Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Anton ChekhovTO A. S. SUVORIN.MALAYA DMITROVKA, MOSCOW, December 9.… Hurrah! Here at last I am sitting at my table at home! I pray tomy faded penates and write to you. I have now a happy feeling asthough I had not been away from home at all. I am well and thrivingto the marrow of my bones. Here’s a very brief report for you. Iwas in Sahalin not two months, as you have printed, but three monthsplus two days. I worked at high pressure. I made a full and minutecensus of the whole of Sahalin’s population, and saw everything exceptthe death penalty. When we see each other I will show you awhole trunkful of stuff about the convicts which is very valuable asraw material. I know a very great deal now, but I have brought awaya horrid feeling. While I was staying in Sahalin, I only had a bitterfeeling in my inside as though from rancid butter; and now, as Iremember it, Sahalin seems to me a perfect hell. For two months Iworked intensely, putting my back into it; in the third month Ibegan to feel ill from the bitterness I have spoken of, from boredom,and the thought that the cholera would come from Vladivostokto Sahalin, and that so I was in danger of having to winter in theconvict settlement. But, thank God! the cholera ceased, and on the13th of October the steamer bore me away from Sahalin. I havebeen in Vladivostok. About the Primorsky Region and our Easternsea-coast with its fleets, its problems, and its Pacific dreams altogether,I have only one thing to tell of: its crying poverty! Poverty,ignorance, and worthlessness, that might drive one to despair. Onehonest man for ninety-nine thieves, that are blackening the name ofRussia …. We passed Japan because the cholera was there, and so Ihave not bought you anything Japanese, and the five hundred yougave me for your purchases I have spent on my own needs, for whichyou have, by law, the right to send me to a settlement in Siberia.The first foreign port we reached was Hong Kong. It is an exquisitebay. The traffic on the sea was such as I had never seen before evenin pictures; excellent roads, trams, a railway to the mountains, amuseum, botanical gardens; wherever you look you see the tenderestsolicitude on the part of the English for the men in their service;205