Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Anton ChekhovMELIHOVO, March 30, 1895.… We have spring here but there are regular mountains of snow,and there is no knowing when it will thaw. As soon as the sun hidesbehind a cloud there begins to be a chill breath from the snow, andit is horrible. Masha is already busy in the flower-beds and borders.She tires herself out and is constantly cross, so there is no need forher to read Madame Smirnov’s article. The advice given is excellent;the young ladies will read it, and it will be their salvation. Only onepoint is not clear: how are they going to get rid of the apples andcabbages if the estate is far from the town, and of what stuff are theygoing to make their own dresses if their rye does not sell at all, andthey have not a halfpenny? To live on one’s land by the labour ofone’s own hands and the sweat of one’s brow is only possible on onecondition; that is, if one works oneself like a peasant, without regardfor class or sex. There is no making use of slaves nowadays, onemust take the scythe and axe oneself, and if one can’t do that, nogardens will help one. Even the smallest success in farming is onlygained in Russia at the price of a cruel struggle with nature, andwishing is not enough for the struggle, you need bodily strengthand grit, you want traditions—and have young ladies all that? Toadvise young ladies to take up farming is much the same as to advisethem to be bears, and to bend yokes ….I have no money, but I live in the country: there are no restaurantsand no cabmen, and money does not seem to be needed.333