place

Svyatye Gory Monastery (Holy Mountains)

Svyatye Gory

also: Святые Горы, святогорск, the Holy Mountains, Holy Mountain

A real Orthodox monastery (Svyatogorsk Dormition Lavra) on a chalk cliff above the Donets River in what is now the Donetsk region of Ukraine, a major pilgrimage site that drew over ten thousand visitors for the feast days of St. John the Theologian and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker; the setting of the entire story, where the narrator shares a hostel room with Alexander Ivanych.

Reading notes

Tumbleweed §2 Svyatye Gory
Svyatye Gory ("Holy Mountains"), now the Svyatogorsk Dormition Lavra, is a real Orthodox monastery carved into a chalk cliff on the right bank of the Donets River, in what is today the Donetsk region of Ukraine. Chekhov visited it in May 1887 during a trip to his native south, and this travel sketch ("путевой набросок") is a direct, lightly fictionalized account of a night spent there during the crush of pilgrims for the feast days described in section 4. The monastery's guest-houses, hostel routine, and the boat procession to the hermitage (skit) across the river in sections 63-64 are all real features of the site as it operated in the 1880s.
To N. A. Leikin, 5 May 1887. Ragozina Balka". §5 the Holy Mountains
Svyatogorsk Monastery on the Seversky Donets, a popular pilgrimage site; Chekhov planned a short retreat there of fasting and prayer en route to Taganrog.
To M. P. Chekhova, 5 May 1887. Chasov-Yar. §4 the Holy Mountains
Svyatye Gory (Svyatogorsk) Monastery, a major Orthodox pilgrimage site on a chalk cliff above the Donets River, the next stop on Chekhov's spring 1887 journey through the Don steppe country.
To N. A. Leikin, 14 May 1887. Taganrog. §6 the Holy Mountains
The Svyatye Gory (Holy Mountains) Monastery on the Donets River, a major Orthodox pilgrimage site Chekhov had just visited on his spring 1887 journey through the south; he drew on impressions from the same trip for the 1888 novella "The Steppe."
To G. M. Chekhov, 17 October 1887. Moscow. §16 the Holy Mountains
Chekhov's travel sketch of the Svyatye Gory (Holy Mountains) monastery, published in Novoye Vremya, was well received even among clergy -- he reports hearing that three bishops had it read aloud -- and earned him a hundred roubles; he mentions in the same breath a companion sketch of the steppe.