After the publication of my article on VN's play "The
Event" in Topos I noticed that I had overlooked
an important allusion to the dramatic event in the life of
Chekhov's friend, editor and long-time correspondent Alexey Suvorin (at the
begining of my article I quote a long excerpt from one of Chekhov's letters to
Suvorin).
Trying to predict what Barbashin who was just released from
prison will do to her daughter and son-in-law, Antonina Pavlovna (the
feminine version of Chekhov's name-cum-patronymic) suggests that he may
commit suicide at Lyubov's feet:
Любовь. А как, по-твоему, развивается дальше?
Будет стрельба?
Антонина Павловна. Ну, это ещё надобно
подумать. Может быть, он покончит с собой у твоих ног. (Sobytie,
Act Two)
In a letter of September 23, 1873, to Strakhov Tolstoy
mentions the murder of Suvorin's first wife by her lover who then shot himself
dead:
Нынче он мне рассказывал про убийство
Сувориной. Какое знаменательное СОБЫТИЕ! (Today he
[the painter Kramskoy who made Tolstoy's portrait] told me about the murder
of Suvorina. What a significant EVENT!)
Like Kramskoy, Troshcheykin (the main character in VN's play)
is a portraitist.
The name Strakhov (of Tolstoy's friend and correspondent)
comes from strakh, "fear" (in his review of
Sobytie Khodasevich pointed out that the title of VN's play could
have been Strakh).
Bellevue (the hotel where the murder of Suvorina took place)
was situated on the corner of the Nevsky avenue and the Karavannaya street (VN
passed it by on his daily trip to the Tenishev school).
Soon after his first wife's death Suvorin married a schoolmate
of his daughter. His second wife (whom Chekhov wanted to dedicate his play "The
Seagull") survived Suvorin to twenty five years and died in emigration
in 1936. In an obituary essay Amfiteatrov writes about her:
Прибавить надо, что была она урожденная
Орфанова - из рода талантливого, темпераментного и беспокойного: родная сестра
Михаила Ивановича Орфанова, литератора-народника, больше известного под своим
псевдонимом "Мишла", человека оригинальнейшего. Славен он был не столько своим
писательством, в коем был возмутительно ленив: оставил по себе всего одну книжку
(правда, очень талантливую), сколько беспечно богемным образом жизни: продолжал
в 80-х годах традиции Аполлона Григорьева, Павла Якушкина и других
идеалистов-"вагабундов" годов 50 - 60-х.
The characters in "The Event" include Vagabundova (the
old lady with apricot hair whose portrait Troshcheykin is anxious to finish
and who speaks in verses).
In 1912 (if I'm not mistaken) it nearly came to a duel between
VN's father and Suvorin's son Mikhail (whom VN confused with Alexey,
Mikhail's brother, in Speak, Memory).
Alexey Sklyarenko