Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with biographical sketchTO A. S. SUVORIN.TOMSK, May 20, 1890.Greetings to you at last from Siberia, dear Alexey Sergeyevitch! Ihave missed you and our correspondence terribly.I will begin from the beginning, however. At Tyumen I was toldthe first steamer to Tomsk went on the 18th of May. I had to do thejourney with horses. For the first three days every joint and sinewached, but afterwards I got used to the jolting and felt no moreaches. Only the lack of sleep, the continual worry over the luggage,the jolting and the fasting brought on spitting of blood when Icoughed, and this depressed my spirits, which were none too grandbefore. For the first few days it was bearable but then a cold windbegan to blow, the windows of heaven were opened, the rivers floodedthe meadows and roads, I was continually having to change mychaise for a boat. You’ll read of my struggles with the floods and themud in the article I enclose. I did not mention in it that my bighigh boots were tight, and that I waded through the mud and thewater in my felt boots, and that my felt boots were soaked to jelly.The road was so abominable that during the last two days of myjourney I only did seventy versts.When I set off I promised to send you notes of my journey afterTomsk, since the road between Tyumen and Tomsk has been describeda thousand times already. But in your telegram you haveexpressed the desire to get my impressions of Siberia as quickly aspossible, and have even had the cruelty, sir, to reproach me withlapse of memory, as though I had forgotten you. It was absolutelyimpossible to write on the road. I kept a brief diary in pencil andcan offer you now only what is written in that diary. To avoid writingat great length and getting mixed up, I divided all my impressionsinto chapters. I am sending you six chapters. They are writtenfor you personally. I wrote for you only, and so have not been afraidof being too subjective, and have not been afraid of there beingmore of Chekhov’s feelings and thoughts than of Siberia in them. Ifyou find some lines interesting and worth printing, give them aprofitable publicity, signing them with my name and printing them164