Yekaterina Alekseyevna Sysoyeva

Reading notes

• To Ye. A. Sysoyeva, 7 November 1887. Moscow. §3 Dear Madam

  The formal salutation addresses Yevgenia Andreyevna Sysoyeva, a writer and editor who had written to Chekhov proposing a visit and inviting him to contribute to the children's magazine "Rodnik"; this is her first appearance in the corpus.

• To M. V. Kiseleva, 6 January 1888. Moscow. §5 thunderous Sysoikha

  "Sysoikha" is Chekhov's teasing nickname for Yevgenia Andreyevna Sysoyeva, the actual editor of "Rodnik" from around December 1887; "thunderous" (гремучая) plays on her surname's resemblance to "сысой"/an onomatopoeic rattling sound, setting up the mock-alarm of the fee-negotiation advice that follows.

• To M. V. Kiseleva, 6 January 1888. Moscow. §6 Ask Sysoikha no less than 50 rubles a sheet

  Half in earnest, half in jest, Chekhov coaches Kiseleva on rate negotiation, framing it as a matter of professional solidarity: a low fee accepted by her would undercut his own standing rate as a fellow contributor to "Rodnik."

• To A. S. Kiselev, 1888. Moscow. §5 Sysoyeva would not have concealed the fact

  Yevgenia Andreyevna Sysoyeva, editor associated with the children's magazine "Rodnik," who had evidently praised Kiseleva's submitted story; Chekhov cites her professional judgment as evidence against Kiseleva's self-doubt.

• To M. V. Kiseleva, 3 February 1888. Moscow. §5 that Sysoikha woman

  "Sysoikha" is Chekhov's teasing nickname for Yevgenia Andreyevna Sysoyeva, editor of the children's magazine "Rodnik"; the letter opens in mock fury because Kiseleva has agreed to write for her at a bargain fee of 30 rubles and even asked to have the cost of her own subscription copy deducted from that fee -- a double insult to Chekhov's earlier coaching that she hold out for a fairer rate.

• To M. V. Kiseleva, 25 March 1888. Moscow. §6 Sysoikha

  Yevgenia Andreyevna Sysoyeva, writer and editor connected with the children's magazine "Rodnik"; "Sysoikha" is Kiseleva's own nickname for her (see, first named this way in). Chekhov reports NOT calling on her during this Petersburg trip -- this is distinct from the editress Evreinova (same section), whom he DID visit, three times, and even dined with. The translator flags this contrast deliberately: two literary Petersburg women in one sentence, one skipped and one sought out.

• To Ye. A. Sysoyeva, 2 November 1888. Moscow. §3 Dear Yekaterina Alekseyevna

  This is, as far as this corpus shows, the first surviving letter Chekhov addresses to her by name (the November 1887 letter, used only the formal "Dear Madam"). Her name and patronymic here -- confirmed by the source edition's own scholarly apparatus, which quotes her letter to Chekhov signed "Екатерина Сысоева" (Yekaterina Sysoyeva) -- resolve a discrepancy in the corpus's entity record: had been established (at) as "Yevgenia Andreyevna Sysoyeva," a mistaken expansion of the initials "Е. А." The entity record has now been corrected to her actual name, Yekaterina Alekseyevna Sysoyeva, with the earlier form kept as an alias.

• To M. V. Kiseleva, 13 December 1888. Petersburg. §4 That is what Sysoikha calls you

  "Sysoikha" (Сысоиха) is the household nickname for Yekaterina Alekseyevna Sysoyeva, editor of the children's magazine \emph{Rodnik}, already established in letters 353 and 392; those headnotes gloss the nickname as playing off the surname of the journal's earlier editor. Her actual given name/patronymic is not stated in this letter.