Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov

Reading notes

• To M. M. Chekhov, 4 November 1877. Taganrog. §5 brother Vanya

  Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov, another of Anton's brothers, then in Moscow with the rest of the family; he would go on to a career as a schoolteacher.

• To P. Ye. and Ye. Ya. Chekhov, 20 June 1878. Taganrog. §7 Ivan Chekhov

  Anton Chekhov's brother, living with the rest of the family in Moscow at the time; his ordinary name is dropped into the list of grotesques for deadpan effect.

• To N. P. and I. P. Chekhov, 28 April 1880. Moscow. §16 Ivan Pavlovich

  Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov, another of Anton's brothers, addressee of the letter's third and final section; he later became a schoolteacher.

• To N. A. Leikin, 24 May 1886. Voskresensk. §7 Живодерка, Казенное арбатское училище

  Ivan Chekhov taught at the Kazyonnoye (state-run) Arbatskoye School on Zhivoderka Street in Moscow; naming him as the delivery point for boxes of the new book for distribution to Moscow shops was a practical use of family help, typical of how the close-knit Chekhov siblings pitched in on Anton's early literary business.

• To M. M. Chekhov, 1 January 1877. Taganrog. §6 Vanya

  Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov, another of Anton's brothers, who accuses Anton in jest of being a swindler who might pocket a greeting meant for Misha.

• To N. A. Leikin, 25 December 1883. Moscow. §24 Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov

  Anton Chekhov's brother, a schoolteacher then living in Voskresensk, through whose address (the tradesmen's schools office) some of the enclosed items were to be routed.

• To M. M. Chekhov, 29 July 1877. Taganrog. §7 Vanya

  Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov, another of Anton's brothers, living with the family in Moscow at this time; he later became a schoolteacher.

• To M. P. Chekhova, 3 April 1887. Orel. §3 Vanya

  Chekhov's brother Ivan Pavlovich, left in charge of the household in Moscow while Anton travels.

• To A. S. Lazarev, August 1887. Babkino. §2 brother Ivan

  Chekhov's brother Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov ("Vanya"), then in Moscow; Lazarev had apparently planned to wait in the city for Ivan rather than come directly to Babkino, prompting this note urging him to come at once instead.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 10–12 October 1887. Moscow. §17 Ivan

  Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's brother, living with the family in Moscow at this time; named here as Chekhov's companion for the proposed circus outing.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 1888. Moscow. §5 Ivan

  Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov, another of Anton's brothers, described as constantly underfoot at the flat from afternoon until night.

• To F. Ya. Dolzhenko, 28 July 1888. Tiflis. §3 Vanya

  Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov, one of Anton's brothers, the fourth person in the greeting list.

• To I. P. Chekhov, 22 August 1888. Sumy. §7 To the teacher

  Refers to Ivan's occupation as a schoolteacher at the Arbat School, continuing the envelope address begun in section 6 and completed by his name in section 8.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 27 August 1888. Sumy. §6 my brother Ivan

  Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov, the schoolteacher brother, here the subject of a marriage rumor involving Vata that did not come to pass.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 10 October 1888. Moscow. §7 My brother the teacher

  DISAMBIGUATION -- three distinct men are in play across this section and must not be conflated. (1) "My brother" earlier in \S7 and "Alexander" later in the same section both refer to Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, the elder brother whose drinking is the subject of this passage. (2) "My brother the teacher" here refers instead to Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov, a schoolteacher, cited as a contrasting example of a family member who drinks without ill effect. (3) Nikolai Mikhailovich Yezhov, also called "the teacher" later in this same letter (\S12, in his own unrelated capacity as a schoolteacher and writer), is a wholly different person and has no connection to either brother or to this section's discussion of drinking.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 14 October 1888. Moscow. §11 A sample of the letters my teacher-brother receives

  Chekhov's own framing sentence, in his own voice, introducing the quoted document that follows (\S12-16) as a specimen shared for Suvorin's amusement. "My teacher-brother" is Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton Chekhov's brother and a schoolteacher, already established in this corpus (see's headnote, note 6, which also distinguishes him from Alexander). He is the recipient of the quoted letter, not the addressee of this letter to Suvorin -- do not confuse him with Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, named earlier at \S5, nor with the unnamed form-master of \S6-7.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 14 October 1888. Moscow. §12 Much-esteemed Ivan Pavlovich!

  Opens the quoted document proper (\S12-16): a formal letter of petition/explanation addressed to Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov by one of his pupils' parents, a village deacon.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 18 February 1889. Moscow. §3 schoolmaster brother

  "брату-педагогу" -- Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's brother, who at this period worked as a schoolteacher in Moscow; distinguished here by profession from the other Chekhov brothers Alexander, Nikolai, and Mikhail. Not to be confused with, an unrelated fictional character (a comic clerk) elsewhere in the corpus.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 21 February 1889. Moscow. §6 Ivan is, as ever, a true Ivan.

  A family joke trading on brother Ivan Chekhov's reputation for plain, unchanging steadiness.

• To M. P. Chekhova, 26 April 1889. Sumy. §2 Use Ivan's foot for the size

  Chekhov asks his sister Masha to size the requested felt slippers against brother Ivan's foot as a practical stand-in measure. A household-servant's foot is a conceivable alternative reading of a bare patronymic-style reference in the source, but 'Ivanova noga' most plausibly resolves to the well-attested brother Ivan, who appears elsewhere in this same letter (section 5, section 8); flagged here as the more likely but not certain reading.

• To M. P. Chekhova, 26 April 1889. Sumy. §8 Has Ivan sent the vaudeville?

  Refers to brother Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov; the specific vaudeville/play in question is not named in this letter and is left unresolved beyond the person link -- not confidently identified with any titled work tracked elsewhere in the corpus.

• To I. P. Chekhov, 30 August 1890. Sakhalin. §4 To Chekhov

  Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's elder brother and a schoolteacher by profession -- the reason school-administration business is routed to him here rather than to Maria Pavlovna or their mother, the addressees of the season's other, bare health-and-greeting telegrams from Sakhalin.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 5 January 1891. Moscow. §5 my brother Ivan came to visit and, poor fellow, fell ill with typhus

  Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov, one of Chekhov's brothers, then a schoolteacher; his bout of typhus during the holidays reflects the disordered state of the Chekhov household in Moscow that winter.

• To M. P. Chekhova, 16 January 1891. Petersburg. §3 the name-day man

  The unnamed "именинник" ("name-day man") is Chekhov's brother Ivan Pavlovich: 16 January (O.S.) is the feast day of St. John (Ioann) the archbishop of Novgorod in the Orthodox calendar, and Ivan's name-saint accordingly gives him his name-day (\textit{именины}) on this date -- a Russian holiday of household celebration distinct from a birthday.

• To I. P. Chekhov, 27 January 1891. Petersburg. §3 Dearest-beloved Ivan

  Chekhov's brother Ivan Pavlovich, a schoolteacher. (headnote and glossary) for background on his post at this period. The mock-elaborate superlative "разлюбезнейший" ("dearest-beloved," literally something like "most un-dearly-dear") is a comic salutation typical of Chekhov's letters to family.

• To I. P. Chekhov, 13 March 1891. Petersburg. §3 Shout it, Ivan, raise the alarm

  \textit{Кричи, Иван, караул} -- literally "shout, Ivan, watchman!" (\textit{караул} being the traditional Russian cry for help, roughly equivalent to "help!" or "fire!"); Chekhov opens with mock-alarmed bluster to announce, in the next breath, genuinely exciting news -- his first trip outside the Russian Empire.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 18 August 1891. Bogimovo. §6 My brother the schoolmaster has been given a medal for zeal and a post in Moscow

  Ivan Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's brother, a schoolteacher by profession; distinct from Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov and from the late Nikolai Pavlovich Chekhov.