Sbornik v polzu golodayushchikh

Reading notes

• To V. M. Sobolevsky, 7 October 1891. Moscow. §4 which wishes to publish a "Miscellany" in aid of the starving

  The "Sbornik v polzu golodayushchikh" ("Miscellany in Aid of the Starving"), a one-off collection of newly contributed stories and articles that Russkiye Vedomosti was organizing to sell for famine relief -- part of a broader wave of literary charity publications mounted by Russian periodicals in 1891-92. See the note on the famine itself at section 4 below.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 13 October 1891. Moscow. §3 All the expenses for the Sbornik (around 4 thousand) they are taking upon themselves

  The famine-relief Sbornik first reported in Chekhov's covering letter to Sobolevsky of a few days earlier, where Suvorin's letter had proposed that other papers pre-publish the collection's contents at double fees to swell the fund. Here Chekhov reports the outcome of that proposal: Russkiye Vedomosti's editorial board has agreed to absorb the Sbornik's own production costs (about 4,000 rubles) rather than treat Suvorin's scheme as a substitute for its own investment.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 13 October 1891. Moscow. §5 The Sbornik must come out no later than 15 December

  The first of three numbered objections the Russkiye Vedomosti board raises to Suvorin's enlargement proposal: a fixed December deadline that leaves no room for the delay a larger, pre-publication scheme would introduce.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 16 October 1891. Moscow. §3 I began a story for the "Miscellany"

  The famine-relief Miscellany (Sbornik v polzu golodayushchikh) organized by Russkiye Vedomosti that autumn -- see and for the fundraising scheme itself. Chekhov reports here that he has already abandoned one attempt at a contribution and started a second, a recurring difficulty across these October letters.

• To N. M. Lintvareva, 25 October 1891. Moscow. §6 "Russkiye Vedomosti" is printing a "Miscellany" for the benefit of the starving.

  The famine-relief Sbornik undertaken by the editorial board of "Russkiye Vedomosti", first discussed at length in Chekhov's letters to Sobolevsky and Suvorin of mid-October, where its costs, deadline, and roster of contributing periodicals are negotiated in detail; here Chekhov reports its progress in brief to a family friend and offers to send her a copy cash on delivery.

• To F. A. Chervinsky, 25 October 1891. Moscow. §4 The "Sbornik" is being published by "Russkiye Vedomosti."

  The famine-relief miscellany (Sbornik v polzu golodayushchikh) undertaken by the Russkiye Vedomosti editorial board to benefit victims of the 1891-92 famine, first named in the corpus at; here Chekhov reports on its production values ("solid and appealing," no expense spared) as an aside to Chervinsky, unrelated to the printing-house business discussed in \S3.

• To K. M. Fofanov, 14 November 1891. Moscow. §5 the "Miscellany" (Russkiye Vedomosti) in aid of the starving

  The famine-relief Sbornik undertaken by the Russkiye Vedomosti editorial board, first named in the corpus at and tracked through its negotiations over funding and scope at and its collection of material at. By this letter printing has already begun (as Chekhov notes later in the same section), which is why the request to Fofanov carries urgency -- a promised poem still had not arrived with only weeks left before the volume's stated 15 December deadline.

• To K. M. Fofanov, 14 November 1891. Moscow. §5 Printing of the "Miscellany" has already begun

  Confirms that the Sbornik had by mid-November moved from the collection stage described at (Anuchin gathering material at Devichye Pole) into active typesetting, consistent with the 15 December publication deadline the Russkiye Vedomosti board had set for itself at (\S5).

• To A. S. Suvorin, 15 November 1891. Moscow. §4 \emph{Russkiye Vedomosti} wants to announce a subscription for the \emph{Sbornik}.

  The \emph{Sbornik}, a literary miscellany assembled by the editorial board of \emph{Russkiye Vedomosti} to raise money for victims of the 1891-92 famine, worked through the ordinary machinery of a subscription-funded periodical: readers paid in advance for a copy, and the proceeds (after printing costs) went to relief. What Chekhov is relaying here is a practical request to Suvorin, publisher of the rival Petersburg paper \emph{Novoye Vremya} and the owner of a well-known bookshop-and-subscription office in the capital: first, that \emph{Novoye Vremya} print the \emph{Sbornik}'s subscription announcement gratis (ordinarily a paid advertisement), and second, that Suvorin's own office take subscriptions to the \emph{Sbornik} "without any deductions" -- that is, forward the full subscription price to the charity rather than retaining the usual bookseller's commission. Both asks turn Suvorin's commercial infrastructure toward the charity's benefit at no cost to himself beyond forgone revenue, which is precisely the kind of favor Chekhov was informally brokering across this stretch of the autumn 1891 correspondence as an intermediary between the Moscow-based \emph{Sbornik} editors and Suvorin's Petersburg publishing apparatus.

• To A. I. Smagin, 24 November 1891. Moscow. §3 The order to send out the "Miscellany" to 15 souls has been given. The 16th copy is being sent to Your Nobility.

  The famine-relief Sbornik undertaken by the Russkiye Vedomosti editorial board, first named in the corpus at and tracked through its collection of material and active typesetting under Professor Anuchin (ten days before this letter). Here Chekhov is personally managing the pre-publication distribution list, with Smagin -- addressed with mock-official ceremony as "Your Nobility" -- named as the 16th recipient; the volume's December publication date given here matches the 15 December deadline set by the Russkiye Vedomosti board at.

• To A. I. Smagin, 1891. Moscow. §3 So the "Miscellany" will be sent to You.

  The famine-relief Sbornik undertaken by the Russkiye Vedomosti editorial board, tracked through the corpus from its founding and active typesetting to Chekhov personally managing its pre-publication distribution list ten days before this letter, when he named Smagin the 16th recipient copy. Here that same delivery is snagged on the paper's new no-cash-on-delivery policy, and Chekhov personally vouches for Smagin to get the rule waived.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 11 December 1891. Moscow. §13 the \emph{Sbornik}

  The Sbornik v polzu golodayushchikh ("Miscellany in Aid of the Starving"), the famine-relief literary collection organized by Russkiye Vedomosti that autumn -- see for its founding proposal. Tolstoy's soup-kitchen article, discussed here, was one of its contributions.

• To N. M. Lintvareva, 14 December 1891. Moscow. §3 I have arranged for "Russkiye Vedomosti" to send You their "Miscellany" cash on delivery.

  The same famine-relief Sbornik Chekhov had already told Lintvaryova about seven weeks earlier, when it was still in press (\S6: "'Russkiye Vedomosti' is printing a 'Miscellany' for the benefit of the starving... I shall have a copy sent to You cash on delivery"); this letter reports that the arrangement has now actually been carried out, and adds the joking aside -- "don't subscribe to it a second time" -- implying Lintvaryova may have separately ordered her own copy in the interim.

• To Ye. P. Yegorov, 26 December 1891. Moscow. §4 Вышел "Сборник" в пользу голодающих, который дал чистых 18 тысяч.

  The famine-relief "Sbornik" (Miscellany), organized by the Russkiye Vedomosti editorial board and tracked through the corpus from its inception, its funding negotiations (production costs of roughly 4,000 rubles absorbed by the paper, 15 December publication deadline), its collection of contributions, and its move into typesetting, has now finally appeared and cleared a net 18,000 rubles for the relief fund -- the concrete payoff of the two months of brokering Chekhov had done between Suvorin and Sobolevsky's paper, and a substantial sum against the roughly 4,000-ruble production cost reported at the outset.