Donald Rayfield - Anton Chekhov. A life

1903.

65 See PSSP, 11,562. 66 See Vvospominaniiakh, 597-9. 67 See PSSP, XIII, 497. 68 See PSSP, 11, 598. 69 See RGALI, 2540 1 160: Evgenia's letters to Vania, 1888-1905: 27 Oct. 1903. 70 Cut from Knipper-Chekhova, 1972: see OR, 331 77 4: Olga's letters to Anton, 1-16 Nov. 1903. 71 Tania Shchepkina-Kupernik's memoirs record an almost identical scene. 72 See MXaT, 5323/44-62: Sanin's letters to Lika, 1903: 14 Dec. 73 See OR, 331 77 11: Olga's letters to Evgenia, 1903-4: 29 Dec. 1903. 74 There was reason to let Andreeva go: she had been denouncing Knipper and Nemirovich-Danchenko to Stanislavsky; she was fainting on stage; Gorky had fallen in love with her (while everyone felt for Gorky's wife, who had ÒÂ); Andreeva's husband was accused of embezzling. (In 1905 Andreeva was reinstated. Her career as a Bolshevik and as Gorky's consort was assured.) 75 Cut from Knipper-Chekhova, 1972: see OR, 331 77 6: Olga's letters to Anton, 15-29 Feb. 1904. 76 This mad desire to cross Siberia again was stimulated by new grounds for jealousy. Olga casually mentioned on 16 March that she had met her first love, the mill-owner Dimitri Goncharov, and that, despite his illness, he

75

75

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wanted to act with her in the Moscow Arts Theatre. 77 Cut from Knipper-Chekova, igjz: see OR, 331 77 8: Olga's letters to Anton, Apr. 1904: 15 Apr. Anton hints at relations with Krestovskaia in his letter to Suvorin from a Blagoveshchensk brothel. 78 See OR, 331 79 31: Masha's letters to Evgenia, 1903-14: 9 May 1904. 79 See OR, 331 77 18: Olga's letters to Masha, 1904: 22 May. 80 See RGALI, 2540 1 483: Masha's letters to Misha, 1884-1904: 27 May 1904. 81 See PSSP, 12, 353. 82 SeePSSP, 367, 374, 377. 83 I am grateful to M. A. Sheikina for this information. 84 See OR, 331 66 78-124: telegrams to Olga Knipper-Chekhova, July

1904.

85 See Pis'ma A. S. Suvorina kV.V. Rozanovu, SPb, 1913, 10. For a fuller account of that morning, see A. Rostovtsev, 'Pamiati Chekhova' in Obozrenie teatra, 2-7 July 1914. 86 See RGALI, 2540 1 478: Aleksandr's letters to Misha, 1883 -1904: 4 July 1904. 87 SeeLN68, 618-9. 88 In 1909 Suvorin's Istoricheskii vestnik published a scandalous and venomous expose by Ezhov which portrayed Chekhov as a conceited mediocrity. 89 See Shcheglov's diary, which, however, found her Cherry Orchard 'could have been more entertaining' (LN68, 486). 90 See OR, 331 79 13: documents on the Chekhov inheritance. 91 See RGALI, 2540 1 150: Aleksandr's letters to Vania, 1898-1905: 9 Sept. 1904.

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92 See RGALI, 2540 1 478: Aleksandr's letters to Misha, 1883-1904: 9 Sept. 1904. 93 After Bunin left, Masha had a flirtation, which ended in 1912, with Baron Stuart, the purchaser of Melikhovo; Aleksandr Smagin pined all his life for her. 94 See RGALI, 5459 1 402: Aleksandr's letters to Natalia, 1908: 5 Nov. 95 In 1939, with uncharacteristic liberalism, the Soviet state published Aleksandr's letters to Anton, and his wayward genius was recognized. See his son's memoirs in M. A. Chekhov, 1986. 96 See OR, 331 77 18+ and 331 105 7+: Masha's and Olga's fifty-year correspondence after Anton's death is a little known mine of biographical and historical material. 97 See OR, 331 84 38: Nikolai Aleksandrovich Chekhov's notebooks. 98 In die mid 1930s a woman, apparendy his wife, wrote to Masha from a prison camp. Masha hid the letter behind a stove; in the 1940s, when it was found by a secretary, Masha destroyed it. 99 See Vladimir Knipper, Pora galliutsinatsii, 1995. Olga Tschechowa's daughter 'proved' her Aryan blood by sending to Sumy, under German occupation, for her grandmother, Natalia Golden's, wedding certificate, where Jewishness was not mentioned. 100 Her obituary, as Princess Bariatinsky, is in The Times, 5 Sept. 1921.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Works I have found particularly useful are asterisked. All quotations are translated from the standard edition of complete works and letters. Place of publication is Moscow unless indicated. Chekhov V writings

IN RUSSIAN

*A. P. Chekhov, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii i pisem (PSSP): 1-18, works [referred to as I-XVIII]; 1 -12 (+ indices), letters [referred toasi-12], 1973-83. Some items missing from PSSP can be found in: A. B. Derman, ed., A. P. Chekhov Sbornik dokumentov…, 1947 [inc. student post-mortem report]. A. P. Chudakov, ' "Neprilichnye slova" i oblik klassika' in Literaturnoe Obozrenie, 1991, 11, 54. 'Podtsenzurnyi Chekhov' in Kuranty, 8 Sept., 1993, 9 [lists some cuts in

PSSP 1-4.

L. Shcheglov [allegedly after Chekhov], Sila gipnotizma in Zhizn' vverkh nogami, SPb, 1911.

IN ENGLISH

Michael Frayn (tr.), Chekhov: Plays, London, 1993 [actable versions of the mature plays]. Constance Garnett (tr.), (revised D. Rayfield) The Chekhov Omnibus, London, 1994 [classic selection of prose fiction]. Ronald Hingley (tr.), The Oxford Chekhov (complete mature works) 9 vols, T972Gordon McVay (tr.), Chekhov: A Life in Letters, Folio Society, London, 1974 [best selection]. Donald Rayfield, 'Sanitising the Classics' in Comparative Criticism 16, Cambridge, 1994, 19-32. Brian Reeves (tr.), The Island of Sakhalin, London, 1993.

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