To Ye. P. Yegorov, 6 February 1892. Voronezh.
Е. П. ЕГОРОВУ, 6 февраля 1892 г. Воронеж.
Headnote
dateline (given twice, in full and in reversed abbreviated form), a long report on famine relief and the horse-loan scheme in Voronezh province, a second paragraph on Voronezh’s relief work generally, a note on Sofya Davydova, a note on a forthcoming newspaper letter, closing greetings, and the signature. Dated 6 February 1892, from Voronezh.
The third letter in the famine-relief correspondence with Yevgraf Petrovich Yegorov, following (26 January) and (29 January); a later, distinct letter to the same addressee follows on 25 February. Writing now from Voronezh rather than Nizhny Novgorod, Chekhov describes Governor Kurovsky’s horse-relief scheme – horses bought up and issued on credit to peasants left without draft animals, who work off the cost hauling grain over the following season – explicitly modeled on a method of Yegorov’s own. He contrasts Voronezh’s more thorough famine relief (bread, portable stoves, coal, workshops, soup kitchens, a benefit theater performance) with what he saw in Nizhny Novgorod, praises Kurovsky and compares him to Baranov (the Nizhny Novgorod governor), reports that he gave Yegorov’s address to Sofya Alexandrovna Davydova as a capable contact, and notes that his own account of the two provinces’ famine relief will appear in "Russkiye Vedomosti."