The Steppe and Other Stories

'No, alas, madam.'

'Oh, what a pity! Then show me your dolls: just the cheap ones.'

'I don't keep dolls either, madam,' said Siderov dolefully.

He wrote to Moscow without more ado and soon satchels, dolls, drums, sabres, mouth-organs, balls and various other coys appeared in his shop.

'This is all rubbish,' he told his friends. 'But just wait till I get some teaching aids and educarional toys. My cducational section shall be grounded, so to speak, in the most refmed deductions of science, see, in other words '

He ordered dumb-bells, croquet and backgammon sets, a child's billiard-table, gardening tools for children and a couple of dozen highly ingenious educational g.imes. Then, to their immense delight, passing townsfolk noticed two bicycles, one large, the other smaller. Business picked up splendidly. Trade was particularly brisk at Yuletide when Sidcrov put up a notice in his window stating that he sold Christmas tree decorations.

Tll slip in a spot ofhygiene too, see?' he told his friends, and rubbed his hands. 'Just wait till my next trip to Moscow. I'll have filters and sundry scientific gadgets—you"l be crazy about them, in a word. One mustn't ignore science, old man, that one mustn't.'

Having made a tidy profit, he went to Mo.scow and bought various wares there for about five thousand roubles, cash and credit.

There were filters, there were first-rate desk-lamps, there were

THE STORY OF A COMMERCIAL VENTURE 243

guitars. There were hygienic luiderpants for children, babies" dummies, purses, sets of toy animals. And he incidentally bought some excellent crockery for five hundred roubles, and was glad of that because hand- some things develop refmed tastes and make for mellow maimers. Returning home from Moscow, he got do-v;n to arranging his new wares on shelves and stands. Once when he climbed up to clear his top shelf there was a bit of a commotion and ten volumes of Mikhaylovsky fell down one after the other. One volume hit him on the head, the others fell straight on to the lamps and broke two globes.

'But what, er, great thick books people do write,' muttered Siderov, scratching himself

He picked up all the books, tied them tightly with string and put them under the counter. A couple ofdays later he learnt tlat the grocer next door had been sentenced to penal servitude for causing his nephew bodily harm and that his shop was up to let in consequence. Delighted, Siderov took an option on it. A door was soon made in the wall, the two shops were joined together and were cr:immed with goods. Since the customers in the second shop demanded tea, sugar and paraftin through force of habit, Siderov did not hesitate to stock up with groceries.

He is now one ofthe town's leading shopkeepers. He deals in crockery, tobacco, tar, soap, rolls, dress-making material, haberdashery, chand- lery, gmis, leatherware and ham. He has rented a wine-cellar in the market and he is said to be about to open family baths with individual cubicles. The books which once lay on his shelves, including Volume Three of Pisarev, have long since been sold off at three roubles per hundredweight.

At name-day parties and weddings Siderov's former friends, whom he now sneeringly dubs 'Americans', occasionally talk to him about progress, literature and other lofty topics.

'Read the latest Europcan Herald, Siderov ?' they ask.

'No, I have not,' he answers, screwing up his eyes and toying with his thick watch-chain. 'That does not interest us, we h:ive more sub- stantial concems.'

FROM A RETIRED TEACHER'S NOTEBOOK

It i s argued that family and school should work hand in glove. Very true, but only if the family is a respectable one unconnected with trade or shop-keeping, inasmuch as proximity to the lower orders may hinder a school's progress. On grounds of humanity, however, one should not deprive shopkeepers and the wealthier tradesfolk of their occasional pleasures—such as asking teachers to a party, shall we say?

The words 'proposition' and 'conjunction' make schoolgirls mod- estly lower their eyes and blush, but the teris 'organic' and 'copula- tive' enable schoolboys to face the future hopefully.

As the vocative case and certain rare letters of the Russian alphabe.t are practically obsolete, teachers of Russian should in all fairness haVe their salaries reduced, inasmuch as this decline in cases and letters has reduced their work load.

Our teachers try to persuade their pupils not to waste time reading novels and newspapers since this hampers concentration and distracts them. Besides, novels and newspapers are useless. But why should pupils believe their mentors if the latter spend so much time on news- papers and magazines? Physician, heal thyself! As for me, I am com- pletely in the clear, not having read a single book or paper for thirty years.

When teaching science one should above all ensure that one's pupils have their books bound, inasmuch as one cannot bang them on the head with the spine of an unbound book.

Children! What bli« it is to receive one's pension!

A FISHY AFFAIR Strange as it may sound, the oiJy carp in the pond near General Pantalykin's cottage fell head over heiels in love with a holiday visitor, Sonya Mamochkin. But is that really so very remarkable? Lermontov's Demon fell in love with Tamara, after all, and the swan loved Leda. And don't clerks occa.sionally fall for the boss's daughter? Sonya Mamochkin came for a bathc with her aunt each morning and the lovesick carp swam near the pond cdge watching her. Close proximity to the foundry of Krandel and Sons had turned the water brown ages ago, yet the carp could see everything. He saw white clouds and birds soaring through the azure sky, he saw bathing beauties undressing, he saw pecping toms watching them from bushes on the bank and hc saw a fat old woman sitting on a rock complacently stroking herself for five minutes before going in the water.

'Why am I such a great fat cow?' she said. 'Oh, I do look awful!'

Doffing her ethereal garmcnts, Sonya dived into the water with a shriek, swam about, braced herself against the cold—and thcre, sure enough, was the c.irp. He swam up to her and began avidly kissing her feet, shoulders, neck.

Their dip over, the girls went home for tea and buns while the solitary carp swam round the cnormous pond.

'Therc can be no question of reciprocity, of course,' hc thought. 'As if a beautiful girl like that would fall in love with a carp like me! No, no, a thousand times no! So don't indulge in such fancies, O wretched fish! You have only one course left: death. But what death? This pond lacks revolvers and phosphorous matches. There is only one possible death for us carp: a pike's jaws. But where can I find a pike? Thcre was a pike in this pond once, but even it died of boredom. Oh, I am so miserable!'

Brooding on dcath, thc yoiing pessimist buried himself in mud and wrote a diary.

Late one aftcrnoon Sonya and her atmt werc sitting at thc cdge of the pond fisling. The carp swam near the floats, feasting lis eyes on his beloved. Suddcnly an idea flashed through his head.

'I shall die by her hand,' thought he with a gay flip of thc fins. 'How marvellous, how swcet a death!'

Rcsolute yet blcnching slightly, hc swam up to Sonya's hook and took it in his mouth.

'Sonya, you have a bite!' shricked Aunty. 'You've caught some- thing, my dear!'

'Oh, oh!'

Sonya jumped up and tugged with all her might. Somcthing golden flashcd in the air and flopped on the water, making ripples.

'It got away!' both womcn shouted, turning pale. 'It got away! Oh, my dear!'

They looked at the hook and saw a fi.sh's lower lip on it.

'Oh, you shouldn't have pulled so hard, dear,' said Aunty. 'Now that poor fi.sh has no lip.'

After snatching himsclf off the hook our hero was flabbergasted and it was some time before he realized what was happening to him. Then he came to.

'To live again!' groaned he. 'Oh, mockery of fate!'

But noticing that he was minus a lower jaw, the carp blcnched and uttcred a wild laugh. He had gone mad.

It may secm odd, I fear, that I should wish to detain thc serious reader's attention with the fate of so iruignificant and dull a crcature as a carp. What is so odd about that, though? After all, ladies in literary magazines describe utterly futilc tiddlers and snails. And I am imitating those ladies. Perhaps I may even be a lady and am just hiding bchind a man's pseudonym.

So our carp went mad. That unhappy fish is still alive. Most carps like to be served fricd with sour cream, but my hero would scttle for any death now. Sonya Mamochkin has married a man who keeps a chemist's shop and Aunty has gone to her married sistcr's in Lipctsk, though therc is nothing odd in that because the married sister has six children and they all adore their aunt.

But let us continue. Engineer Krysin is director of the foundry of Krandcl and Sons. He has a nephew Ivan, wcll known as a writer of verse which he eagcrly publishes in all the magazines and papers. Passing the pond one hot noontide, our young poet conceived the notion of taking a dip, rcmoved his clothes and entercd thc pond. The mad carp took him for Sonya Mamochkin, swam up and tenderly kissed his back. That kiss had most fatal consequcnces: the carp infected our poet with pessimism. Suspecting nothing, the poet climbed out of the water and went home uttcring wild guffaws. Several days later he wcnt to St. Petcrsburg. Having visited some editorial offices thcre, he infccted all the pocts with pessinism, from which timc onwards our poets havc bcen writing gloomy, melancholy versc.

NOTES

THE STEPPE

a school of the type intended for gentlemen's sons: in the context this phrase effectivcly translates the original gimnaziya. These 'high schools', as the word is elsewhere rendered, were maintained by the State, set exacting standards, and though originally intended for .sons of the gentry (dvoryanstvo), were not exclusive to them. Chekhov, himself a shopkeeper's son, had graduated from thc gimnaziya at Taganrog in south Russia in 1879.

a minor official: literally, 'a Collegiate Secretary': Class Ten in the Tablc of Ranks instituted for the civil service by Peter the Great in 1722. It provided grades for all officials of the government and the court, with equivalents in the armed forces.

the day of Our Lady of Kazan: according to tradition the Kazan Icon of the Virgin had been miraculously discovered in the ground at Kazan in 1.579 by a jo-year-old girl. This event was celebrated annually, on 8 July, from 1595 onwards.

Lomonosov: M. V. Lomonosov (1711-65) was the son of a fisherman in the north Russian port ofArchangel. He ran away to Moscow at the age of 17, and became famous as a scientist, educationist, poet, and grammarian.

8 on the saint'.< day of our most pious Sovereign Alexander the First of Blessed Memory: reference is to the Emperor Alcxander I (1777-1825), who succceded to the Russian throne in 1801, his saint's day being 30 August.

10 And the Cherubims: Ezekiel 10: 19.

17 the Two-Headi'd Eagle: the emblem of Imperial Russia.

the Molokan's farm: the Molokans were members of a religious sect that arosc in about 1765, and are sometimes said to derive their namc from a habit of drinking milk (moloko) during Lent.

19 an official application form: in order to possess legal validity official applications of certain types had to bc transcribed on gerbovaya bumaga: special paper bearing the Imperial Russian crest and sold at a price that constituted a form of taxation on the given transaction.

20 Chernigov: large town in the Ukraine, about So miles nonh of Kiev.

3 I giants with seven-league boots: literally, 'broad-striding people like llya Muromets and Solovey the Brigand': two heroes from Russian folk myth.

Slavyanoserbsk: small town in the Donbass, about Ioo miles north of Taganrog.

St. Georgie-Porgie: St George, the patron saint of England, martyred in Palestine, probably in the third or fourth century ad. The name 'Yegor' (of which 'Yegorushka' is a derivative) is an alternative form to Russian 'Georgy' (George); the speaker here employs other variants: 'Yegory' and the comicaUy eccentric form 'Yegorgy'.

Tim in Kursk County: Tim is a small town, about 400 miles south of Moscow, near the administrative centre of Kursk in central European Russia.

St. Barbara: martyred under Maximinus Thrax (235-8) according to legend; the patron saint of pyrotechnicians.

36 Lugansk: large town in the Ukraine, about IOO miles north of Taganrog.

Donets: river in the Ukraine and the south of European Russia, a tributary of the Don.

43 Vyazma: large town about I6o miles west of Moscow.

45 Nizhny Novgorod: large town, about 250 miles east of Moscow, now called Gorky.

47 Oryol: large town, about 200 miles south of Moscow.

50 Morshansk: small town, about 240 miles south-east of Moscow.

54 a Dissenter: an adherent of the 'Old BelieP—the ritual of the Russian Orthodox Church as practised before the reforms of the Patriarch Nikon in the mid-seventeenth century. 56 St Peter's Day: 29 June.

76 Peter Mogila: a leading seventeenth-century cleric and educatio- nist (1596-1647), who became Metropolitan of Kiev in 1632. Be not carried ahout . . . : Hebrews I 3: 9-

Basil the Great: leading fourth-cemury churchman (329-79).

St. Neslor: ancient Russian historian and chronicler whose exact dates arc unknown but who was probably a monk at the Monastery of the Caves, Kiev, in the late eleventh century.

AN AWKWARD HUSINF.SS

86 Thr Physician: Vrach: a monthly medical newspaper, published in St Petersburg from x88o onwards.

92 had aliained high rank: literally, 'held the rank of Actual State Councillor': Class Four in the Table of Ranks.

97 Blessed are thr peacemakers: Matthew 5: 9.

THE HEAUTIES

99 Don Region . . . Rostov-on-Don: Rostov-on-Don, a large town on the River Don, about 13 miles from its mouth in the Sea of Azov.

103 Nakhichevan: Nakhichevan-on-Don was a small town, an Arme- nian colony founded in 1780 near Rostov-on-Don, with which it is now merged.

Belgorod; town about 40 miles north-east of Kharkov. Kharkov: large city in the Ukraine.

105 The second bell; passengers on Russian railways were warned of a train's departure by a succession of three rings. The first (single) ring took place a quarter of an hour before departure, the second (double) ring gave five minutes' warning, and on the third (triple) peal the train pulled out.

THE BET

118 E/brus:'the highest mountain (18,470 ft.) in the main Caucasian range.

THIEVES

123 lhe war. . . San Stefano: the Russo-Turkish War which broke out in 1877, and ended with the Treaty of San Stefano in 1878.

125 Shamil: Shamil (1797-1871) was political and religious leader of

the Moslem peoples of the Caucasus in their resistance to conquest by the Russians, who captured him in 1859.

I 26 Samoylovka: village in the Province of K harkov.

Penza: town, about 500 miles south-east of Moscow.

127 Village community: the village community, or mir, took decisions about village affairs, and was charged with certain administrative responsibilities.

I 28 Kuban: the area of the River Kuban, north of the Caucasus.

GUSEV

I 34 Suchan: town in the far east of Siberia, about miles east of Vladivostok.

I 37 Captain Kopeykin: a comic Captain Kopeykin figures in Gogol's novel Dead Souls, Part I (1842).

Midshipman Dyrka: a comic Midshipman Dyrka is described by Zhevakin, hero of Gogol's play Marriage (1842).

i 39 Odessa: large Russian port on the Black Sea.

PEASANT WOMEN

148 Oboyan: small town, about 340 miles south of Moscow.

I 54 watchman started banging . . in order to warn thieves that they were about, and show their masters that they were awake, Russian watchmen used to bang a stick against a wall, or use some kind of improvised rattle.

IN EXILE

i 59 Simbirsk Province: this was situated on the middle Volga, the provincial capital (Simbirsk; modern Ulyanovsk) being over 400 miles east of Moscow. The province had a sizeable Tatar element in its population.

I6o Kursk: city in central Russia, about 300 miles south of Moscow.

Ifi>3 community court: the legal provision whereby a village commune (mir, obshchestvo, or obshchi1U1) was empowered to sentence offending members to exile in Siberia, flogging, etc.

rothschild's fiddle 170 St.John's Day . . .: 8 May—the day of St John the Evangelist. St. Nicholas's Day . . . : 9 May—the day ofthe Transfcrence of the Remains of St Nicholas the Miracle-Worker.

THE STUDENT

Ryurik: Rurik, or Ryurik, a late ninth-century Viking prince of Novgorod, was traditionally the founder of the Rurikid line— the Russian ruling house from 862 to 1598.

Ivan the Terrible: Ivan IV, Tsar of Muscovy; born 1530, acceded 1533, died 1584.

Peter the Great: Peter I, the first Russian emperor; born 1672, accedcd 1682, died 1725.

'At the Last Supper . . .': in the account which follows Chekhov's student quotes or paraphrases material from the Gospels (Mark 14; Luke 22; John 18), and the translation draws on the Authorized Version at the appropriate points.

THE HEAD GARDENER's STORY 180 Ibsen: the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906). "For in the fatness . . .': Shakespeare, Hamlet, 111. iv.

PATCH

185 watchman: owing to the great demand for wood as fuel and building material, it was customary to appoint watchmen to guard the forests against thieves.

THE SAVAGE

190 officer of Cossacks: originally frontiersmen and grouped in various specific localities, of which the area of the River Don and its tributaries was one, the Cossacks enjoyed special status and privileges in return for which they were obliged to serve in special Cossack military units.

Provalye: name of a small station about 7 5 miles north of Rostov- on-Don on the Donets Railway line west of Zverevo.

i tht- Dotn-ts Line: the: network of railway lines serving the Donets Basin in the south of European Russia

1\'oi'ocherkassk: town in southern Russia, founded in 1805 as capital of the: Don Cossack Region.

IN THE CART

203 Lt>wer Gorodishche: possibly suggested by Old [Staroye] Gorodishche, name of village about 30 miles south-east of Melikhovo, cast of the: River Kashirka, a tributary of the Oka.

ON OFFICIAL HUSINESS

The Nevsky Prosprkt: the main thoroughfare ofSt Petersburg. Petrovka Street: a street running north from central Moscow.

thegaffer on tiie parish council: literally, the cantonal elder: a peasant clected to perform certain administrative duties within a volost (group of villages or canton).

five years afier the serfs were freed: Loshadin is saying that his appointment dates from 1866: i.e. fivc years after the Emancipa- tion of the Serfs.

225 Fell o.D me perch, I did-came down with a bump: it was king of the castle one day and dirty rascal thr next: a literal translation would be: 'Mokey had four lackeys, but now Mokey is himself a lackey. Petrak had four men working for him, but now Petrak himself is working for someone else.' 228 Pushkiris 'He clove thesnow in powderedfurrows': the quotation is of line 5. verse II, Canto Five: ofPushkin's verse novel Eugene Onegin (1823-31).

22y T'he Queert of Spades: the opera (l8yo) by 1'. I. Tchaikovsky (i84&-

AT CHRISTMAS

23!! Charcot: Jcan Martin Charcot (1825^3), the French physician and pionecr of psychothcrapy.

FRAGMENT

239 a senior civil servant: literally 'an actual state councillor', grade four in the Table of Ranks.

Cincinnatus: Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, the early Roman politician famous for his addiction to farm labour in intervals between serving the Republic as consul (460 bc) and dictator (458 bc).

Kaygorodov: D. N. Kaygorodov (b. 1846) was a professor at the St Petersburg Forestry Institute and author of numerous learned works.

THE STORY OF A COMMERCIAL VENTURE

241 Mikhaylovsky: the Russian political thinker and literary critic N. K. Mikhaylovsky (1842-190904).

Our Natiue Word: Rodnoye slovo (untraced) was possibly a school reader.

243 European Herald: Vestnik Yevropy: a historico-political and literary monthly of liberal complexion published in St Petersburg/ Petrograd, 1866-1918.

A FISHY AFFAIR

Lermontov's Demon fell in love with Tamara: in the long poem The Demon (1839) by M. Yu. Lermontov (1814-41), the devil's kiss destroys Tamara, the girl whom he loves.

Lipetsk: town about 230 miles south of Moscow.