Yaroslavl

Reading notes

• To V. G. Korolenko, 2 May 1888. Moscow. §5 Yaroslavl

  The Volga city from which Chekhov had considered departing by steamer; he gave up the plan when the sailing date threatened to keep him from Moscow for Easter.

• To A. P. Lensky, 21 April 1890. Moscow. §2 I leave today. Yaroslavl Station, 8 o'clock in the evening.

  This is the actual departure-day letter: Chekhov left Moscow the evening of 21 April 1890 from Yaroslavl Station, the start of his cross-Siberian journey to the Sakhalin penal colony. Of the many letters in this corpus that anticipate or discuss the Sakhalin trip (e.g.), this is the one written on the day itself, dashed off with the extreme brevity and bare, courtesy-free signature (\S3, "Ваш Чехов"/"Yours, Chekhov") that mark it as a last-minute note rather than a considered letter. See headnote for the letter/telegram-boundary discussion.