Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Anton ChekhovTO A. S. SUVORIN.MOSCOW, March 22, 1890.… Yesterday a young lady told me that Professor Storozhenkohad related to her the following anecdote. The Sovereign liked theKreutzer Sonata. Pobyedonostsev, Lubimov, and the other cherubimand seraphim, hastened to justify their attitude to Tolstoy byshowing his Majesty “Nikolay Palkin.” After reading it, his Majestywas so furious that he ordered measures to be taken. PrinceDolgorukov was informed. And so one fine day an adjutant fromDolgorukov comes to Tolstoy and invites him to go at once to theprince. The latter replies: “Tell the prince that I only visit the housesof my acquaintances.” The adjutant, overcome with confusion, ridesaway, and next day brings Tolstoy the official notice demandingfrom him an explanation in regard to his “Nikolay Palkin.” Tolstoyreads the document and says:“Tell his excellency that I have not for a long time past writtenanything for publication; I write only for my friends, and if myfriends spread my writings abroad, they are responsible and not I.Tell him that!”“But I can’t tell him that,” cried the adjutant in horror, “the princewill not believe me!”“The prince will not believe his subordinates? That’s bad.”Two days later the adjutant comes again with a fresh document,and learns that Tolstoy has gone away to Yasnaya Polyana. That isthe end of the anecdote.Now about the new movements. They flog in our police stations;a rate has been fixed; from a peasant they take ten kopecks for abeating, from a workman twenty—that’s for the rods and the trouble.Peasant women are flogged too. Not long ago, in their enthusiasmfor beating in a police station, they thrashed a couple of buddinglawyers, an incident upon which Russkiya Vyedomosti has a vagueparagraph to-day; an investigation has begun.Another sign of the times: the cabmen approve of the students’disturbances.“They are making a riot for the poor to be taken in to study,” they131