Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov

Reading notes

• To M. M. Chekhov, 4 November 1877. Taganrog. §3 Brother Misha

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's youngest brother, then a schoolboy in Moscow; the addressee of this letter and, decades later, one of the first editors and memoirists of Chekhov's correspondence.

• To M. M. Chekhov, 16 April 1878. Taganrog. §3 Brother Misha

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's youngest brother, then a schoolboy in Moscow; the addressee of this letter, sent to reach him there for Easter.

• To M. P. Chekhov, 1879. Taganrog. §2 Misha

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's youngest brother, thirteen at the time of this letter; he later became his brother's devoted archivist and biographer.

• To F. O. Shekhtel, 19 October 1886. Moscow. §2 кондиломчик

  A nonsense pseudo-medical coinage built on "kondiloma" (condyloma, a wart-like medical term), invented by Chekhov the physician-in-training as an absurd, affectionate diminutive for his younger brother Mikhail -- part of a private vocabulary of invented medical and mock-scientific terms that recurs throughout his correspondence in this period.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 8 November 1882. Moscow. §4 Mishka's name-day

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, the youngest brother, then a schoolboy in Moscow; a name-day (the feast of one's patron saint) was celebrated in Russia much like a birthday.

• To M. M. Chekhov, 1 January 1877. Taganrog. §3 Misha

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's younger brother and the addressee of this and many later letters; he became a writer and, eventually, Chekhov's first biographer.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 13 May 1883. Moscow. §4 Mishka

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, another younger brother, mentioned in passing alongside Marya as someone who 'suffered in equal measure' from the same household disregard.

• To M. M. Chekhov, 10 April 1877. Moscow. §2 Misha

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's younger brother, then in his mid-teens and about to return from Moscow to the family's home city of Taganrog. He later became a writer and memoirist of the Chekhov family.

• To M. M. and Ye. M. Chekhov, 6 May 1877. Taganrog. §3 Misha

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's younger brother, then living with the family in Moscow. He later became a lawyer, writer, and memoirist of the Chekhov family.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, February 1887. Moscow. §14 Misha's

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, the brothers' youngest sibling; Anton invokes his "word of honor" as a mock-solemn guarantee backing the tiny 10-kopeck debt.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 22–23 February 1887. Moscow. §14 Who will Mishka go to now for a loan?

  Lipskerov's paper had serialized Chekhov's novel "A Shooting Party" from 1884-85; the fee was paid out slowly in small installments, and it was Mikhail (Mishka) who went in person to collect it -- hence the joke about Lipskerov's imprisonment cutting off that source of ready cash.

• To M. P. Chekhova, 30 November 1887. Petersburg. §3 Misha

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's youngest brother, for whose piano installment part of the enclosed hundred roubles is earmarked.

• To N. A. Leikin, 29 March 1888. Moscow. §6 Misha

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's younger brother, who evidently delivered the books to the lady acquaintance in Leikin's stead and reported back on her reaction.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 18–24 April 1888. Moscow. §7 Mishka

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov ("Misha"/"Mishka"), Anton's younger brother, here departing ahead of the family, presumably to make arrangements at Sumy.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 25 April 1888. Moscow. §4 a letter from my brother

  The brother Chekhov sent to inspect the rented dacha near Sumy is Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, the youngest of the Chekhov brothers -- called "bratyá" (little brother) at the corresponding point of the 17 April letter to Pleshcheyev, which promised the same scouting trip "tomorrow." It is the brother who inspects the dacha and reports on its condition in this section, not Pleshcheyev himself; keep that referent clear, per the headnote's flag, so the run-down description isn't misread as being about Pleshcheyev's own doing.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 1888. Moscow. §5 the student Mishka

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov ("Misha"), Anton's youngest brother, here still a university student living in the crowded Moscow flat.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 4 May 1888. Moscow. §8 Mishka

  "Mishka" here is Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's youngest brother, reported only as a third-party family update -- he is in Taganrog, not Moscow with the rest of the household, and is not the letter's addressee. The addressee is Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov ("Al."), Anton's elder brother; do not conflate the two brothers when annotating this section.

• To I. P. Chekhov, 7–8 May 1888. Sumy. §3 Mishka was talking nonsense

  Anton's youngest brother Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, who had apparently given the family a discouraging report of the dacha in advance; Anton reports here that his account was wrong.

• To A. S. Kiselev, 15 May 1888. Sumy. §5 Our Mishka, off on his travels, has turned into a sickly-sweet Manilov.

  MUKHA/MISHKA DISAMBIGUATION: "Mishka" here is Chekhov's youngest brother, Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, currently traveling; his sentimentally soft letters are compared to Gogol's Manilov. Distinct from "Mukha," the animal at the mill named two sentences earlier -- the two names are near-homophones in Russian (Муха/Мишка) but refer to unrelated subjects.

• To I. P. Chekhov, 23 May 1888. Sumy. §9 Mishka

  Chekhov's younger brother Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, expected to join the family at Sumy for the summer.

• To M. P. Chekhov, 28 July 1888. Parokhod "Dir". §4 Dedicated to the captain of his own steamships, M. P. Chekhov

  A running family joke: the mock-dedication addresses Chekhov's younger brother Mikhail as though he owned a steamship line, though he had no connection to shipping at all -- setting up the letter's conceit as a comic maritime feuilleton written for his amusement.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 15 September 1888. Moscow. §8 Миша отлично красит

  "Misha" is Chekhov's own younger brother, Mikhail Chekhov, expected to help paint the floors and windows of the farmhouse Chekhov is planning to build -- not a figure connected to Pleshcheyev or "Severny Vestnik."

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 30 September 1888. Moscow. §21 М. П. Чехов

  M. P. Chekhov here is Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's younger brother, author and editor of the memoir "Vokrug Chekhova" -- distinct from M. P. Chekhova (their sister Maria), who edited several of the letter collections listed a few entries later in this same bibliography (section 31, 32, 37). The two share identical Cyrillic initials but are siblings of different sexes and different editorial projects.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 30 September 1888. Moscow. §49 М. П. Чехову

  M. P. Chekhov here is the brother Mikhail Pavlovich, addressee of the 3 December 1887 letter, explicitly distinguished in this same sentence from their sister M. P. Chekhova (Maria), who shares his initials -- the source itself flags the ambiguity this glossary entry exists to resolve.

• To N. A. Lei Kin, 5 October 1888. Moscow. §7 my brother the student, Mikhail Chekhov

  Chekhov's youngest brother, Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, then a law student, to whom Chekhov asks that any fee or parcel for their brother Nikolai be routed instead -- distinct from both Nikolai (\S7, the painter) and from Leikin (\S3), the letter's addressee.

• To Ye. K. Sakharova, 13 January 1889. Moscow. §7 the student Misha

  Most plausibly Chekhov's youngest brother, Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, then a Moscow university student -- the existing corpus entity for him is reused here. This identification is a contextual inference (a family member on hand in Moscow to field the errand as a last resort after Chekhov and his sister), not an explicit identification in the letter itself, and should be read with that caveat.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 6 March 1889. Moscow. §5 My Mikhailo

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's younger brother, who completed his law degree at Moscow University in 1889 and went on to a civil-service career and later to become his brother's biographer and archivist; "Mikhailo" is an affectionate folk form of "Mikhail."

• To A. S. Suvorin, 22 April 1889. Moscow. §7 Misha

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's youngest brother, then a university student in Moscow. Sent ahead with their mother to Sumy but reluctant to leave -- distinct from "the painter" (Nikolai Pavlovich Chekhov, \S3) and not to be confused with him.

• To I. P. Chekhov, May 1889. Sumy. §3 Misha

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's youngest brother, off in Taganrog -- the family's former hometown -- on a purely social visit to show off his outfit to young women. Identification established in (12 April 1889), where he is likewise kept distinct from Nikolai ("the painter").

• To A. S. Suvorin, 1 November 1889. Moscow. §10 even to a cracked frying pan, so long as it's soon

  "хотя бы на разбитой сковороде" -- a deliberately deflating, semi-affectionate insult about Misha's indifference to whom he marries, comparing a prospective wife to a broken kitchen implement, so long as the wedding happens quickly. Preserved at full force; this is Chekhov's dry, teasing register toward his younger brother, not intended (or here rendered) as tenderness.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 5 November 1889. Moscow. §3 мой братец

  "My little brother" (мой братец), unnamed at first mention, identified two sections later (loc. 4) as Misha -- Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, who has just finished his university course and is heading to St. Petersburg both to seek a government post and to marry.

• To A. M. Yevreinova, 7 November 1889. Moscow. §8 my brother, the newly minted lawyer

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's younger brother, who completed his law studies in 1889; unnamed here by given name, referred to only by relation and profession.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 20 November 1889. Moscow. §11 Misha has gone into the Treasury Chamber.

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov ("Misha,"), Anton's younger brother, already established in this corpus; the Treasury Chamber (Казенная палата) was a provincial fiscal-administration office, so this records a civil-service appointment for Misha.

• To Ye. M. Shavrova, 2 September 1891. Bogimovo. §4 Misha

  Chekhov's younger brother Mikhail Pavlovich, whose offhand inference from Shavrova's hotel address supplies the letter's bit of secondhand speculation about her move to Petersburg.

• To A. I. Smagin, 30 January 1892. Moscow. §8 Misha is leaving for the station just now. I am entrusting this letter to him.

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's younger brother, here simply passing through Moscow and pressed into service as an impromptu courier for this letter -- an incidental domestic detail typical of the family's close, practical cooperation.

• To M. P. Chekhova, 3 February 1892. Voronezh. §5 Have you written to Misha?

  Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov ("Misha"), Anton's younger brother, then away from the Moscow household; a routine family-correspondence check-in folded into the same short note as the Shavrova errand.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 15 March 1890. Moscow. §7 Миша уехал зачем-то в Петербург в департамент

  Chekhov's younger brother Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, referred to by the familiar diminutive Misha, has left for Petersburg on business connected to his civil-service post ("the department"). Chekhov's tone is mildly needling -- the trip strikes him as needless, and he adds a domestic aside that the family dacha will be empty of men that summer, with the implicit wish that Misha spend the season there with his family instead.

• To M. P. Chekhov, 6 December 1890. Fastov. §* same-day pair with pismo-4-859

  This telegram and were both sent on 6 December 1890, on the same final overland leg home, from two different rail junctions -- this one from Fastov (Kiev province) to Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov at his post in Aleksin, the other from Vorozhba (also Kiev province, further along the same line) to their sister Maria Pavlovna Chekhova at the family's Moscow address. Same day, same journey, different addressees and different stations: read together they show Chekhov wiring ahead to both branches of the family within hours of each other as the trip narrowed toward its final stretch.'s message is longer and more animated ("See you tomorrow. Everyone come meet me..."); this one is the barest possible arrival notice, consistent with its addressee being a working brother at a provincial post rather than the household he was about to walk into.

• To I. P. Chekhov, 10 December 1890. Moscow. §2 In the hand of M. P. Chekhov

  As with (the Nikolai Chekhov / "Blood for Blood" letter), this is the corpus's marked-hand-change convention: the source explicitly labels the shift in handwriting ("Рукой М. П. Чехова:" / "In the hand of M. P. Chekhov:") because the letter is nominally addressed by and catalogued under Anton Chekhov's name (to I. P. Chekhov) but is, from \S3 through \S7, written entirely by his younger brother Mikhail -- an eyewitness account in Mikhail's own voice of meeting Anton's train and bringing him home. This is a single genuine document, not two letters spliced together: Mikhail's account and Anton's two-line postscript (\S8-\S9) belong to the same sheet and the same occasion, as the headnote makes explicit.

• To I. P. Chekhov, 10 December 1890. Moscow. §4 Жан

  Mikhail addresses their brother Ivan Pavlovich by the same French-flavored family nickname ("Жан"/"Jean") used for him elsewhere in the correspondence (compare, written the same day, which opens "Здравствуйте, милый Жан!" -- "Hello, dear Jean!"), and refers to himself in the same idiom as "Жан" is to Ivan, i.e. by the family's habit of French pet-names for the brothers (Anton is "Антуан"/"Antoine" throughout this same letter).

• To I. P. Chekhov, 10 December 1890. Moscow. §7 Твой Мих. Чехов

  Mikhail's own sign-off closes his section of the letter (\S3-\S7); the two short units that follow (\S8-\S9) are Anton's separate addition in his own hand, not a continuation of Mikhail's text -- see \S8 note.

• To G. M. Chekhov, 29 December 1890. Moscow. §6 Миша рассказывает о тебе много хорошего

  Misha is Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton's younger brother (later a lawyer, writer, and family memoirist), evidently in recent contact with Georgy or with news of him -- the source of the good report Chekhov passes along here.

• To L. S. Mizinova, 11 January 1891. Petersburg. §15 a lady writer (a friend of Misha's)

  The unnamed "lady writer" is identified only by her connection to Chekhov's brother Mikhail (Misha); she is not otherwise identified in the corpus. Her quoted line about fleeing to Australia sets up the letter's closing joke pairing her with Mizinova's Aleutian daydream.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 10 May 1891. Aleksin. §5 our Mikhaila, the tax inspector

  Chekhov's younger brother Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, who held the post of tax inspector at Aleksin -- the reason the family's dacha that summer was near Aleksin in the first place. Chekhov's "our" marks him as family, and the credential ("the tax inspector") is an affectionately deadpan way of noting that his own brother, an official rather than a professional man of letters, has just published a literary translation.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 16 June 1891. Bogimovo. §5 the estate in Kashira district

  Chekhov relayed Suvorin's secondhand report of a specific estate for sale to his brother Misha, who could find no such property on his map -- only a similarly named one -- suggesting Suvorin's source (Nikolsky) had the name garbled or approximate.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 13 July 1891. Bogimovo. §11 Misha is in Kashira

  Chekhov's brother Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, at the time serving away from Bogimovo; Kashira is a town in the Tula/Kaluga region near the family's summer estate.