko; Kazimir Stanislavovich Barantsevich; and Mikhail (Vasily Pavlovich in this corpus's entity) Albov. None is further identified in this letter beyond the surname.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 7 March 1889. Moscow. §8 Bezhetsky

  Pen name of Alexei Nikolayevich Maslov, military officer and writer, listed among the generation's writers.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 14 May 1889. Sumy. §5 tell Bezhetsky that once again he may not be at my play

  Alexei Bezhetsky (pen name of Alexei Nikolayevich Maslov), writer and acquaintance, already established elsewhere in this corpus.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 9 June 1889. Sumy. §15 Maslov owes me a treat for it

  "С Маслова магарыч" -- literally "a magarych (treat/reward) is owed from Maslov." This Maslov is the same person as the corpus's established (Alexei Nikolayevich Maslov, pen name Bezhetsky): the entity's existing aliases already include "А. Н. Маслов"/"Alexei Nikolayevich Maslov," and the book named in this same section, "Военные на войне" ("Military Men at War"), is already indexed in this corpus as, a collection by Bezhetsky/Maslov. The joke's logic confirms the identification: Chekhov made a young man buy and read Maslov's own book, judged it good, and now jokingly declares that Maslov -- the author -- owes him a drink/treat in return for the free publicity and the compliment. This is not the same construction as an unrelated bookseller or third party; it reads as author-to-reader banter. No separate new entity was created for this Maslov.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 20 December 1889. Moscow. §2 Bezhetsky's "A Family Tragedy"

  "'Семейную трагедию' Бежецкого" -- "Semeynaya tragediya" ("A Family Tragedy"), a story by Alexei Bezhetsky, pen name of Alexei Nikolayevich Maslov, already established in this corpus (first appearance, and further characterized in batch 154's, where Chekhov rates Bezhetsky's military fiction above Turgenev's while judging his non-military work weaker). Reused here rather than created anew. Chekhov's reaction to reading this particular story -- a pang of "compassion" for the author that he recognizes as really self-pity -- is the psychological hinge of this letter's opening self-assessment.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 24 October 1891. Moscow. §3 Petersen, and Maslov

  "Maslov" here is Alexei Nikolayevich Maslov, who published under the pen name Bezhetsky (see, established elsewhere in the corpus, e.g.); Chekhov names him alongside Petersen and Zhitel as one of the regular contributors who used his open newspaper slots during his roughly two-year absence from the paper's Monday/Wednesday pages.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 9 December 1890. Moscow. §14 О Маслове часто приходилось говорить со Щербаком. Мне Маслов очень симпатичен.

  "Maslov" here is Aleksei Nikolayevich Maslov, a Russian military officer and writer who published fiction under the pen name Bezhetsky (see, first attested in this corpus at, where Chekhov rates Maslov/Bezhetsky's military stories above work by the far more famous Turgenev). This closing aside -- that Maslov came up often in conversation with Dr. Shcherbak during the voyage, and that Chekhov finds him personally sympathetic -- reads as continuous with that earlier literary judgment: Chekhov had a standing regard for Maslov's writing, and evidently discussed the man himself, not just his fiction, with a shipboard companion who apparently knew him. No indication in this letter of exactly how Shcherbak knew Maslov, but the two men's paths seem to have crossed independently of Chekhov's own acquaintance with either.

• To M. P. Chekhova, 14 January 1891. Petersburg. §3 Maslov (Bezhetsky) won't go to dinner at the Suvorins'

  Aleksei Nikolayevich Maslov, writing under the pen name Bezhetsky; Chekhov reads this social avoidance as a symptom of the vague ill will he senses closing in on him this winter.