Moscow

Reading notes

• The Ram and the Young Lady §24 Moscow

  Russia's second capital; the gracious sir's true, undisclosed destination, revealed only after he has fled the young lady at the wrong entrance.

• The Wallet §11 Moscow

  Russia's great theatrical and commercial city, the natural destination for a newly wealthy provincial actor.

• The Lady with the Little Dog §20 Moscow

  Gurov's home city, where his settled family life and his bank position wait for him at the end of every holiday.

• The Duel §40 Moscow

  Moscow province, evoked in Laevsky's homesick daydream of the Russian north he has left behind.

• The Darling §28 Moscow

  Russia's second capital, where Kukin dies on a trip to hire performers and is buried before Olenka can do more than mourn him at home.

• The Chameleon §65 Moscow

  Russia's other great city, paired with Petersburg by Ochumelov as an example of where a masterless dog would be dealt with summarily.

• The Ideal Examination §9 Moscow

  Russia's second capital, invoked here for its famously bad pavements -- a stock local complaint of the 1880s comic press.

• Ionych §104 Moscow

  Russia's other capital and the seat of the Conservatory; Yekaterina Ivanovna's departure there ends the story's first courtship.

• Toward a Characterization of the Peoples §22 Moscow

  Russia's second capital, where Chekhov lived through most of the 1880s; the setting for the tall restaurateur Vlados and, later, the Moscow merchants who back the war on household pests.

• Comic Advertisements and Notices §3 Mosgow

  Moscow, rendered with the narrator's characteristic misspelling ("Мошкве" for "Москве") to preserve the semi-literate voice of the parody notice.

• On the Hunt §11 Moscow

  The narrator's home city, evoked here as the daydream that distracts him from the hunt at hand.

• At the Wolf-Baiting §2 Moscow

  Chekhov's home city and the setting for this sketch's real-life wolf-baiting spectacle, staged at a suburban racetrack.

• The Bride §6 Moscow

  Russia's second capital, where Sasha lives and works and where Nadya breaks her journey home to visit him; the story's provincial town, left unnamed, lies at some remove from it.

• The New Villa §9 Moscow

  Russia's second capital, where Elena Ivanovna worked as a governess before her marriage and where she and the children finally return for good.

• The Retired Slave §6 Moscow

  Russia's old capital and one of its two great cities, where the prince once kept lavish rented rooms and where the story's final scene takes place.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 1875. Taganrog. §4 Moscow

  Russia's second capital, where Nikolai Chekhov was already studying and where Alexander was staying; the family would itself relocate there within a few years.

• To M. M. Chekhov, 4 November 1877. Taganrog. §4 letters from Moscow

  By late 1877 most of the Chekhov household -- parents and younger siblings -- had already relocated to Moscow after Pavel Yegorovich's bankruptcy, leaving Anton alone in Taganrog to finish school.

• To M. M. Chekhov, 16 April 1878. Taganrog. §8 To Moscow

  Russia's second capital, where most of the Chekhov family and Mikhail had relocated after Pavel Yegorovich's business failure in Taganrog, leaving Anton to finish school alone.

• To M. P. Chekhov, 1879. Taganrog. §3 Moscow

  The city where the rest of the Chekhov family had settled by this time, and where Anton would soon join them to begin medical studies.

• To N. A. and L. S. Zakoryukiny and I. I. and Yu. I. Lyadov, 25 December 1880. Moscow. §1 Moscow

  Chekhov had moved to Moscow in 1879 to begin medical studies while most of his family joined him from Taganrog; this card is written from there in his first year.

• To S. Kramayev, 8 May 1881. Moscow. §4 in Moscow

  Russia's second capital, where the twenty-one-year-old Chekhov was studying medicine at the time of this letter.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 25 December 1882. Moscow. §5 Moscow

  The Chekhov family's home since 1879, where Anton was completing his medical studies while supporting the household through comic journalism.

• To G. P. Kravtsov, 29 January 1883. Moscow. §11 Moscow

  Russia's second capital, where the twenty-two-year-old Chekhov was both a medical student and the family's principal breadwinner, writing comic sketches for six or seven weeklies at once.

• To G. P. Kravtsov, 29 January 1883. Moscow. §19 Moscow, Sretenka, Golovin Lane

  The Chekhov family's Moscow address in this period, on Sretenka street in Golovin Lane, given here so a correspondent would not mistakenly try an editorial office and miss him.

• To Al. P. Chekhov and A. I. Khrushcheva-Sokolnikova, 3–6 February 1883. Moscow. §3 Moscow

  The Chekhov family's home, where Anton reports that even the uncensored Moscow publications were too cautious to print some of what "Oskolki" let through.

• To N. A. Leikin, 1883. Moscow. §4 Mother Moscow

  Moscow, Russia's second capital, where Chekhov was based through the 1880s writing for the city's comic press; the affectionate epithet "Mother Moscow" is a common colloquial usage.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 17–18 April 1883. Moscow. §1 Moscow

  Where Chekhov was living as a medical student; the letter's dateline city.

• To M. M. Chekhov, 1 January 1877. Taganrog. §4 Moscow

  Where the Chekhov family had resettled in 1876 after the father's shop in Taganrog failed and the household fled north ahead of its creditors.

• To M. M. and Ye. M. Chekhov, 6 May 1877. Taganrog. §4 Moscow

  Russia's second capital, where the Chekhov family had resettled after the collapse of the father's business in Taganrog; Anton had just left it to return south.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 8 January 1887. Moscow. §1 Moscow

  Chekhov's home city through most of the 1880s, where he practiced medicine and wrote for the comic press.

• To N. A. Leikin, 12 January 1887. Moscow. §1 Moscow

  Chekhov's home city through most of the 1880s, where he practiced medicine and wrote for the comic press.

• To A. S. Lazarev, 23 January 1887. Moscow. §1 Moscow

  Chekhov's home city through most of the 1880s, where he practiced medicine and wrote for the comic press.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 26 January 1887. Moscow. §1 Moscow

  Chekhov's home city through most of the 1880s, where he practiced medicine and wrote for the comic press.

• To M. P. Chekhova, 3 April 1887. Orel. §7 Moscow

  The Chekhov family's home city, addressed here on the reverse of the postcard.

• To A. S. Lazarev, 8 July 1887. Moscow. §1 Moscow

  Chekhov's home city through most of the 1880s, where he practiced medicine and wrote for the comic press.

• To M. V. Kiseleva, 13 September 1887. Moscow. §1 13 September 1887, Moscow.

  Written shortly after the Chekhov family's return to Moscow from their final summer at Babkino, the estate of Maria Kiseleva's family near Voskresensk.

• To V. G. Korolenko, 9 January 1888. Moscow. §1 Moscow

  Chekhov's home city since his family's move there in 1879; he writes from Moscow throughout this period while dealing with editors and journals based in Petersburg.

• To A. L. Selivanova, 6 February 1888. Moscow. §1 Moscow

  Chekhov's home city since his family's move there in 1879; he writes from Moscow while planning the family's summer travel south.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 24 March 1888. Moscow. §20 Moscow

  Chekhov's home city at this date, where he lived with his family while writing for the Moscow and Petersburg press.

• To A. S. Lazarev, 31 August 1888. Sumy. §7 Moscow

  Chekhov's home city, where he expects to arrive around 5-6 September 1888, not knowing whether Lazarev will be there or back at his teaching post.

• To A. S. Lazarev, 20 October 1888. Moscow. §1 Moscow

  Chekhov's home city at the time of writing, 20 October 1888.

• To F. O. Shekhtel, 20 October 1888. Moscow. §1 Moscow

  Chekhov's home city at the time of writing, 20 October 1888.

• To F. O. Shekhtel, 1 December 1888. Moscow. §1 Moscow

  Chekhov's home city at the time of writing, 1 December 1888.

• To F. O. Shekhtel, 16 December 1888. Moscow. §1 Moscow

  Chekhov's home city at the time of writing, 16 December 1888.

• To N. A. Nikulina, 22 December 1888. Moscow. §1 Moscow

  Chekhov's home city at the time of writing, 22 December 1888.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 7 January 1889. Moscow. §1 Moscow

  Where Chekhov was based through the winter of 1888-89, from which he conducted much of the logistical back-and-forth over Suvorin's play "Tatyana Repina" and the Petersburg revival of his own "Ivanov."

• To A. S. Suvorin, 7 January 1889. Moscow. §5 in Moscow

  Chekhov signals he expects Suvorin to visit Moscow shortly, consistent with the travel plans discussed in the surrounding January 1889 letters.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 8 February 1889. Moscow. §9 that kitchen-maid

  Translated directly, without softening, per corpus policy (matching's headnote treatment of comparable class epithets).

• To A. S. Suvorin, 6 March 1889. Moscow. §1 Moscow

  Chekhov's home base in this period; the letter's dateline.

• To M. P. Chekhova, 28 April 1889. Sumy. §8 Moscow,

  Opens the closing address block, addressed to Masha at the Korneev house in Moscow; compare the identical address block structure in \S13-16.

• To Ye. M. Lintvareva, 6 September 1889. Moscow. §1-2 September 6, 1889. Moscow. / September 6.

  A doubled dateline, as elsewhere in this correspondence: \S1 gives the formal outer date and place, \S2 repeats it in Chekhov's own brief informal form. Not a sign of two merged letters.

• To P. I. Chaykovsky, 14 October 1889. Moscow. §2 '89 -- 14/X

  Chekhov's own shorthand restatement of the dateline (\S1), year abbreviated and day/month given in day/month numeral order per Russian convention; rendered literally rather than expanded, to preserve the letter's original notation.

• To N. M. Garshina, 10 January 1892. Moscow. §4 Видите, как хорошо, что я не пообещал Вам участвовать в литературном вечере! Вечер этот будет 12-го янв, а между тем в этот день я во что бы то ни стало должен быть в Москве.

  Chekhov notes with relief that he had declined to commit to a literary evening Garshina had apparently proposed or mentioned to him, since the event falls on 12 January -- a day his own itinerary requires him to be in Moscow, between his return from the New Year period and his departure for Nizhny Novgorod on the 14th. The remark implies Garshina had sounded him out about participating, a request he had wisely left unanswered.

• To the Chekhovs, April 1891. Finalmarina. §10 Russia, Mosca.

  "Mosca" is the Italian form of "Moscow," as it appears on the historical envelope for foreign postal routing from Italy; left untranslated here, as with "Russia, Taganrog" on other envelope lines in this corpus (e.g.).

• On Official Business §16 Moscow

  The city Lyzhin trained in and means to return to; through the story it stands for the "real Russia" against the provincial "colony" of Syrnya.

• Advertisements and Notices §1 Moscow

  Russia's second capital and the base of the satirical weeklies (like The Alarm Clock) that Chekhov wrote for in this period.

• The Lucky One §47 Moscow, or somewhere further south

  From Bologoye, Moscow lies to the south and St. Petersburg to the north; Pyotr Petrovich's question assumes any train continuing past Bologoye toward Moscow is heading generally south, setting up the geographic confusion that reveals Ivan Alekseyevich's mistake.

• Strong Sensations §1 the Moscow district court

  Unlike many Chekhov court sketches, which anonymize the venue to an initial ("N...sky district court"), this story names its setting outright as the real Moscow окружной суд (district court), on Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street -- one of the busiest criminal courts in the empire after 1864.

• A Case from Practice §3 Moscow

  Korolyov's home city; the two stations and four versts by horse he covers to reach the mill mark the visit as a brief excursion out of the capital into the provincial countryside, not a real change of world.

• A Terrible Night §7 Moscow

  The story's setting, on a Christmas Eve night in 1883.

• Vanka §14 Moscow

  Russia's great commercial and cultural capital of the interior; here invoked by the mother's overprotectiveness as a far-off, grand destination.

• Spring's Arrival (A Discourse) §2 Moscow

  The city where the young Chekhov was living and writing as a medical student, and the setting for this sketch's mock-scientific survey of the spring thaw.

• Spring's Arrival (A Discourse) §9 our mother Moscow

  "Matushka Moskva" (Mother Moscow), a traditional affectionate epithet for the old capital, used ironically here as the narrator concedes Moscow's mud is at least marginally better-behaved than the provinces'.

• A Poisonous Affair §1 Moscow

  Russia's old capital and, in Chekhov's day, its newspaper and journal trade's other major hub alongside St. Petersburg -- the natural setting for a joke about an editorial office.

• The Fair §1 Moscow's smells

  Russia's second capital; the narrator measures the provincial fair-town's clean, rural air against the remembered smells of the metropolis.