Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Reading notes

• To M. I. Chaykovsky, 17 January 1890. Petersburg. §3 Dear Modest Ilyich, I am sending you the "Kreutzer Sonata."

  Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky, playwright, librettist, and younger brother of the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, already established in this corpus at; here simply the first link in a short chain forwarding a borrowed book.

• To M. I. Chaykovsky, 16 March 1890. Moscow. §6 Are you a Chekhist? Humbly obliged. No, you're not a Chekhist, just an indulgent person.

  "Chekhist" translates \emph{чехист}, a nonce coinage Chekhov builds off his own surname (Чехов -> чехист), on the pattern of an "-ist" partisan or devotee -- roughly "a Chekhov-ist" or "a devotee of Chekhov's." It is not a real Russian word; Chekhov invents it on the spot as a closing pun, likely provoked by Modest's indulgence toward him across the letter's mix of business favors and personal warmth. \textbf{Note for readers:} this coinage is unrelated to, and predates by more than three decades, the identically-spelled Soviet-era term \emph{чекист} ("Chekist," a member of the Cheka, the early Soviet secret police founded in 1917) -- a coincidence of spelling only, with no historical or etymological connection; Chekhov's usage here is purely a private, affectionate joke on his own name. Compare other self-generated nonce coinages elsewhere in the corpus, e.g. "Mania Sachalinosa" at and "Bolvanov" at/.

• To M. I. Chaykovsky, 16 April 1890. Moscow. §4 when after the performance you sit down to supper, remember me in your holy prayers

  A wry, mock-solemn closing image -- Chekhov asking to be remembered not literally in prayer but at the celebratory supper that would follow a successful premiere, in keeping with the letter's light, affectionate farewell register rather than any real religious request.