person
Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky
Przhevalsky
also: Пржевальский, N. M. Przhevalsky
Russian geographer and explorer (1839-1888) famed for his Central Asian expeditions toward Tibet and the Chinese frontier; invoked here as one side of an unspecified public dispute Chekhov jokingly declines to referee, quipping that settling it would require going to China oneself.
Reading notes
- To Al. P. Chekhov, 21 October 1887. Moscow. §17 Przhevalsky of Georgievsky, or the other way round
Chekhov jokingly refuses to adjudicate a public dispute between the celebrated explorer Nikolai Przhevalsky and a contemporary named Georgievsky (not further identified), quipping that settling who "got the better of whom" would require going to China -- likely a glancing reference to controversy around Przhevalsky's Central Asian expeditions toward the Chinese frontier.
- To E. M. Lintvareva, 27 October 1888. Moscow. §6 the late Przhevalsky
Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky, the Russian explorer of Central Asia, previously mentioned in this corpus at (where he figures as one side of an unspecified public dispute Chekhov jokingly declines to referee). He died on 20 October 1888 (N.S. 1 November), matching this letter's date; Chekhov's "short cry" in "Novoye Vremya" that day is an obituary tribute, which Chekhov himself wryly describes as one of his "leading articles" though it is not one in the ordinary sense.
- To Ye. M. Lintvareva, 23 November 1888. Moscow. §15 My article on Przhevalsky has been translated into German
Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky, the explorer whose death Chekhov marked with an obituary tribute in "Novoye Vremya" in (\S6); a month later, that article has now been translated into German.