From the very first days in Melikhovo Anton Chekhov had to travel frequently and far in order to visit patients in distant villages, to the Lopasnya station, and the district town of Serpukhov. In one of his letters Anton Pavlovich complained that of all the Serpukhov doctors he was the most unfortunate, because his horses and carriage were “lousy”.

Chekhov bought the estate in winter, when everything was covered with snow, and could not have known how bad the roads were there. During the muddy season, horses would wade on their bellies in slushy mud, and it sometimes took as long as two and a half hours to cover ten kilometers.

From the previous owner Chekhov got three horses: one would not go anywhere from the yard, another was swapped in the field with a half-dead gelding of the same color, and the third was already in a very advanced age, her name was Anna Petrovna.

Anna Petrovna helped out the family more than once in the early years of life in Melikhovo. During spring starvation, surviving only on chopped straw, the horse faithfully drove Anton Pavlovich to his surgery, ran to the station to pick up guests, hauled firewood and worked in the fields. When she died, a touching entry appeared in the diary of Pavel Yegorovich, the writer’s father: “Obituary. After many years of hard work and diligent service, old Petrovna abandoned this world and died, leaving behind a mare of 2,5 months, ‘Zvezdochka’, as a pledge.” In the six years of Melikhovo chronicles only the horse Anna Petrovna and the dog Sharik, whom Pavel Yegorovich was particularly fond of, were honored with an obituary.

Anton Chekhov liked to take guests around his “duchy” or to the nearest monastery — Davydovа Pustyn. They harnessed a tarantas, a cart. Anton Pavlovich put on a white tunic, fastened his belt and got on the racing sulky. The white tunic and the belt gave Anton Pavlovich an excuse to call himself a hussar. The company set off: the “hussar” in front on the sulky, followed by the cart and coach, crowded with guests.

After visiting Melikhovo, a friend of the Chekhov family, the flutist Alexander Ivanenko, compiled an “Inventory”, a list of property and livestock. The section about horses said, “By June 1 the following horses have competed on the Melikhovo roads: Kyrgyz is 8 years old. He overtook a courier train 100 times and threw the master the same number of times, getting the highest prize. Boy is 5 years old. This is a trained horse, who danced gracefully in harness. Anna Petrovna is 98 years old. She is infertile due to old age, but gives hope every year. Bites the coachman. Kozachka is 10 years old, she is infertile, cannot stand the bits, she should be harnessed with a fragment of rope, otherwise she rushes without seeing the road. Kubar is 7 years old, he is docile and hardy.” Kubar was Chekhov’s favorite horse.

Полное наименование: Anton Chekhov with a horse
Размеры: 23,4×10,8 см
Коллекция: The Manor House of Anton Chekhov in Melikhovo
Правообладатель изображений: The Manor House of Anton Chekhov in Melikhovo

In Melikhovo everyone was always busy doing their own thing. The brother Mikhail mended and repaired, the sister Maria was busy with household chores, the father Pavel Yegorovich Chekhov supervised the workers and children. Anton Pavlovich was always up to date with all the news in Melikhovo and closely followed the life of the estate.

“We have had an excellent summer, too. Lots of heat and plenty of rain. The harvest is good. We sowed 10 dessiatins of rye, 10 — of oats, 10 — of clover, 4 — of lentils, a little bit of buckwheat and millet — about two dessiatins of each, and a dessiatin of potatoes. You can imagine what life is like in my homestead, and how often I have to open the table to get money to pay the mowers, peasant women, etc.

A new kitchen is being built. Chickens, ducks, mongrels, carpenters, patients — a real Babylon! The haymaking was also noisy, hectic, with rains and thunderstorms. We had 4 thousand poods of hay harvested and 20 poods of blood boiled. We had a hell of a lot of clover cut. As for the vegetable garden, it was not quite successful this year. Cabbage and kohlrabi were affected by a disease called kila, a kind of root sarcoma. Instead of the expected four or five thousand heads of cabbage, we will collect only three, or even fewer. But that is not the problem, it is that the disease is contagious and we will have to find another spot for the cabbage plants, i.e. outside the homestead, and this involves additional fertilization, hiring a keeper and other expenditures.

The garden was no good either. There were no cherries at all, and only half of the apple trees bloomed. There were a lot of gooseberries and raspberries, but we do not have a market for them, and there are neither people nor time to pick them. Pears did not bloom either. Not a single tree froze, but we had another misfortune. Remember I wrote you in the fall that I had planted a new orchard? Just imagine, rabbits have eaten up all the young apple trees. The snow piled high above the fences, so the orchard was not fenced off from the field in any way. There was plenty of space for the rabbits. This year there has been no or almost no fruit, but peppers, corn, tomatoes, melons and even watermelons are ripening — not in a greenhouse, but in the open air.” Anton Chekhov, August 1893, Melikhovo.

Полное наименование: Чехов А.П.
Размеры: 15,5×11 см
Коллекция: The Manor House of Anton Chekhov in Melikhovo
Правообладатель изображений: The Manor House of Anton Chekhov in Melikhovo