work
Vanka
"Vanka"
also: Ванька
Chekhov's own story "Ванька" ("Vanka," 1886), about a nine-year-old peasant boy's apprenticeship letter to his grandfather; the subject of this letter's publication complication between Posrednik (via Gorbunov-Posadov) and Baroness Ikskul, both of whom sought to reissue it for their cheap popular-education booklet series.
Reading notes
- To V. G. Chertkov, 2 May 1891. Moscow. §5 my story "Vanka."
Chekhov's 1886 story of a nine-year-old peasant boy's apprenticeship letter to his grandfather -- the subject of Posrednik's reissue request and, as \S6 discloses, also already promised elsewhere.
- To I. I. Gorbunov-Posadov, 18 July 1891. Bogimovo. §6 Please also send my "Vanka," if it has already been printed.
Unlike the parallel request in ("Kindly send 'Vanka' and the proof of 'The Womenfolk'"), here Chekhov writes "моего 'Ваньку'" -- explicitly "my Vanka," with the possessive -- which reads more plainly as a reference to his own 1886 story "Ванька" than an unmarked catalogue item. That said, the request is still embedded in a run of catalogue business (chosen numbers, booklets to be sent) and could still denote a Posrednik-printed edition of the story rather than a personal copy in the ordinary sense. Following the caution established at, this is flagged rather than silently resolved: the possessive tips the balance toward Chekhov's own story, but the source alone does not fully disambiguate "his story" from "a Posrednik booklet reprinting his story."