3 Dunya Efros, very likely the "йапсёе" Chekhov mentions in the letter, eventually married E. Z. Konovitser, and they both remained close friends of the Chekhov family.
to vodka, wine, and a bite to eat. Before he turned in Chekhov looked out the window at the darkened trees and the river. The song of a nightingale suddenly burst upon the country stillness of the night. He could not believe his ears.
The next morning Chekhov, like an excited child on his first visit to the country, explored every corner of the Kiselev estate. The manoi house, situated on the high bank of the Istra River, was surrounded by a huge English park, and beyond the stream unfolded a vista of forest broken by meadows and several ponds. Formal gardens brightened the approach to the buildings and near his own dacha were flower beds and a conservatory. The muffled sound of church bells coming from the edge of nearby Daraganovsky Forest seemed to acccntuate the peaccfulness of the scene.
Chekhov had barely arrived at Babkino when he received a letter from Alexander who congratulated him on his good fortune in being a friend of "Count" Kiselev and living on his estate, and he wondered what their grandfather, who had been one of the hired help on the estate of Count Platov, would have thought of all this. Actually A. S. Kiselev, the owner of Babkino, was only the nephew of a count, a distinguished diplomat during the reign of Nicholas I. He had married Mariya Vladimirovna, daughter of V. P. Begichev, the cultured and worldly director of the Imperial Theaters of Moscow. She was a beautiful, vivacious, strong-minded woman, and a successful writer of children's stories. The Kiselevs had two attractive youngsters, Alexandra (Sasha) and Seryozha. This typical "nest of gentlefolk" enjoyed all the refinements of the landed gentry — servants, tutors, governesses, the country pleasures of hunting and fishing, rich food, numerous visitors, and long evenings of card-playing or serious conversation on politics, literature, and the arts, readings from the leading reviews, and improvised musical concerts. However, an element of decay had already set in at Babkino as the generous and genteel owners thoughtlessly wasted their substance, and. eventually it becamg the prototype forthat' other bankrupЈestate~iri The Cherry Orchard.
Chekhov at once fell in love with Babkino and its happy family, and all the Kiselevs loved him. He had always felt conscious of the need to maintain his self-esteem among Taganrog and Moscow associates, who often forgot their own worth in bowing and scraping before every symbol of authority. Though he had no desire to elevate himself above others, he could not tolerate the condescension of rank or superior
social status. With the circle at Babkino, however, he at once felt at his ease. The world he had grown up in vanished in their company. A mutual recognition of human worth was the basis of their friendly intercourse. And how could they fail to accept him? With his gifts for sociability, he was in no time on the most intimate terms with the Kiselevs, their children, and visitors. He evinced an intense interest in everything that concerned them, and with his love of fun and practical jokes, he quickly became the center of hilarity in this circle.
There was work to do, however, if he were to pay for all this summer pleasure. Chekhov arose at seven and sat writing all morning on a discarded sewing-machine table, looking out of the huge square window of his room at the warm landscape of river and the woods beyond. The fresh impressions and new experiences at Babkino provided him with material for a number of tales. He also used as themes anecdotes that Mariya Kiseleva translated for him from French periodicals. Nor did he neglect his medicine. For several days he substituted for Dr. Arkhangelsky at the Chikino rural hospital, and as soon as the peasants around Babkino learned that he was a physician, they came with their ills. "The sick swarm here and plague me," he wrote Leikin. "In the course of the summer several hundred have come and I've earned the total of one rouble." (September 14, 1885.) His sister and Mariya Kiseleva assisted him in this work, for the mistress of an estate in a remote country district often treated peasants for minor ills. Masha recalls how terrified they became after lancing an abscess, because they mistakenly believed they had employed a scalpel which Chekhov had used in an autopsy, and she also worried about feeding a peasant camphor instead of castor oil, although the patient returned the next day cheerfully looking for more of the remedy.
The afternoons Chekhov devoted to varied relaxation. Though he went hunting once and brought down a hare, his favorite sport was fishing. Often Mariya Kiseleva would accompany him and they sat for hours, dividing their time between fishing and talking about literature. Or little Seryozha and Sasha, who adored Chekhov for his fun-making, would persuade him to go picking mushrooms in the woods or to play croquet. To amuse them he wrote a spoofing tale, "Soft-boiled Boots," which he illustrated with pictures he cut out of old newspapers and magazines.
Returning from his afternoon excursions, Chekhov applied himself again to writing and medicine until supper at eight. After the meal, all
"all my hopes lie entirely in the future" / 85
gathered in the drawing room of the Kiselevs. Many eminent figures in the musical, literary, and theatrical world were well known to the host and hostess or to Begichev, and the conversation frequently dwelt upon their artistic accomplishments or private lives. Mariya Kiseleva told of her acquaintance with Dargomyzhsky and Tschaikovsky, who at one time had been in love with her. Indeed, Chekhov's first critical contact with music began in this household, where it was a cult. In the evenings the well-known tenor of the Grand Theater, M. P. Vladislavlev, sang to the accompaniment of the governess, an accomplished pianist; the hostess, who had a fine voice, also sang. The songs and piano selections, especially Chopin's Nocturnes, deeply moved Chekhov. When the moon was up, these concerts were often concluded by the governess's playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, which she did to perfection. The lights were extinguished, and Chekhov usually sat alone on the stoop by the open door. At the conclusion of the performance all the company silently departed.
Chekhov introduced the Babkino circle to a different form of entertainment. His friend Levitan dropped in at the estate and Chekhov promptly invited him to stay at his dacha so that they could go hunting together, a sport to which the artist was devoted. The following summer at Babkino, Chekhov learned that Levitan was hiding out at a village a short distance away and had fallen into one of his habitual periods of melancholia. With his brothers Misha and Ivan, Chekhov organized a surprise visit at night in a downpour of rain. They finally found the hut and, like a trio of bandits in their outlandish garb, they dashed in and thrust a lantern into the face of the sleeping artist. "The devil knows what this is!" he exclaimed, and he jumped from his bed and seized a revolver. Soon they were all roaring with laughter and Levitan's melancholy vanished.
Within a few days the painter was invited to stay at Babkino, for the Kiselevs were well acquainted with his work. Though excessively temperamental and a demonstrative and incorrigible flirt, he and Chekhov were kindred spirits in their extravagant sense of fun. Chekhov put a sign up over his guest's door, "Pawnshop of the Merchant Levitan," and read humorous verses about his visit to Babkino. Once the two friends, dressed as Bedouins, their faces blackened with soot, went out into the open field; while Levitan prayed to the East on a rug, Chekhov shot a blank cartridge at him from the bushes and carted the "corpse" away. On another occasion Chekhov staged an elaborate trial, with Levitan
as the defendant, Kiselev as judge, and himself, dressed in a gold- embroidered outfit which he borrowed from his host, as the prosecuting attorney. In a speech he brought indictments against Levitan for evading military service, maintaining an illegal distillery from which Nikolai Chekhov obtained his liquor, and running a private pawnshop. Misha testifies that Chekhov's amazing histrionic ability "made us all die of laughter."