work
"Нищие духом" ("Poor in Spirit")
Poor in Spirit
also: Нищие духом, Poor in Spirit
A tale (повесть) by the young, otherwise unidentified writer Iv. Grekov of Voronezh, sent to Chekhov with a request to forward it to "Severny Vestnik" and to put in a good word -- which Chekhov did the same day he received it, per (14 December 1891, to Albov). The title echoes the first Beatitude, "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3). Very likely the same manuscript Chekhov describes -- without naming its author -- in (3 December 1891, to Suvorin) as a 40-sheet novel of the identical title from an apparently very young man in Voronezh, whose plot ("the honest past, service to the people, community of interests, the setting sun") he recounts with wry horror; if so, this letter is the sequel, Chekhov relaying the manuscript onward through official channels rather than merely reading and setting it aside. Not otherwise identified or extant in this corpus.
Reading notes
- To M. N. Albov, 14 December 1891. Moscow. §4 Poor in Spirit
"Нищие духом" ("Poor in Spirit"), the tale (повесть) Grekov has sent Chekhov from Voronezh, asking him to forward it to "Severny Vestnik" and to put in a word on his behalf. The title echoes the first Beatitude, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3) -- see the allusions file for this letter. A manuscript of the same title, also from an apparently very young man in Voronezh, appears in (3 December 1891, to Suvorin), where Chekhov calls it a novel (роман) of some 40 sheets and describes its plot with wry horror -- "the honest past, service to the people, community of interests, the setting sun." Given the identical title, the identical city of origin, and the eleven-day gap between the two letters, this is almost certainly the same submission, here relayed onward through official channels rather than merely read and set aside; the shift in Chekhov's own genre label from "роман" (novel) in to "повесть" (tale) here is likely loose usage rather than evidence of a different work. Left as a distinct entity rather than silently merged, since the letters do not use identical wording to confirm it, but the crossref below records the likely identity.