Babkino

Reading notes

• To M. P. Chekhova, 6 May 1886. Petersburg. §4 Babkino

  The Kiselev family's country estate near Voskresensk, which the Chekhovs had rented as a summer house since 1885 and would return to again this season (the family in fact arrives there by late May 1886, per); Chekhov is glad if Kokosha has already gone ahead of the household.

• To N. A. Leikin, 27 May 1886. Babkino. §1 Бабкино

  The Kiselev family's country estate near Voskresensk, which the Chekhovs rented as a summer house in 1885 and 1886; this letter is written during the family's second Babkino summer.

• To F. O. Shekhtel, 27 May 1886. Babkino. §1 Бабкино

  The Kiselev family's country estate near Voskresensk, which the Chekhovs rented as a summer house in 1885 and 1886; this brief comic note, like the more discursive letters of the same weeks, is written from Babkino during the family's second summer there.

• To F. O. Shekhtel, 8 June 1886. Babkino. §1 Бабкино

  The Kiselev family's country estate near Voskresensk, which the Chekhovs rented as a summer house in 1885 and 1886; this letter is written during the family's second Babkino summer, at the height of its long-running household of visiting friends, in-jokes, and amateur theatricals.

• To M. V. Kiseleva, 29 October 1886. Moscow. §10 house No. 49

  A factual line-edit: Chekhov corrects a realist detail in Kiseleva's story, noting that Moscow addresses of the period did not use sequential building numbers the way she has written them -- a small but characteristic instance of his insistence on verifiable, observed detail even in a beginner's minor-press sketch.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 3 June 1887. Babkino. §1 Babkino

  An estate near Voskresensk (now Istra) that the Chekhov family rented as a summer residence in 1885-1887; this letter is written from there during Chekhov's stay in late May/early June 1887.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 26 June 1887. Babkino. §1 Babkino

  The Kiselyov family's estate near Voskresensk, where the Chekhovs summered repeatedly in the mid-1880s and where Anton did much of his writing.

• To A. S. Lazarev, 30 June 1887. Babkino. §1 Babkino

  The Kiselyov family estate near Voskresensk where the Chekhovs summered in the mid-1880s, and where Chekhov did much of his writing in these years.

• To I. A. Belousov, 3 August 1887. Babkino. §1 Babkino

  The estate near Voskresensk where the Chekhov family summered in the mid-to-late 1880s; this letter is written from there in August 1887.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 12 August 1887. Babkino. §1 Babkino

  The Kiselyov family's estate near Voskresensk, northwest of Moscow, where the Chekhovs summered in the mid-1880s; Anton wrote this note from there.

• To F. O. Shekhtel, 12 August 1887. Babkino. §1 Babkino

  The country estate near Voskresensk where the Chekhov family summered in 1887; this letter is written from there in the closing weeks of the season.

• To N. M. Yezhov and A. S. Lazarev, 13–14 August 1887. Babkino. §1 Babkino

  The Kiselyov family estate near Voskresensk where the Chekhovs summered in the mid-1880s, and where Chekhov did much of his writing in these years.

• To M. V. Kiseleva, 13 September 1887. Moscow. §11 Babkino

  The Kiselev family estate near Voskresensk where the Chekhovs summered from 1885 to 1887; the green trees of a Moscow street here trigger a wistful backward glance at that just-ended chapter, cast in mock-monastic terms ("hermit," "three unnoticed years") that undercut themselves with the joke about vodka and nervous yawning.

• To I. P. Chekhov, 7–8 May 1888. Sumy. §5 Babkino

  The Chekhov family's previous summer place near Voskresensk, here used as the point of unfavorable comparison against the new dacha at Luka.

• To M. V. Kiseleva, 17 February 1889. Moscow. §3 Babkino

  The Kiselevs' estate near Voskresensk, where the Chekhov family had rented a summer house; Chekhov complains he has not once managed to visit all winter because of the play's demands.

• To A. S. Kiselev, 8 December 1891. Moscow. §9 I would terribly like to visit Babkino

  The Kiselev family's estate near Voskresensk, where the Chekhov family had rented a summer house for three seasons in the mid-1880s (see headnote); by December 1891 Chekhov visits only in imagination, citing his workload and the impending Petersburg trip.

• To A. M. Kondratyev, 22 February 1891. Moscow. §4 go to Babkino to drink vodka from the silver little cup

  Babkino, the Kiselev family's estate near Voskresensk where the Chekhovs summered in 1885-1887 and remained frequent guests; a spring thaw and flooded rivers now threaten to spoil a planned visit there.