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.
Anton Chekhov, The Steppe and Other Stories, 1887-91
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