Chekhov and His Luka Environment According to the Memoirs of Motrona Fedorivna Tumskaya (Kurganova)

Abstract

The scientific work is based on the interpretation of the content of the memoirs of the Sumy native Motrona Fedorivna Tumskaya (née Kurganova), recorded by the Sumy local historian and literary scholar P.A. Sapukhin in 1949. The printed manuscript of the memoirs is preserved in the personal collection of another researcher of Sumy’s history, G.P. Petrov, at the State Archive of the Sumy Region. The aim of the publication is to reveal the significance of these memoirs for Chekhov studies, the research of the history of Sumy city, and the history of daily life. First of all, in the work with text, the method of factography, which allows reviewing of the memoir as a biographical source and an informational resource on the daily life of a post-reform noble estate, as well as the identification of specific testimonies. The historical-source method helped to reveal the ideological positions of the author, uncover the role of certain individuals in Chekhov’s circle or among the noble families, equaintances of the Lintvariovs. The biographical focus of the memoirs was also considered, so a biographical research method was applied in the selection and characterization of various data on the life of Anton Chekhov and other individuals associated with him. Since the memoir intertwines the lives of several people connected by location, time, common activities, and cooperation, and by their affiliation to either the «older» or «younger» generation of Luka residents, which required the application of a prosopographical method.

The material of the article is presented asymmetrically to the structure of the memoir and is grouped into the following sections: history, classification, structure, and issues of the memoir’s reliability; an overview of the location of the mentioned events and the image of the Lintvariov family; the image of Valentina Mykolayivna Ivanova; the image of Vasyl Pavlovych Vorontsov; the image of Oleksiy Mykolayovych Pleshcheyev; the image of Marian Romualdovich Semashko; the image of Oleksiy Serhiyovych Suvorin; the meeting of Suvorin and Chekhov with Kharitonenko; the image of Pavlo Matviyovych Svobodin; the image of Roman Ivanovych Alfyorov; the depiction of Chekhov’s family members; the figure of Anton Chekhov; absent persons and events in the memoir.

In conclusion, it is noted that Tumskaya’s memoirs are valuable for Chekhov scholars in terms of adding interesting details and observations, anecdotes from the writer’s life, to his biography. The same applies to other notable residents of Luka. The memoir’s greater significance lies in its contribution to understanding the cultural life of the Sumy Oblast, represented by the Luka estate, the public activity of the Lintvariov family, and the study of the daily life of an intellectual family in the province.