Kolia was to be in more serious trouble. He was only interested in finding a studio where his models could pose for him. He never bothered to register with the military for exemption. He asked Anton to send the necessary papers from Taganrog to Rostov-on-the-Don, but Anton replied only with jokes about him being conscripted. The worse the rows, the more the family longed for Anton, the one member of the family never to shout, hit out or weep. Kolia promised his father: 'You and Mama will be considerate to each other, our submissive brother Anton will come and we shall live, thank God, a glorious life.'
The women of the household had respite from Kolia and Vania in September 1878: their rich relatives, the Zakoriukins and Liadovs, invited them to Shuia, where Evgenia had spent her childhood. Showered with presents and friendship, they returned in early October, and the Chekhov family moved to a more spacious apartment. Still on the notorious Grachiovka attached to the church of St Nicolas, it was a dank basement: all that the inmates could see ,877-9 from the window were the ankles of passers-by. Here the Chekhovs took a lodger: an art student who paid 20 roubles to be fed by Evgenia and taught by Kolia.
Evgenia longed to reunite her family. On New Year's day 1879,.liter the older Chekhovs had returned at 4 a.m. from the Polevaevs, Fvgenia wrote to Anton: I want you to finish your course in Taganrog safely and come to us as quickly as you can. I have never been at peace it's soon two years since we saw each other… I have a lot to tell you, but I can't see well and I don't even want to write… Aleksandr took us to the Artistic Circle Christmas party. Masha danced a lot, tell everybody. On Anton's nineteenth birthday the message was reinforced by Paveclass="underline" 'Use every means to lighten Mama's burdensome fate, she is your Only One. Nobody loves you like your Mother.'50 Feeding and clothing her children and a tenant left Evgenia exhausted. By the standards of her class she was living in disgraceful poverty, for she had no servant and stoked the stoves and swept the rooms herself.
Fenichka was bedridden - terrified of fire, she would lie down clothed in all her garments, including her galoshes. She added to the burdens by adopting a stray bitch. When Pavel came home, he offered to help, but complained of giddiness and exhaustion from his labours at (lavrilov's. 'At least come quickly, Fenichka says you're hard-working,' Evgenia begged Anton on 1 March: Every hour I ask God to bring you quickly, but Papa says when Antosha comes he will just go visiting and won't do anything, but Fenichka argues that you are a homebody and a hard worker. I don't know whom to believe… I have no time to sleep. Antosha, on Easter Sunday go to Matins at the St Michael church and then be shriven… Evgenia's eldest sons led unshriven lives. Aleksandr caroused at weddings. Kolia wallowed in misery: his beloved had left him to marry the manager of a hospital; Khelius, his closest friend, died of ÒÂ. Rather than come home, Kolia would spend the night at the school where Diukovsky taught. Easily led, he began a dissolute life. He and Aleksandr frequented the notorious pleasure gardens of Strelna that winter. Aleksandr warned Anton in February: 'Kolia is starting new pictures and not finishing them. He's in love again, not that this stops
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him from visiting the Salon des Vari6t6s, doing the cancan there and taking ladies off for all-night vigils.' Tins Bohemianism eclipsed in Evgenia's eyes the prestige of paintings that were used as cover pictures for a satirical weekly. She wanted Anton's support: 'Quickly finish your studies in Taganrog and come as fast as you can, please… I need you to start on the medical faculty… We don't like Aleksandr's occupation, send us our icons a few at a time…'
Kolia too put store on Anton's arrival, promising that with Misha they would walk to St Sergei monastery as soon as he reached Moscow. Perhaps he felt penitent. Now Aleksandr frequented the editorial offices of the weekly magazine Chiaroscuro, where he also published sketches and stories. A new family entered the Chekhovs' lives: the wife of the publisher Nikolai Pushkariov was Anastasia Putiata-Golden. Her two sisters were to play a fateful part in the lives of Aleksandr, Kolia and Anton. The second sister, the Valkyrian Anna Ipatieva-Golden, was already Kolia's mistress.
Anton sent a description of his grandfather's funeral, then faced the examinations on which everything hung. He knew what awaited those who did not qualify for tertiary education: on i March he had registered at a Taganrog recruiting centre. Every examination had to be passed. On 15 May he took the Russian essay: set by the Chief Education Officer in Odessa, the topic reflected the convictions of the Tsar's government: 'There is no greater evil than anarchy'. The examination started at 10.20 a.m. and Anton was the last to finish, at 4.55 p.m. The longest philosophical discourse that Chekhov ever wrote, his essay earned a commendation for its literary finish. The next day Anton took Scripture and gained a '5'; successive days brought History Oral ('4'), Latin ('3') and Latin Oral ('4'). After a fortnight came Greek ('4'), Greek Oral ('4') and Mathematics ('3'). On 11 June disaster nearly struck: in Mathematics Oral Anton failed to multiply fractions correctly, and only after a vote was he conceded the vital '3'. On 15 June 1879, he received a matriculation certificate, signed by Actual State Councillor and Chevalier Edmund Reutlinger, Diakonov, Father Pokrovsky and seven other teachers. Chekhov had been awarded '5's in Religious Knowledge (both examination and course work), Geography, French and German (course work). In Latin, mathematics, physics and natural sciences - the relevant subjects for medicine - he had scored only '3's. He had a '4' for Russian language
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and literature. His behaviour was 'excellent', his attendance and effort 'very good'.
In August Taganrog's administration for the meshebane (petit bourgeoisie) issued Anton with a 'ticket of leave' for study in Moscow. This includes a physical description: height 6' 1" (2 arshins, 9 vershki, i.e. 1.84 m.), dark auburn hair and eyebrows, black eyes, moderate nose, mouth and chin, long unmarked face, special marks: scar on forehead under hairline.
He left for Moscow at the last possible moment. Pavel and Evgenia begged him to sell the kitchen table and the shop scales. Anton was to bring with him Pavel's iconostasis, ledger books and shop drawers, Misha's bedstead, and buckets and baskets filled with Fenichka's belongings. Evgenia asked him to shame Selivanov into returning the house. Pavel issued him with a sermon: Fight your bad tendencies… I give you good advice and so does Mama: never do anything according to your own will, always act as we desire; live as God commanded, Your friends, your true friends are Papa and Mama. Anton lingered in Taganrog - he planned to stay the summer at Ragozina Gully and at Kotlomino, twenty miles from the city, with a school friend, Vasili Zembulatov. Pavel wrote to him that 'we shall just be looking forward to you and withering'.
In late July Anton prepared to leave for Moscow. On 2 August Taganrog gave Anton his 'ticket of absence'; on the 4th he had his permit to study at Moscow university signed by the city elder for the meshchane. He was also awarded what he had lobbied for all summer: one of ten new bursaries of 25 silver roubles a month that Taganrog city council awarded its best school-leavers. Anton recruited two tenants: his school friends Dmitri Saveliev and Vasili Zembulatov, two years older than Anton, who were also starting medicine at Moscow University. They each offered 20 roubles a month to the household on the Grachiovka. On 6 August, laden with baggage, Anton boarded the train to a new life.