Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Anton Chekhovuse to us? Not more than 25 to 30 years ago our Russians exploringSahalin performed amazing feats which exalt them above humanity,and that’s no use to us: we don’t know what those men were, andsimply sit within four walls and complain that God has made manamiss. Sahalin is a place of the most unbearable sufferings of whichman, free and captive, is capable. Those who work near it and uponit have solved fearful, responsible problems, and are still solvingthem. I am not sentimental, or I would say that we ought to go toplaces like Sahalin to worship as the Turks go to Mecca, and thatsailors and gaolers ought to think of the prison in Sahalin as militarymen think of Sevastopol. From the books I have read and amreading, it is evident that we have sent millions of men to rot inprison, have destroyed them—casually, without thinking, barbarously;we have driven men in fetters through the cold ten thousandversts, have infected them with syphilis, have depraved them, havemultiplied criminals, and the blame for all this we have thrownupon the gaolers and red-nosed superintendents. Now all educatedEurope knows that it is not the superintendents that are to blame,but all of us; yet that has nothing to do with us, it is not interesting.The vaunted sixties did nothing for the sick and for prisoners, sobreaking the chief commandment of Christian civilization. In ourday something is being done for the sick, nothing for prisoners;prison management is entirely without interest for our jurists. No, Iassure you that Sahalin is of use and of interest to us, and the onlything to regret is that I am going there, and not someone else whoknows more about it and would be more able to rouse public interest.Nothing much will come of my going there.* * *There have been disturbances among the students on a grand scalehere. It began with the Petrovsky Academy, where the authoritiesforbade the students to take young ladies to their rooms, suspectingthe ladies of politics as well as of prostitution. From the Academy itspread to the University, where now the students, surrounded byfully armed and mounted Hectors and Achilleses with lances, makethe following demands:127