Vladimir Osipovich Mikhnevich

Reading notes

• Aleksey Sergeyevich Suvorin, 28 June 1888. Sumy. §5 hated Mikhnevich

  Object of the generic Petersburg man's hatred in this composite sketch, not a statement that Suvorin or Chekhov himself hated Mikhnevich; see the \S5 note at for the full disambiguation.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 23 December 1888. Moscow. §5 Tatishchev blowing on his little mold, Mikhnevich the ass, and the indifferent Burenin -- that's the whole of Russian critical force.

  SENSITIVITY -- "Mikhnevich the ass" ("осел Михневич") is a direct, unsoftened personal insult in the source, translated faithfully rather than euphemized, consistent with this corpus's general practice for Chekhov's private opinions of named contemporaries (compare the "wooden Dalmatov" and "dear little Davydov" put-downs in's headnote/glossary). Together with the merely dismissive "blowing on his little mold" for Tatishchev and "indifferent" for Burenin, this line names the entirety of what Chekhov considers Russian literary criticism -- three real, working critics singled out by name and found wanting, immediately followed by one of the letter's most unguarded statements of professional despair ("There are moments when I quite simply lose heart"). Flag both the personal insult and the surrounding despair together for any future biographical or sensitivity-index work.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 4 January 1889. Moscow. §8 the Messrs. Mikhnevich will walk about like shades, with redness on their cheekbones from the stuffiness and inward strain

  Plural/generic use ("гг. Михневичи," "the Messrs. Mikhnevich") treating Mikhnevich as a type rather than naming him alone; imaginative color (anxious, overheated theater-goers) rather than an insult, in contrast to the sharper "Mikhnevich the ass" of \S5. Same underlying entity, reused here.

• To M. P. Chekhova, 16 January 1891. Petersburg. §6 Mikhnevich

  Vladimir Osipovich Mikhnevich (1841-1899), journalist and chronicler of Petersburg city life; Chekhov wrote to him directly the following day (17 January 1891), so the two men were in current contact around this same visit.

• To V. O. Mikhnevich, 17 January 1891. Petersburg. §3 Much-esteemed Vladimir Osipovich, word has reached me that my sheepskin hat (the grizzled one) is with you.

  CONTINUITY -- this is Chekhov's first surviving letter addressed directly to Vladimir Osipovich Mikhnevich, the Petersburg journalist and chronicler of city life whom Chekhov had earlier dismissed in private, to Suvorin, as "Mikhnevich the ass" (\S5, December 1888) and glimpsed again, more neutrally, "walking about like shades" in theater corridors (\S8, January 1889). The tone here, addressed to Mikhnevich himself rather than about him, is brisk and cordial -- the formal "Уважаемый"/"Much-esteemed" salutation and the closing "Уважающий Вас"/"Yours with respect" are polite but not intimate, consistent with two men who evidently knew each other only slightly through shared theatrical circles.