To V. I. Gerye, 8 October 1891. Moscow.
В. И. ГЕРЬЕ, 8 октября 1891 г. Москва.
Headnote
Dated 8 October 1891, from Moscow, to Vladimir Ivanovich Guerrier, the historian.
The occasion is a character reference. Guerrier has evidently written to Chekhov asking what he knows of a Mr. Kirin, and Chekhov answers candidly that he knows very little. Three or four years earlier he had been asked by the wife of a well-known Moscow doctor to help Kirin, who described himself as a newspaper contributor; Chekhov wrote on his behalf to Mr. Muromtsev recommending he apply to the Literary Fund, and the aid was apparently granted. Since then Kirin has occasionally – two or three times a year at most – called on Chekhov or written to him describing dire need. Chekhov’s impression of him, for what little it is worth, is of a sober, courteous, candid, and diffident man who asked for help only rarely and always with elaborate apology. Chekhov reasons that if Kirin has now invoked his name to a comparative stranger like Guerrier, it can only be because Kirin has no other acquaintance in Moscow to turn to.
The letter is notable for its scrupulousness: Chekhov is careful not to overstate what he actually knows, distinguishes his personal impression from any real information, and declines to vouch for Kirin beyond what he can honestly claim – a small, characteristic instance of the same exactness that runs through his fiction.