Ivanov

Reading notes

• To N. M. Yezhov, 5 October 1887. Moscow. §4 My play is ready

  "Ivanov," Chekhov's first full-length play, which he had just finished drafting; it premiered at Moscow's Korsh Theatre the following month, November 1887. The play is currently excluded from this corpus's translation batches for separate dedicated handling due to its length; this note is apparatus/annotation only.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 6–7 October 1887. Moscow. §6 Ivanov

  Chekhov's first full-length play, just completed; this letter dictates the exact wording of a planted notice meant to generate advance interest before its staging.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 10–12 October 1887. Moscow. §9 the play

  "Ivanov," Chekhov's first full-length play, then just completed; this section is his fullest surviving account of its composition and his own mixed assessment of it.

• To V. G. Korolenko, 17 October 1887. Moscow. §7 My play

  "Ivanov," Chekhov's first full-length play, then awaiting production; it premiered the following month, November 1887, at the Korsh Theater.

• To G. M. Chekhov, 17 October 1887. Moscow. §4 "Ivanov"

  A mock-journalistic joke: Chekhov reports on his own play in the stilted third-person style of a newspaper items column, as if "An. P. Chekhov" were someone else's news -- self-referential humor about being talked of as a public figure. "Ivanov" is the four-act play he had just finished and was about to place at Korsh's theatre (see section 25).

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 21 October 1887. Moscow. §4 my play

  Ivanov, Chekhov's first full-length play, about to be staged at the Korsh Theater; the letter details its likely box-office terms.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 24 October 1887. Moscow. §9 his play

  Suvorin's own struggling comedy, mentioned in the letter he sent Chekhov; distinct from Chekhov's own play (also referenced later in this section) which was then in rehearsal.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 24 October 1887. Moscow. §9 The play is bound to be staged

  Chekhov's own play, almost certainly "Ivanov," then nearing production at the Korsh Theater; the section's account of casting worries and doubts about the actors matches Chekhov's other letters from this period about "Ivanov."

• To N. M. Yezhov, 27 October 1887. Moscow. §5 As best man at my "Ivanov,"

  Chekhov's first full-length play, completed the previous month; here he reports its imminent staging at the Korsh Theater, playfully continuing the earlier joke of casting Yezhov as "best man" (shafer) to the play.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 29 October 1887. Moscow. §6 my play

  "Ivanov," Chekhov's first full-length play, completed in manuscript in early October 1887 and then heading toward its November premiere at the Korsh Theater.

• To N. A. Leikin, 4 November 1887. Moscow. §3 My play

  \textit{Ivanov}, Chekhov's first full-length play, then in rehearsal at Fyodor Korsh's private Moscow theater ahead of its November 1887 premiere. This numbered, mock-methodical litany of production troubles (points 1 through 8) is the letter's centerpiece.

• To M. V. Kiseleva, 7 November 1887. Moscow. §11 My play has already been set in motion

  "Ivanov," then in its pre-Moscow-premiere circulation; the Saratov production mentioned here, with Andreyev-Burlak, was a provincial staging separate from the Korsh Theatre production in Moscow that November.

• To M. V. Kiseleva, 7 November 1887. Moscow. §14 a circuit court in session

  "Мировой съезд" -- a comic legal metaphor: Chekhov jokingly casts Kiseleva's anticipated trip to Moscow to see/judge his play as a formal tribunal sitting in judgment on it.

• To A. S. Lazarev, 15 November 1887. Moscow. §5 my play

  Ivanov, Chekhov's first full-length play, set to premiere at Moscow's Korsh Theater on 19 November 1887 -- four days after this letter.

• To N. A. Leikin, 15 November 1887. Moscow. §3 on Thursday my play goes on

  \textit{Ivanov}, Chekhov's first full-length play, in its initial run at Fyodor Korsh's Moscow theater in November 1887; see the earlier letter to Leikin for the chaotic rehearsal complaints that preceded this note.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 20 November 1887. Moscow. §9 The play goes a second time on the 23rd

  Chekhov announces revisions before the second performance, chiefly cutting the drunk groomsmen business from Act 4 that he found so distasteful.

• To A. S. Kiselev, 24 November 1887. Moscow. §3 on for the third time

  Chekhov's play "Ivanov" had premiered at Moscow's Korsh Theatre three days earlier, on November 19, 1887, to a famously turbulent reception; the second showing (referenced in the next section) had gone more smoothly than the tumultuous opening night.

• To A. S. Kiselev, 24 November 1887. Moscow. §4 called out again

  Being "called out" (вызывали) refers to curtain calls -- the audience summoning the playwright or actors to the stage after a performance; Chekhov contrasts this ordinary mark of success with the premiere's hissing.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 24 November 1887. Moscow. §3 such an uproar in the audience and backstage

  The riotous 19 November 1887 premiere of \textit{Ivanov} at the Korsh Theater, Chekhov's first full-length play on the professional stage; this letter, written five days later, is his own retrospective account of the chaos, complementing the blow-by-blow he had given Maslov the day after.

• To V. N. Davydov, 1 December 1887. Petersburg. §5 gehenna fire and the Sanhedrin

  A mock-biblical figure of speech: geenna ognennaya ("gehenna fire," the New Testament term for a place of fiery punishment) and sinedrion ("Sanhedrin," the ancient Jewish tribunal that tried capital cases). Chekhov invokes both as hyperbolic shorthand for the harshest possible verdict a court could pass -- here, on the play's clumsy craftsmanship -- rather than as any comment on religion; the joke is the mismatch between the biblical weight of the phrase and the merely literary fault (careless writing) it is applied to. Translated literally per the no-alteration policy for historical source material.

• To V. N. Davydov, 1 December 1887. Petersburg. §11 comes running to Sasha

  Refers to Act IV of "Ivanov," in which the title character, on the eve of his wedding to Sasha Lebedeva, comes to her in agitation; contemporaries singled this scene out as the play's strongest passage of characterization. "Ivanov" here denotes the play's title character, distinct from the play itself (referenced throughout the letter in quotation marks) and from any historical person of that surname.

• To V. N. Davydov, 1 December 1887. Petersburg. §13 stage lie

  Chekhov reports his judges' verdict on the play's ending using the Russian theatrical term stsenicheskaya lozh ("stage lie"/"theatrical falsehood") -- a plot resolution that, whatever its psychological truth, works only through the artifice of performance rather than dramatic necessity.

• To V. N. Davydov, 1 December 1887. Petersburg. §18 a conflagration has come of a spark

  Chekhov's own wry summary of the disproportion between the play's modest origins and the outsized public controversy it provoked in both Moscow and Petersburg.

• To the Chekhovs, 3 December 1887. Petersburg. §7 "Ivanov"

  Chekhov's play had just premiered at Korsh's Moscow theater in November 1887 to a chaotic, poorly rehearsed production that left Chekhov disgusted with his own work, even as Petersburg literary circles were eager to see it staged there.

• To V. G. Korolenko, 9 January 1888. Moscow. §3 my play

  Almost certainly Ivanov, Chekhov's first full-length play, completed in manuscript in October 1887 and premiered that November; not yet available in print for Chekhov to send Korolenko an offprint.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 23 January 1888. Moscow. §5 Ivanov

  Chekhov's play, staged in Moscow in November 1887 to a mixed and often hostile reception; he calls it his "miscarriage" here, still smarting from its rocky debut.

• To M. V. Kiseleva, 3 February 1888. Moscow. §6 "Ivanov"

  Chekhov's 1887 play, whose stylistic departure from expectation drew heated and divided critical response; he predicts the same pattern of controversy will greet "The Steppe" for its originality.

• To G. M. Chekhov, 9 February 1888. Moscow. §5 "Ivanov"

  Chekhov's first full-length play, premiered at Moscow's Korsh Theatre in November 1887 and by early 1888 already touring provincial stages, including Kharkov.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 5–6 October 1888. Moscow. §6 In "Ivanov" I have radically reworked Acts II and IV

  Chekhov's play Ivanov, already established in this corpus; here he reports substantive revisions ahead of a further staging, including a new monologue for the title character and touch-ups to Sasha.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 18 November 1888. Moscow. §4 Your "Tatyana" at least has an ending -- but what my "Ivanov" went through!

  Chekhov's own play, already established elsewhere in this corpus as the source of considerable nervous strain during its own premiere and subsequent revision; invoked here only in brief, rueful comparison to Suvorin's forthcoming premiere, with no new detail added.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 17 December 1888. Moscow. §11 I have already set to work on "Ivanov." In two days it will be ready.

  Chekhov's own play, already extensively established in this corpus; this is a separate, self-contained mention distinct from the "Tatyana Repina" casting discussion running through \S3-8 above -- see the \S3 non-conflation flag. This section is a rare glimpse of Chekhov revising "Ivanov" in the days immediately before its 19 December 1888 Alexandrinsky premiere, judging it "coming out smoothly, but not effectively for the stage," with the first three acts "all right."

• To A. S. Suvorin, 18 December 1888. Moscow. §34 "Ivanov" is finished. It's being copied out.

  A concrete, dateable production milestone for Chekhov's own play "Ivanov," already extensively established elsewhere in this corpus: by 18 December 1888 the play is complete and being transcribed by a copyist ahead of submission or rehearsal. Unlike, this letter draws no explicit comparison between "Ivanov"'s ordeal and "Tatyana Repina"'s -- the postscript stands alone.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 19 December 1888. Moscow. §11 I've finished my "Dolt-anov" {a joking nickname for "Ivanov," playing on "болван," "blockhead" or "dolt" (Russian).}

  WORDPLAY, not a real name. The Russian source reads "Болванов" ("Bolvanov"), Chekhov's own private coinage built by substituting the root "болван" ("blockhead," "dolt") for the "Ив-" of "Иванов" -- a self-mocking nickname for his own play "Ivanov", not a character or person in its own right. The pun does not survive translation and is rendered as the coined English portmanteau "Dolt-anov" with a bracketed gloss, following this corpus's established practice for untranslatable wordplay (cf. the "Bogolepov"/"Saturday" note in's headnote).

• To N. A. Nikulina, 22 December 1888. Moscow. §4 Sabinin

  A character in Chekhov's play "Ivanov," not a real person -- the role Suvorin is urging Gorev to take in the forthcoming Maly Theatre benefit production.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 30 December 1888. Moscow. §4 If the three of you have understood me so, it means my "Ivanov" is worthless.

  The central subject of the letter's long central movement: Chekhov's own play "Ivanov," premiered at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in Petersburg on 19 December 1888 (see and for the immediately preceding casting and revision correspondence).

• To I. L. Leontyev, 31 December 1888. Moscow. §6 Wait until I write another play, and to hell with "Ivanov"!

  Chekhov's dismissive closing word on the play's flaws, echoing and resolving the anxious discussion begun in \S5; the same abrupt shift from careful argument to impatient dismissal recurs elsewhere in Chekhov's letters about this play from the same period.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 2 January 1889. Moscow. §5 my late \"Ivanov,\" you said: \"Why don't you let us print it?\"

  Chekhov's own play, discussed extensively in the immediately preceding corpus letters regarding its Moscow reception and prospective Petersburg production; "late" (\textit{pokoynom}) is Chekhov's own mock-elegiac epithet for the play, not a claim about its actual withdrawal.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 3 January 1889. Moscow. §12 my play

  Refers to "Ivanov"; this is the moment of private candor -- Chekhov admitting he does not love the play and wishes someone more capable had written it -- that the headnote (\S3) flags as the letter's one note of real feeling, consistent with the extended defense of the same play in.

• To V. N. Davydov, 4 January 1889. Moscow. §4 My late "Ivanov," as you know, has been dug up out of its grave and is again undergoing examination.

  Chekhov's own joking figure for the Alexandrinsky Theatre's 1889 revival of "Ivanov", which had premiered at Moscow's Korsh Theatre in 1887 (institution:korsh-theatre) and is now being recast for St. Petersburg -- "dug up out of its grave" plays on the play's own funereal reputation and the fact that a Petersburg production had earlier fallen through.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 8 January 1889. Moscow. §7 a merry, laughing, radiant Ivanov, and with him a merry Sasha

  Ivanov here denotes both the title character of Chekhov's play (extensively established elsewhere in this corpus, e.g.'s and's headnotes) and, by extension, the play itself; Chekhov describes inserting a lighter scene to relieve the play's prevailing gloom, opposite a correspondingly "merry" Sasha.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 15 January 1889. Moscow. §3 I write to you having served out my hard labor.

  "Hard labor" (source: "каторжную работу," katorzhnaya rabota, literally penal servitude) opens the letter's running conceit of the past week's frantic revision of "Ivanov" as a prison sentence just completed -- picked up again a few lines later ("the convict-labor strain," каторжного напряжения) before the letter turns to the play's actual problems.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 15 January 1889. Moscow. §6 When I am done with my "Blockheadov,"

  "Blockheadov" translates Chekhov's own coinage "Bolvanov" (Болванов) -- grafting "болван" (bolvan, "blockhead" or "dummy") onto the root of his play's title "Иванов" (Ivanov). This is wordplay on Chekhov's own play and its title character, not a reference to any outside work or a separate entity; the corpus's established practice for this class of untranslatable self-directed pun is to preserve it as a coined portmanteau and document it as wordplay rather than mint a new entity (cf. the near-identical "Dolt-anov"/"Bolvanov" coinage in's allusions entry). Seefor the formal wordplay entry.

• To M. P. Chekhov, January 1889. Petersburg. §2 nothing decent is going to come of the play

  "The play" is not named outright in this letter. It is identified as "Ivanov" by context: the Davydov connection (Davydov was rehearsing the title role at the Alexandrinsky at this date) and the surrounding run of January 1889 Petersburg letters in this corpus (571, 572, 579, 585), all concerning the same Alexandrinsky production.

• To K. S. Barantsevich, 3 February 1889. Moscow. §3 "Ivanov."

  Chekhov's play, then in rehearsal and early performances at the Alexandrinsky Theater in Petersburg; Chekhov received Barantsevich's letter on the eve of a performance.

• To D. T. Savelyev, 4 February 1889. Moscow. §3 yesterday I came back from Petersburg, where I was staging my play

  Refers to the Alexandrinsky Theatre revival and premiere of "Ivanov" in Petersburg (31 January/1 February 1889 o.s.), the culmination of the emergency casting-and-revision correspondence tracked earlier in this corpus's January 1889 letters (through); this letter, written 4 February, is Chekhov's first report of the outcome to a correspondent outside that immediate circle.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 4 February 1889. Moscow. §9 Ivanov

  Chekhov's play, whose Petersburg premiere at the Alexandrinsky Theatre is the emotional occasion behind this letter's warmth toward the cast.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 6 February 1889. Moscow. §11 I'm writing this letter at the very moment when the second act of my "Ivanov" is going on in Petersburg.

  Places this letter within a specific ongoing Alexandrinsky Theater performance of "Ivanov" in St. Petersburg, consistent with the surrounding January-February 1889 correspondence already in this corpus; the exact date of the performance referenced is not otherwise verified here.

• To A. M. Yevreinova, 8 February 1889. Moscow. §3 the proofs of my "Ivanov"

  Chekhov's play "Ivanov", already established in this corpus (first appearance); the request here is specifically for printed PROOF copies (not fewer than three, two of them for transcription to meet demand from the provinces), distinct from the manuscript copies the theatrical library is separately distributing.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 8 February 1889. Moscow. §9 my "Ivanov"

  Chekhov's own play; he declares here that he will withhold Moscow performance rights out of contempt for Moscow's critical reception of it.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 10 February 1889. Moscow. §2 "Case of Ivanov"

  "Дело об Иванове" is Chekhov's own half-joking name for his growing personal archive of press reviews of his play "Ivanov", treated as a mock legal dossier -- wordplay on the play's title rather than a reference to any separate document or institution.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 13 February 1889. Moscow. §2 my Ivanov

  Chekhov's own play, playing in Moscow at the same time; he jokingly personifies the two plays, calling his own "monotonously meek" against Suvorin's "unruly" Tanya.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 14 February 1889. Moscow. §8 my "Ivanov"

  Chekhov's first full-length play; this letter finds him weighing a trip to Petersburg to catch one of its final Shrovetide performances there.

• To A. M. Yevreinova, 17 February 1889. Moscow. §4 the proofs of "Ivanov"

  Chekhov's play "Ivanov", already established in this corpus (first appearance). The letter concerns the printing house's slow, piecemeal delivery of the play's proof sheets -- by Friday evening Chekhov still had not received or read the fourth act and the end of the third -- which kept him in Moscow all week instead of letting him leave for Shrovetide in the country as planned.

• To A. M. Yevreinova, 17 February 1889. Moscow. §5 pestering you so often with my "Ivanov"

  Continues the same reference to "Ivanov" and its proofs, now in an apologetic register after the outburst of \S4.

• To M. V. Kiseleva, 17 February 1889. Moscow. §3 the proofs of "Ivanov"

  Chekhov's first full-length play, premiered at Moscow's Korsh Theatre in November 1887 and here being serialized, with a revised text, in \emph{Severny Vestnik}; its proof corrections are the immediate cause of Chekhov's confinement to Moscow that winter.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 18 February 1889. Moscow. §4 "Ivanov."

  Chekhov's own play, whose mixed Petersburg reception in January 1889 is the occasion for Shcheglov's consoling letter and this extended reply; see also the same run of letters at/566/568/586/594.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 20 February 1889. Moscow. §4 "Ivanov" has been playing to full houses

  Chekhov's play, which had recently opened at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in Petersburg (see the run of letters at/587/589/590/591/593); its box-office success in Moscow at Korsh's is a separate, earlier run feeding into Chekhov's half-joking financial plans in this section.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 20 February 1889. Moscow. §8 I am reading the proofs of my play.

  The published-text proofs of "Ivanov", whose print edition Chekhov is preparing around this time following its Petersburg production.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 20 February 1889. Moscow. §8 not so mixed and not so crumpled as the one you were bound, against your will, to get from "Ivanov,"

  Refers back to Suvorin's own mixed reaction to "Ivanov," the subject of the extended January-February 1889 correspondence (see crossrefs.json for the linked thread at/591/593).

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 21 February 1889. Moscow. §4 "Ivanov"

  Chekhov's first full-length play, whose Petersburg run under the theater directorate had just closed; the letter concerns collecting the royalties owed for it.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 5 March 1889. Moscow. §6 whose son shot himself after my "Ivanov."

  Chekhov reports, via Svobodin, a secondhand rumor that Suvorin had received a letter from a parent whose son had shot himself, allegedly under the influence of Chekhov's play "Ivanov." Chekhov's own tone here is skeptical and self-protective rather than callous: he wants documentary proof ("if this letter isn't a myth, please send it to me") and frames it as material for a file of reactions to the play, adding immediately that he is now so sick of "Ivanov" and its notoriety that he can no longer bear to read about it or hear it discussed. The underlying content -- a reader's suicide reportedly linked to a specific literary work -- is translated faithfully here without softening, per corpus policy; this note preserves both the substance of the claim and Chekhov's guarded, weary reaction to it, and should not be elided or euphemized in any downstream apparatus, summary, or marketing use of this letter.

• To P. A. Sergeyenko, 6 March 1889. Moscow. §6 "Ivanov"

  Chekhov's own play, written two years earlier, staged in Moscow the previous year and in Petersburg on 31 January 1889 with great success, and just printed in the March 1889 issue of "Severny Vestnik" -- the same journal to which Sergeyenko's verses are being forwarded.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 6 March 1889. Moscow. §4 "Ivanov"

  Chekhov's first full-length play, premiered at Moscow's Korsh Theatre in November 1887; here named alongside "The Bear" as one of the two plays for which the theatrical directorate has just paid him a combined 997-rouble royalty.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 7 March 1889. Moscow. §4 with all the abandon of a proper Ivanovo-day spree, the money I got for my "Ivanov."

  Chekhov's play "Ivanov", already established in this corpus (first appearance). The phrase translated here as "with all the abandon of a proper Ivanovo-day spree" renders the fixed Russian idiom "во всю ивановскую" ("at full tilt"), which Chekhov juxtaposes with the play's title in what is very likely a deliberate pun on the shared "Ivan-" root -- see the allusions entry for this letter.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 16 March 1889. Moscow. §3 my "Bolvanov"

  "Bolvanov" (source: "Болванова") is Chekhov's own established nonce coinage for his play "Ivanov" -- grafting "болван" (bolvan, "blockhead" or "dummy") onto the title's root -- already identified and explained in the headnote and allusions entry. Preserved here untranslated as a compound, consistent with that earlier treatment, since the joke depends on hearing "Ivanov" inside it; seefor the formal wordplay entry.

• To N. A. Leikin, 10 April 1889. Moscow. §7 Ivanov

  Chekhov's 1887 play, revised and restaged in early 1889; Chekhov here dismisses a rumor, relayed via Bilibin, that he intends to travel to Kiev to stage it himself.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 4 May 1889. Sumy. §5 when I was writing "Ivanov."

  "Иванова", Chekhov's earlier play, completed in manuscript in October 1887 and already staged by this point; used here as a benchmark of his own growing confidence as a dramatist.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 4 May 1889. Sumy. §10 He looked on so condescendingly in the theater at "Tatyana Repina" and my "Ivanov,"

  Chekhov's own play, staged alongside Suvorin's "Tatyana Repina"; the brother's condescending theater-going and cognac-fueled criticism of both plays is the occasion for Chekhov's ironic pleasure at his now struggling with a play of his own (\S10-11).

• To I. L. Leontyev, 6 May 1889. Sumy. §7 "Ivanov"

  Chekhov's own play, already extensively established elsewhere in this corpus; the parenthetical query concerns proceeds from its Petersburg run being passed on to the Society for Aid to Stage Performers.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 18 September 1889. Moscow. §5 "Ivanov"

  Chekhov's play, then running at the Korsh Theatre in Moscow.

• To I. M. Kondratyev, 28 December 1889. Moscow. §6 "Ivanov," "The Bear"

  Two of the four plays under separate contract with the Alexandrinsky Theatre in Petersburg, distinct from the Abramova arrangement for "The Wood Demon"; "Ivanov" and "The Bear" share a contract term (through 25 January 1891), while "The Proposal" and "The Swan Song" (sections 7-8) each have their own terms.

• To N. M. Lintvareva, 18 January 1892. Derevnya Belaya. §3 Evidently I was created for the punishment of notaries named Ivanov, probably for having written the play "Ivanov."

  The letter's central joke: Chekhov proposes, in mock-superstitious logic, that his run of bad luck with two different notaries who both happen to be named Ivanov is cosmic punishment for having written and named his 1887 play after that very surname. The joke works only because the two notaries are genuinely different men (see the notes at this section's earlier two Ivanov mentions) -- a single coincidence would not sustain the idea of a "punishment" repeating itself. \textit{Иванов} was, and remains, one of the most common surnames in Russian, which is itself part of the joke's absurdist logic: Chekhov imagines a whole class of tradesmen conspiring against him simply by sharing his play's title.