Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Anton ChekhovTO A. S. SUVORIN.NICE, February 6, 1898.… You write that you are annoyed with Zola, and here everyonehas a feeling as though a new, better Zola had arisen. In his trial hehas been cleansed as though in turpentine from grease-spots, andnow shines before the French in his true brilliance. There is a purityand moral elevation that was not suspected in him. You should followthe whole scandal from the very beginning. The degradation ofDreyfus, whether it was just or not, made on all (you were of thenumber I remember) a painful and depressing impression. It wasnoticed that at the time of the sentence Dreyfus behaved like a decentwell-disciplined officer, while those present at the sentence,the journalists for instance, shouted at him, “Hold your tongue,Judas,”—that is, behaved badly and indecently. Everyone came backfrom the sentence dissatisfied and with a troubled conscience.Dreyfus’ counsel Demange, an honest man, who even during thepreliminary stages of the trial felt that something shifty was beingdone behind the scenes, was particularly dissatisfied—and then theexperts who, to convince themselves that they had not made a mistake,kept talking of nothing but Dreyfus, of his being guilty, andkept wandering all over Paris! …Of the experts one turned out to be mad, the author of a monstrouslyabsurd project; two were eccentric creatures.People could not help talking of the Intelligence Department atthe War Office, that military consistory which is employed in huntingfor spies and reading other people’s letters; it began to be saidthat the head of that Department, Sandhen, was suffering from progressiveparalysis; Paty de Clam has shown himself to be somethingafter the style of Tausch of Berlin; Picquart suddenly took his departuremysteriously, causing a lot of talk. All at once a series ofgross judicial blunders came to light. By degrees people became convincedthat Dreyfus had been condemned on the strength of a secretdocument, which had been shown neither to the accused mannor his defending counsel, and decent law-abiding people saw inthis a fundamental breach of justice. If the latter were the work not359