The Steppe and Other Stories, 1887-91

PUBLISHING HISTORY AND NOTES

The Steppe

First published in the Northern Herald in 1888, ‘The Steppe’ marked a turning-point in Chekhov’s career and his debut in the ‘thick journals’, to which he attached great importance. Grigorovich²⁷ had encouraged Chekhov to abandon ‘trivial, rushed stories’ (letter of 25 March 1886), and to do himself justice by writing longer, more substantial work. It was in this letter of encouragement that Grigorovich first expressed his very high hopes for Chekhov. At the time Chekhov wrote to Leontyev-Shcheglov,²⁸ ‘The thought that I’m writing for a thick journal and that my trifle will be considered more seriously than is warranted prods my elbow like the devil a monk’ (1 January 1888). And to Grigorovich, ‘Whether it’s a success or not, at all events I know it’s my masterpiece. I can’t manage anything better’ (5 February 1888). And: ‘I know that in the next world Gogol will be angry with me. He’s Tsar of the Steppes in our literature. I’ve sneaked into his domain, with every good intention, but I’ve written a good deal of nonsense.’

Earlier, in 1887, Chekhov had written to Suvorin (10 February), ‘In order not to dry up I’m going south at the end of March, to the Don regions, Voronezh and other places where I’ll meet the spring and renew in my memory what has already begun to grow dim.’ What had already begun to grow dim were the memories of childhood trips to the steppe to visit his grandfather. These memories are reflected and find lyrical expression in ‘The Steppe’. After completing the story he writes, ‘While I was writing I felt there was a smell of summer and steppe around me…’ (letter to Pleshcheyev²⁹ of 3 February 1888) and he stresses that writing the story gave him great joy.

1. Lady of Kazan: In 1579 a young girl allegedly discovered the Kazan Icon of the Virgin in the ground. The event was annually celebrated after 1595 on 8 July.

2. Lomonosov: M. V. Lomonosov (1711–65), scientist, poet, grammarian. Son of a fisherman, he ran away to Moscow at the age of seventeen and subsequently became one of Russia’s leading scientists and men of letters. Here he is being held up as a model for Yegorushka. Lomonosov is also mentioned as exemplar for the young Gorky in My Universities (1922; Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1979).

3. ‘Puer bone, quam appellaris?’… ‘Christophorus sum.’: ‘Good boy, what’s your name?’ ‘Christophor’.

4. ‘And the Cherubim’: Ezekiel 10:19.

5. Two-headed eagle: Emblem of Imperial Russia.

6. Molokans: Dissenting sect, possibly so-called from their habit of drinking milk on fast-days. A hard-working people, highly successful in business and farming.

7. Chernigov: Ukrainian town about seventy-five miles from Kiev, situated on the River Desna, a tributary of the Dnieper.

8. ancient barrows: These barrows or tumuli were left by the Scythians, an Indo-European people who lived to the north of the Black Sea, in the Lower Don and Dnieper regions, from approximately 8th to 3rd century BC.

9. Ilya Muromets or Solovey the Robber: Russian folk heroes.

10. bast shoes: Peasant shoes or sandals made from inner bark of lime tree.

11. Slavyanoserbsk: Large town near North Donets River founded by the Serbs in 1753. Originally named Podgornoye, it was relocated because of floods in 1817 and renamed.

12. Tim: Small town in Kursk province on River Tim, in Don river basin.

13. St Barbara: Died c. 235. Patron saint of artillerymen, gunners and miners. Martyred under Maximinus Thrax.

14. Lugansk: Town in the Ukraine, north of Taganrog.

15. Donets: River of south-central Russia, rising in the Kursk steppes and flowing into the Don.

16. tussore: A strong coarse light-brown silk made in India.

17. Vyazma: Large town about 150 miles west of Moscow, famous for its gingerbread.

18. Oryol: Large town 200 miles south of Moscow, on the River Oka’ founded as fortified town against the Crimean Tatars in 1564. Birthplace of Turgenev.

19. Morshansk: Small town 250 miles south-west of Moscow, on the River Tsna, on Volga uplands.

20. Old Believer: Also known as Dissenters, Old Believers rejected the reforms in the Russian Orthodox Church introduced by Nikon, Patriarch of Moscow, in the seventeenth century. Among these were: unification of the ritual, correction of books used in church services.

21. St Peter’s Day: 29 June.

22. Pyotr Mogila: Bishop of Kiev in the first half of seventeenth century. Important theologian and champion of Enlightenment. Sent many young scholars to study in Western Europe.

23. ‘Be not carried about…’: Hebrews 13:9.

24. summoning spirits like Saul…: reference to biblical story that the ghost of Saul’s father Samuel prophesied the end of his reign. Samuel 1:28.

25. Basil [Vasily] the Great: (329–79) Prominent church activist.

26. St Nestor: (fl. 1080) First notable Russian chronicler and hagiologist.

27. D. V. Grigorovich (1822–99). Short story writer, mainly of the misery of peasant life, with a strong humanitarian, sentimental attitude. He was one of the first to appreciate Chekhov’s talent and to encourage him. (He had similarly offered encouragement to the young Dostoyevsky with his first work, Poor Folk (1846).) He corresponded regularly with Chekhov, who dedicated his collection In the Twilight (1887) to him and for which, through Grigorovich’s good offices, he was awarded the Pushkin Prize. His Literary Reminiscences (1892–3) are a rich source of information about contemporary literary life. A friend of many of the most prominent figures in nineteenth-century Russian literature, as a writer he is only of secondary importance.

28. I. L. Leontyev-Shcheglov (1855–1911). Playwright and minor writer of fiction. After the sensational success of his comedy In the Caucasian Mountains, he started writing mainly for the theatre and his first works were praised by Chekhov, whom he first met in 1887 in St Petersburg. This was the beginning of a lasting friendship. Leontyev-Shcheglov left very interesting memoirs of Chekhov in the Monthly Literary Supplement to the Cornfield.

29. A. N. Pleshcheyev (1825–93). Journalist, critic, playwright, translator, minor poet. Together with Dostoyevsky he attended meetings of the Petrashevsky Circle, of which he was a prominent member. In 1849 (also with Dostoyevsky) he was arrested and exiled. First met Chekhov in 1885 and corresponded regularly with him. Was in charge of literary section of the Northern Herald.

Panpipes

First published in Suvorin’s New Times (1887) and then, with minor changes, in the collection In the Twilight (1887).

1. Elijah’s Day: 20 July.

2…. since we got our freedom…: Refers to the emancipation of the serfs, 1861.

3. You had an eclipse…: A total eclipse of the sun was recorded on 7 August 1887.

The Kiss

‘The Kiss’ was first published in New Times in 1887. According to Leontyev-Shcheglov the story was written incredibly quickly – within two days. Chekhov had sent Leontyev-Shcheglov the story for his opinion of the description of a brigade on the move. Leontyev-Shcheglov was astounded by the amazing accuracy of detail and acuteness of observation, remarking that he found it difficult to believe that the story had been written by a civilian and not by a ‘hardened soldier’.

1. Plevna: Bulgarian town, forty miles south of the Danube, scene of fierce fighting between the Russians and Turks in 1877.

2. European Herald: A liberal monthly journal (1866–1918). Devoted to history, politics and literature. It published major works by Turgenev, Goncharov and Ostrovsky.

Verochka

First published in New Times (1887) and then in the collection In the Twilight (1887), with minor changes. It is possible that the moonlit garden with the floating wisps of mist was based on the garden at Babkino, a delightful estate owned by the highly cultured Kiselyov family. It was near Voskresensk (now Istra), about forty miles from Moscow. Chekhov rented a dacha on the estate for three successive summers.

1. light cape: In the mid 1880s this type of cape was fashionable among the educated classes of modest means.

2. Statistics has a brill-i-ant future!…: Statistical surveys flourished in the late 1870s–early 1880s. They were initiated and funded by local district councils.

3. expecting to find boredom, solitude and an indifference to statistics: In an article, ‘The Misfortunes of Statistics’ in the January 1887 issue of the St Petersburg Gazette, it was stated that statistics were banned in Saratov, Ryazan and Kursk, since disasters such as crop failure, hailstorms etc were blamed on them.

4. Old Believer: See ‘The Steppe’, note 20, p. 361.

5. holy fool: Idiot supposed to be blessed with gift of divine prophecy.

6. totally useless collection of statistical articles: In the same issue of New Times in which Verochka was printed there appeared the following wry announcement: ‘Materials for the statistics of Kostroma Province were published recently. This is a finely printed volume, containing 250 pages, with 22 tables and 4 diagrams.’

7. nach Hause: home.

The Name-day Party

First published in the Northern Herald (1888), the story later underwent major stylistic changes and was significantly shortened. It was written in a great hurry, as Chekhov had thought that the story was needed for the September issue, not the October one, and admitted that he had ‘muddled his arithmetic’. At the end of September he wrote to Pleshcheyev: ‘Phew! I’ve just finished my story for the Northern Herald, my dear Aleksey Nikolayevich… It’s turned out rather long, rather boring, but lively and with a “tendency” ’ (30 September 1888). In a letter to Suvorin of 2 October he states: ‘I’ve finished my little story. It’s written limply and carelessly.’ A few days later he wrote to a female friend: ‘The beginning and end can be read with interest but the middle is like a chewed mop’ (letter of 9 October to E. M. Lintvareva). Chekhov was furious that he was not given sufficient time to correct the proofs and, in reply to Suvorin’s complaint that the hero of the story had imperfections, Chekhov responded: ‘I do realize that I cut my heroes to pieces and spoil them, that I waste good material. But in all honesty I would gladly have sat over ‘The Name-day Party’ for six months… but what can I do?… I start the story with the thought that I’m obliged to finish it by 5 October – a very short deadline. If I exceed the deadline I’m letting you down and I won’t get paid… I write the beginning calmly, not cramping myself, but by the middle I’m already growing timid and beginning to fear that the story will turn out too long: I must remember that the Northern Herald is short of cash and that I’m one of its expensive contributors. That’s why my beginnings are always full of promise, as if I’d started a novel; but the middles are botched and timid, while the conclusions, as in a short tale, are pure fireworks’ (letter of 27 October 1888).

Eventually, the story was published with a very large number of misprints, about which Chekhov complained bitterly to Pleshcheyev.

1. Malaga: A sweet fortified wine made in the region of Malaga, Spain.

2. Proudhon’s: Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809–65), French anarchist philosopher.

3. Buckles: Henry Thomas Buckle (1821–62), English historian and sociologist. Chekhov had read his History of Civilisation in translation in his younger days at Taganrog.

4. Schopenhauers: Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860), German pessimistic philosopher.

5. Yorkshire pigs, Butlerov beehives: Valued for their high-quality bacon, this breed of pig was raised in Europe and the USA, as well as England. The hives were named after Aleksander Mikhaylovich Butlerov (1828–86), famous Russian chemist who also published the best-selling The Bee: Its Life and a Guide to Systematic Bee-Keeping (1871).

A Dreary Story

First published in the Northern Herald (1889) and subsequently, after reworking, in the collection Gloomy People (1890). To some extent the prototype of the hero was A. I. Babukhin (1835–91), Professor at Moscow University, whose lectures Chekhov heard when a medical student. Chekhov worked on the story in Yalta, where he had gone in a depressed frame of mind after the death of his brother Nikolay. At the time Chekhov wrote to Pleshcheyev²⁹: ‘… because of the heat and my vile, melancholy mood this story is turning out quite boring. But the subject is new. It’s highly possible that it will be read with interest’ (letter of 3 August 1889). And before sending it for publication Chekhov wrote to Pleshcheyev: ‘I want to polish and varnish one or two things, but mainly to think about it. I’ve never written anything like it in my life, the themes are completely new for me’ (letter of 3 September 1889). After returning to Moscow he wrote that he started: ‘…reworking my thing, mangled it right and left, threw out a large chunk of the middle and the whole of the ending, having decided to replace them with new ones’ (letter of 7 September 1889 to A. M. Yevreinova).³⁰

1. Pirogov: N. I. Pirogov (1810–81), famous military surgeon, Professor at the St Petersburg Medico-Surgical Academy.

2. Kavelin: K. D. Kavelin (1818–85), jurist, historian and liberal publicist. Active in the liberal movement of the 1860s.

3. the poet Nekrasov: N. I. Nekrasov (1821–77), famous for his civic poetry. Did much to focus attention of the educated classes on misery of the poor.

4. Like one of those heroines in Turgenev, my neck…: Reference to Turgenev’s Diary of a Superfluous Man (1850). Chekhov was highly critical of Turgenev’s portrayal of genteel young ladies, very unfavourably comparing them to other literary heroines, such as Anna Karenina.

5. What Song the Swallow Sang: Novel by F. Spielhagen (1829–1911), German writer, prominent in the 1860s for his anti-establishment attitude.

6. Othello: Cf. Othello, Act I, Scene 3:

‘She lov’d me for the dangers I had pass’d,

And I lov’d her that she did pity them’.

7. Historia Morbi: History of Disease.

8. Gruber: V. L. Gruber (1814–90), Professor of Anatomy at St Petersburg Medico-Surgical Academy.

9. Babukhin: A. Babukhin (1835–91), Professor of Medicine. It is possible that the hero of this story was based on Babukhin.

10. Skobelev: M. D. Skobelev (1843–82), general who distinguished himself in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–8).

11. Professor Perov: V. G. Perov (1833–82), genre and portrait painter. A leading exponent of social criticism in art, taught at Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

12. Patti: Adeline Patti (1843–1919), famous opera singer. She made her debut in New York at the age of seven. Celebrated for her role as Lucia in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and as Amina in Bellini’s La Sonambula, which she performed at Covent Garden in 1861. She enjoyed worldwide success and toured Russia several times.

13. What’s Hecuba to him?: Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2: one of several references to Shakespeare (especially Hamlet). The passage refers to an actor’s skill in adapting to different roles. The full passage is:

‘What’s Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba

That he should weep for her?’

14. Chatsky: Cynical hero of the famous verse comedy Woe from Wit (1822–4), by A. S. Griboyedov (1797–1829). Like Chatsky, Nikolay Stepanovich cannot abide Muscovite fools.

15. Ufa: Capital of Bashkir autonomous republic, south of the Urals, on River Belaya, founded as a Russian fortress in 1574.

16. ‘How sadly I behold our generation’: First line of Lermontov’s lyric poem Thought (1838).

17. Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus or Pascal: Marcus Aurelius (AD 121–180), Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher; Epictetus (c. AD 50–139), Greek Stoic philosopher; Blaise Pascal (1623–62), French mathematician and philosopher.

18. Dobrolyubov style: N. A. Dobrolyubov (1836–61), radical literary and social critic, very popular among the young intelligentsia.

19. Arakcheyev: Count A. A. Arakcheyev (1769–1834), fanatical military disciplinarian, responsible for the notorious military colonies under Alexander I. Chekhov also refers to him in ‘The Duel’.

20. ‘Go up, thou bald head!’: II Kings 2:23. Words with which the young Israelites teased the prophet Elisha.

21. Gaudeamus igitur juvenestus!: Correctly: Gaudeamus igitur, juvenes dum sumus (Let us rejoice while we are young). First line of the famous student song.

22. Jean-Jacques Petit: Almost certainly an error for Jacques-Louis Petit (1674–1750), famous French surgeon who served under the Marshal of Luxembourg. A member of the Royal Society of London, he died before completing his celebrated A Treatise on Surgery (begun in 1715).

23. Krylov: N. I. Krylov (1807–79), Professor of Roman Law at Moscow University.

24. Eagles lower than hens can fly…: From the fable The Eagle and the Hens by I. A. Krylov (1769–1844).

25. Berdichev: Ukrainian town about 110 miles south-west of Kiev.

26. The Cornfield: Niva (cornfield), a popular illustrated family magazine published in St Petersburg (1870–1918).

27. World Illustrated: St Petersburg weekly.

28. passport system: Passports were compulsory for travelling within Russia, as well as abroad.

29. Plesheheyev: See ‘The Steppe’, note 29, p. 361.

30. Anna Mikhaylovna Yevreinova (1844–1919), Doctor of Law. From 1885 editor of the Northern Herald.

Gusev

First published in New Times (1890), ‘Gusev’ was Chekhov’s first story to be printed after his return by sea from Sakhalin. He wrote to Suvorin: ‘Since my story was started on the island of Ceylon you can, if you like, to add a touch of chic, print underneath it: Colombo 12 November’ (letter to Suvorin, 17 December 1890).

Some of Chekhov’s experiences on his return from Sakhalin by sea are reflected in ‘Gusev’. In another letter to Suvorin Chekhov writes: ‘On the way from Singapore two corpses were thrown into the sea. When you see a dead man wrapped up in canvas, somersaulting into the water, and when you bear in mind that it’s a few miles to the bottom it’s terrifying, and you begin to think that you yourself will die and be thrown into the sea’ (letter to Suvorin, 9 December 1890).

1. Suchan: A town in eastern Siberia, about sixty miles east of Vladivostok. An important coal-mining centre.

2. Captain Kopeykin: Character from Gogol’s Dead Souls, part I (1842), whose story is told by the postmaster.

3. Midshipman Dyrka: A comic midshipman of this name is mentioned by Zhevakin in Gogol’s two-act play Marriage (1842).

The Duel

First serialized in New Times (1890), then published in a complete edition, with corrections and new chapter divisions in 1892. When he first started the story Chekhov was not satisfied with it, telling Suvorin that there was ‘no movement’ and that it was ‘rather complex’. At this time Chekhov was having frequent discussions with the zoologist V. A. Wagner (Vagner) on Darwinian and Nietzschean themes. Chekhov’s brother Mikhail wrote that he would often debate with Wagner: ‘… the then fashionable subjects of degeneration, the rights of the strong, natural selection and so on, which were the basis of von Koren’s philosophy… During these conversations Anton Pavlovich was always of the opinion that man’s spiritual strength can always overcome any inherited shortcomings.’²²

1. Superfluous Men: Characters in the tradition of Werther, Childe Harold, René who see themselves (and are seen) as disillusioned and at odds with society. A prime example is Lermontov’s Pechorin (A Hero of Our Time, 1837–40). The term gained currency after the publication of Turgenev’s Diary of a Superfluous Man (1850).

2. Spencer: Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), English radical thinker, founder of an evolutionist philosophy and a laissez-faire social policy.

3. Vereshchagin: V. V. Vereshchagin (1842–1904), Russian painter famous for his Central Asian themes.

4. Abkhazians: Natives of Abkhazia, an autonomous republic in Georgia.

5. Prince Vorontsov: Prince M. S. Vorontsov (1782–1856), appointed viceroy of the Caucasus in 1844.

6. Onegin, Pechorin [Byron’s Cain], Bazarov: Eugene Onegin, eponymous hero of Pushkin’s narrative poem Eugene Onegin (1831); Pechorin, hero of Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time (1840); Bazarov, hero of Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons (1852). All these characters are types of ‘Superfluous Men’ (see note. 1).

7. Schopenhauer: See ‘The Name-day Party’, note 4, p. 364.

8. Dorpat: Modern Tartu. Chief cultural centre of Estonia, about 100 miles south-east of Tallin, famous for its university.

9. tussore: See ‘The Steppe’, note 16, p. 360.

10. Pushkin’s Ukrainian Night: Reference to second canto of the narrative poem Poltava (1828).

11. His beaver collar sparkles silver with frosty dust: From the first chapter of Eugene Onegin.

12. manu militari: By military force.

13. Stanley: Henry Morton Stanley (1841–1904), explorer of equatorial Africa.

14. Arakcheyev: See ‘A Dreary Story’, note 19, p. 366.

15. ‘But whoso shall offend one of these little ones’: Matthew 18:6.

16. kalium bromatum: Potassium bromide.

17. aqua foeniculi: Fennel water.

18. Rudin: Eponymous hero of Turgenev’s novel (1856) – another type of ‘Superfluous Man’.

19. Danila: Character from N. S. Leskov’s short story ‘The Legend of Just Danila’ (1888).

20…. a crowd of oppressive thoughts…: From Pushkin’s Remembrance (1828).

21. And in Turgenev, Bazarov had a duel with someone or other…: Reference to Bazarov’s duel with Pavel Petrovich over Fenichka in Fathers and Sons. Significantly, Bazarov, Pechorin and Onegin all fight duels.

22. M. P. Chekhov, Vokrug Chekhova (Around Chekhov), published Moscow/ Leningrad in 1933.