Anna Ivanovna Suvorina

Reading notes

• To M. P. Chekhov, 16 March 1888. Petersburg. §5 Madame Suvorina

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Aleksei Suvorin's wife, who arranges Chekhov's rooms at the New Times offices.

• To M. P. Chekhov, 16 March 1888. Petersburg. §12 his wife breaks into the conversation

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina again, interrupting the men's talk with a bass voice or a barking-dog impression.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 24 March 1888. Moscow. §18 His wife

  Suvorin's wife, whom Chekhov assumes has already relayed news of her husband's mock marriage proposal to Alexander.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 1888. Sumy. §6 Anna Ivanovna Suvorina

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, wife of the publisher Alexei Suvorin, here named in full rather than by the family nickname ("Сувориха") Chekhov sometimes uses; distinct from the generic entity for "Suvorina" and from the Suvorins' daughter.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 30 May 1888. Sumy. §22 Anna Ivanovna, Nastya, and Borya

  Suvorin's wife, Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, and two of his children, Nastya and Borya -- the family Chekhov had stayed with in Petersburg in March 1888. This Anna Ivanovna is Suvorin's wife, not to be confused with the separate entity for Suvorin's mother-in-law, who is also called Anna Ivanovna.

• To the Chekhovs, 23 July 1888. Feodosia. §5 Suvorina

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Aleksei Suvorin's wife, whom Chekhov praises at length in this paragraph as the most interesting woman he has met that summer. She is not to be confused with Suvorin himself, who appears earlier in §3 ("Suvorin does nothing either...") and later in §8 and §10 -- this whole paragraph concerns her independently -- nor with the unrelated, a different relative of Suvorin's mentioned elsewhere in the corpus.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 27 October 1888. Moscow. §15 Write and tell me what Anna Ivanovna's eye ailment is called in Latin.

  TWO-ANNA-IVANOVNAS DISAMBIGUATION -- this "Anna Ivanovna" is Aleksei Suvorin's WIFE (Anna Ivanovna Suvorina), mistress of the Petersburg "New Times" household, whose eye ailment Chekhov asks about here in his capacity as a physician. She must NOT be conflated with: (1), a DIFFERENT Anna Ivanovna who is Suvorin's wife's own mother (i.e. Suvorin's actual mother-in-law) and is a separate entity in this same corpus; nor (2), the common-law wife of Chekhov's brother Alexander Chekhov, established in's headnote and belonging to an entirely different household. Three distinct "Anna Ivanovna"s exist across this corpus's 1888 correspondence; this letter's usage is specifically Suvorin's wife, identified by context (the household whose eye-ailment and Nastya's health Chekhov is asking after in the same breath, \S15) and consistent with the established identification already used in's and's headnotes.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 3 November 1888. Moscow. §13 My heartfelt regards to Anna Ivanovna, Nastya, and Borya

  Suvorin's wife, named alongside his daughter Nastya and son Boris/Borya, per the identification already established in this corpus's other Suvorin letters (see's's, and's headnotes).

• To A. S. Suvorin, 17 December 1888. Moscow. §13 I kiss Anna Ivanovna's hand and bow down to the ground before her.

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Suvorin's wife, already established in this corpus (first appearance); reused here. NOT to be confused with the unrelated (Anna Ivanovna Khrushchova-Sokolnikova, Alexander Chekhov's common-law wife), a different woman who happens to share the same given name and patronymic.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 18 December 1888. Moscow. §32 My regards to Anna Ivanovna, to Nastya, to Borya, and to your whole household.

  CRITICAL DISAMBIGUATION -- this "Anna Ivanovna" is a member of Suvorin's own household, sent regards alongside his children Nastya and Borya; she is almost certainly Suvorin's wife, Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, already established elsewhere in this corpus as mistress of the Suvorin household. She must NOT be confused with the unrelated (Anna Ivanovna Khrushchova-Sokolnikova), the common-law wife of Chekhov's own brother Alexander, who shares the same first name and patronymic and appears repeatedly elsewhere in this corpus (e.g.). The two "Anna Ivanovna"s are entirely distinct people, disambiguated by household -- Suvorin's vs. Alexander Chekhov's -- and must be kept as separate entities in all glossary and mentions work.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 20 December 1888. Moscow. §7 Anna Ivanovna regaled me with slaps, moral lectures, and chartreuse.

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Alexei Suvorin's wife, already established in this corpus as; reused here rather than created anew. Described warmly and teasingly as regaling Chekhov with "slaps, moral lectures, and chartreuse" (a liqueur) and praised as the one woman of his acquaintance with a genuinely independent point of view -- an early, positive characterization consistent with, and adding to, her established profile. Distinct from the unrelated (a different relative of Suvorin's, mentioned in an earlier, separate 1887 letter).

• To A. S. Suvorin, 26 December 1888. Moscow. §17 My regards to Anna Ivanovna and all your household.

  Anna Ivanovna here is Suvorin's wife, Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, per the established pattern of closing regards elsewhere in this corpus's Suvorin correspondence (cf. \S32); not to be confused with, (an unrelated Suvorin relative), or (Alexander Chekhov's common-law wife in Moscow).

• To A. S. Suvorin, 30 December 1888. Moscow. §28 I kiss Anna Ivanovna's hand.

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Suvorin's wife -- must not be confused with the unrelated Anna Ivanovna Khrushchova-Sokolnikova, the common-law wife of Chekhov's brother Alexander, who appears under the same first-name-and-patronymic elsewhere in this corpus (see's headnote for the full disambiguation).

• To A. S. Suvorin, 7 January 1889. Moscow. §6 Anna Ivanovna

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Suvorin's wife, already extensively established elsewhere in this corpus.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 4 February 1889. Moscow. §7 Anna Ivanovna

  Suvorin's wife, Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, previously established in this corpus (e.g.) as a regular addressee of Chekhov's greetings; not to be confused with Suvorin's mother-in-law, also named Anna Ivanovna, or with the unrelated Anna Ivanovna figures in other letters of this batch.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 6 February 1889. Moscow. §10 My deep respects to Anna Ivanovna, Nastyusha, and Borya.

  "Anna Ivanovna," "Nastyusha," and "Borya" match the Suvorin household figures already established in this corpus: Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Suvorin's wife; Nastya, his daughter -- "Nastyusha" here is a diminutive-of-a-diminutive of the same Nastya, not a different person; and Borya, his son. Established via and.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 8 February 1889. Moscow. §13 Anna Ivanovna

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Suvorin's wife, greeted here alongside their children Nastya and Borya -- the standard household-greeting grouping used elsewhere in this corpus's Suvorin letters (cf., sent the same week); not to be confused with, who shares the same first name and patronymic but is greeted separately and individually elsewhere in the corpus.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 20 February 1889. Moscow. §13 I kiss Anna Ivanovna's hand, and I bow to Nastya and to Pharaoh-Borya.

  The customary closing family greeting to the Suvorin household: Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, and the Suvorin children Nastya and Borya (here with his standing nickname "Pharaoh-Borya") -- the same household thread continued from/591/593; see crossrefs.json.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 5 March 1889. Moscow. §12 Anna Ivanovna

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Suvorin's wife, sent regards here along with the children, following the standing closing convention of this correspondence.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 8 April 1889. Moscow. §3 Anna Ivanovna, Nastyusha, and Borya

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, the addressee's wife, greeted here alongside two of the Suvorin children, Nastyusha (Anastasia) and Borya (Boris); per the corpus's existing identification at and. Distinct from the unrelated fictional "Boris" and "Nastya" sketched for "The Wood Demon" in's headnote.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 11 April 1889. Moscow. §12 Anna Ivanovna

  In this letter's closing greetings, "Anna Ivanovna" refers to Suvorin's wife, Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, grouped with the Suvorin children Nastyusha and Borya -- i.e. the Suvorin household, not Alexander Chekhov's common-law wife of the same name and patronymic (a distinct woman entirely unrelated to this household).

• To A. S. Suvorin, May 1889. Sumy. §10 My heartfelt regards to Anna Ivanovna, Nastya, and Borya

  "Anna Ivanovna" here is Suvorin's wife, Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, grouped as in the corpus's other Suvorin letters with the children Nastya and Borya. FLAG: "Anna Ivanovna" is a name shared by several unrelated women elsewhere in this corpus (e.g.,,) and must always be disambiguated by context; here the pairing with Nastya and Borya, and the letter's addressee, fixes it as Suvorin's wife.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 4 May 1889. Sumy. §17 Tell Anna Ivanovna

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Suvorin's wife, matching the corpus's established use of that name for her elsewhere in the Suvorin correspondence. Explicitly DISTINCT from the historical Empress Anna Ioannovna referenced in the unrelated context of the "Jesters at the Court of Anna Ivanovna" photograph in \S2, from this same batch -- the two share only the given name and patronymic by coincidence. Also distinct from the household figures,, and elsewhere in this corpus.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 15 May 1889. Sumy. §10 My regards to Anna Ivanovna, Nastya, and Borya.

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Suvorin's wife, together with two of his children, Nastya and Borya -- members of the Suvorin household to whom Chekhov regularly sends regards in this period of the correspondence.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 2 July 1889. Sumy. §7 I kiss Anna Ivanovna's hand.

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Aleksei Suvorin's wife, following the identification used at \S26 and its headnote (which also flags a residual ambiguity there with a mother-in-law of the same name; here the reference is a simple closing hand-kiss with no further context).

• To A. S. Suvorin, 23 October 1889. Moscow. §15 Anna Ivanovna

  Suvorin's wife, Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, to whom Chekhov sends closing regards, as in many of his letters to Suvorin.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 20 December 1889. Moscow. §7 Anna Ivanovna

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Alexei Suvorin's wife, already established in this corpus (first appearance); reused here rather than created anew. Chekhov sends her a joking wish that she pass her ailments off to someone else.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 8 September 1891. Moscow. §8 Anna Ivanovna and Alexei Alexeyevich

  Suvorin's wife, Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, and his son, Alexei Alekseyevich Suvorin -- the standard household pairing Chekhov greets at the close of his letters to Suvorin throughout this period, here rounded out with "and their brood" (со чады), a mock-Church-Slavonic flourish for the rest of the family.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 16 October 1891. Moscow. §15 My regards to Anna Ivanovna

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Suvorin's wife -- the customary closing greeting to the household, as in many of Chekhov's letters to Suvorin from this period.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 11 December 1891. Moscow. §7 Anna Ivanovna

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Aleksei Suvorin's wife -- named here without further identification, in the same breath as the Nizhny Novgorod relief work, as someone Chekhov intends to write to directly.

• To N. M. Yezhov, 7 January 1892. Petersburg. §4 In the hand of A. I. Suvorina

  As with (Mikhail Chekhov's hand in the Ivan Chekhov letter), this is the corpus's marked-hand-change convention: the source explicitly labels the shift in handwriting ("Рукой А. И. Сувориной:" / "In the hand of A. I. Suvorina:") because the letter is catalogued and signed under Anton Chekhov's name but is, from \S5 through the closing, written out by Anna Ivanovna Suvorina -- Suvorin's wife, teasing Yezhov (and, via \S5's "Ан Ив," referring to herself in the third person as a witness) over the silver jeton. This is a single genuine document, not two letters spliced together: Suvorina's playful digression and Chekhov's own two-line valediction and signature (\S6-\S7) belong to the same sheet and the same occasion -- the headnote makes the continuity explicit, and \S3's opening line (in Chekhov's own hand, answering Yezhov's complaint about Khudekov) frames the whole letter before Suvorina takes the pen.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 15 March 1890. Moscow. §8 Анне Ивановне привет, целую обе руки

  A conventional closing greeting to Suvorin's wife, Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, addressed here only by name and patronymic, in the same warm formulaic register as similar closings to her elsewhere in Chekhov's letters to Suvorin.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 9 December 1890. Moscow. §12 Когда я увижу Вас и Анну Ивановну?

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Suvorin's wife -- not to be confused with Suvorin's mother-in-law, who is addressed elsewhere in the corpus by the same first name and patronymic under the standing joke nickname "my mother-in-law." Here the two playful threats that follow (a knife-wielding entrance to convince Nastya and Borya of his hard-labor credentials; setting fire to Anna Ivanovna's room) are addressed to the same immediate Suvorin household named in this section: wife, daughter, son, and the still-unidentified "prosecutor Kostya."

• To M. P. Chekhova, 9–10 January 1891. Petersburg. §5 Anna Ivanovna is as lovely as ever, Suvorin talks nonstop as ever

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina and her husband Aleksei Suvorin, at whose Petersburg household Chekhov was a frequent guest that winter; both figures recur across the corpus's Petersburg letters of this period, characterized with the same affectionate, slightly teasing shorthand seen here (her good nature, his talkativeness).

• To A. S. Suvorin, 31 January 1891. Moscow. §12 I proposed to Anna Ivanovna

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Suvorin's wife, to whom Chekhov proposes inviting Matveyev and Ivan Pavlovich Kazansky -- already known to the corpus as a young acquaintance of the Suvorin household teased for his prim, pressed trousers -- to Feodosia, the Crimean town where the Suvorins kept their summer house, for the whole season.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 27 May 1891. Bogimovo. §9 Anna Ivanovna, Nastya, and Borya

  Suvorin's wife Anna Ivanovna and two of his children, Nastya and Borya, named together in the letter's closing regards, as in several other letters of this run to Suvorin.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 27 May 1891. Bogimovo. §3 Anna Ivanovna ought to pray to God for me forever

  Suvorin's wife, quoted here (via Suvorin) approving of the Bogimovo dacha Chekhov considered offering the family; Chekhov teases that her gratitude is owed to him for the trouble he spared himself in not actually wiring the offer, given the house's shabby furniture and remote station.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 27 May 1891. Bogimovo. §4 read Grigorovich's letter to my enemy Anna Ivanovna

  "My enemy" is affectionate mock-hostility, not a real quarrel; Chekhov invites Suvorin to pass along Dmitry Grigorovich's letter to Anna Ivanovna Suvorina so she can enjoy its favorable verdict on Chekhov -- the same figure named in \S3, not a third "Anna Ivanovna" and not, per the letter's own syntax, a Grigorovich relation.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 24 July 1891. Bogimovo. §10 My deepest bow to Anna Ivanovna, Nastya, and Borya

  The closing regards name three members of the Suvorin household: Anna Ivanovna Suvorina, Suvorin's wife (-- not to be confused with her mother, also an Anna Ivanovna), and her children Nastya and Borya, grouped together here in a single closing bow, consistent with how Chekhov names this trio elsewhere in the same summer's correspondence.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 18 August 1891. Bogimovo. §10 My regards to Anna Ivanovna, Nastya, and Borya

  Suvorin's wife Anna Ivanovna Suvorina and two of his children, Nastya and Borya -- the recurring household trio to whom Chekhov sends closing regards across this Bogimovo run of letters (cf., \S13, "regards to all of yours").

• To A. S. Suvorin, 18 August 1891. Bogimovo. §11 Give my regards to Anna Ivanovna, Nastya, Borya, and Aleksei Alekseyevich

  Anna Ivanovna Suvorina (Suvorin's wife), followed by the Suvorin children Nastya and Borya, and again Aleksei Alekseyevich Suvorin, Suvorin's son, mentioned earlier in \S5.