place
Kharkov
also: Харьков
A major university city in what is now eastern Ukraine, one of the common destinations for graduates of the Taganrog gymnasium alongside Petersburg and Moscow.
Reading notes
- Which of the Three? §25 Kharkov
A major university city in what is now eastern Ukraine; the baron is departing for his family estate there, which is why the affair must end tonight.
- The Beauties §30 Kharkov
A major university city, here marking the other end of the stretch of line on which the story's second episode takes place.
- The New Villa §11 Kharkov
A major city in what is now eastern Ukraine; Kozov's son works there in a confectioner's shop and sends him money to live on.
- To Al. P. Chekhov, 1875. Taganrog. §4 Kharkov
A major university city in what is now eastern Ukraine, another common destination for Taganrog gymnasium graduates.
- To S. Kramayev, 8 May 1881. Moscow. §4 Kharkov
The university city in what is now eastern Ukraine where Kramarov was then living; Chekhov jokes about coming to his defense if violence reaches him there.
- To I. L. Leontyev, 16 March 1889. Moscow. §9 And yesterday I got back from Kharkov!
Kharkov, the city in present-day Ukraine, already tracked in this corpus. This is the only mention in this letter of the trip -- a bare, uncorroborated fact not otherwise elaborated here; left without further identification pending cross-reference with other March 1889 correspondence.
- To I. L. Leontyev, 21–22 March 1889. Moscow. §6 "Kharkov Association"
An unnamed joint-stock theatrical undertaking Chekhov cites as a model for raising funds by selling shares -- part of the running conversation about financing a writers'-own theater.
- To P. I. Chaykovsky, 18 October 1891. Moscow. §5 somewhere in the capitals, or in the provinces, in Kharkov, say, or
somewhere abroad
Chekhov names Kharkov, a major university and cultural center in what is now eastern Ukraine, only as one illustrative possibility among several ("the capitals... or in the provinces... or abroad") -- he is not urging a specific posting, only signaling the breadth of what would satisfy the request, and leaving the actual placement entirely to whatever opening Tchaikovsky might know of.
- To the Chekhovs, April 1891. Nice. §7 Rome, on the whole, is like Kharkov
A deflating comparison: Kharkov (Kharkiv), a major provincial university city in the Russian Empire, stands in Chekhov's private shorthand for a solid but unglamorous regional center -- see also his description of Kharkov elsewhere in the corpus as a common destination for Taganrog gymnasium graduates. Ranking Rome alongside it, after just having called Venice his brightest memory of the trip, is a characteristic piece of unromantic travel deflation.
- At the Manor §46 send his body to Kharkov, to the anatomical theater
Kharkov (Kharkiv) had a university medical faculty with an anatomical theater; Rashevich's morbid, self-pitying request to have his corpse donated there instead of buried is a piece of theatrical self-dramatization rather than a genuine wish, as the narrator's next lines make explicit ("he felt that every line of it breathed spite and play-acting").