Bouncer

In August 1891, Chekhov spoke about the idea of ​​a new work to the poet and translator Fyodor Chervinsky; he, in turn, shared information with Viktor Alexandrovich Tikhonov, who had just headed the Sever magazine. In a letter to Chekhov dated September 12, Tikhonov asked for “at least the title” of a future work to be published in order to publish an announcement for readers. In response, the writer admitted that the story is still nameless ^[3] :

Judging by the correspondence between the author and the editor, in the fall Chekhov was busy with other literary projects. Tikhonov, on the one hand, supported the writer in his endeavors, on the other, he tirelessly rushed, asked “not to be lazy for God's sake” and admitted that he dreamed of seeing in January - his first “North” issue - a work signed by Chekhov ^{[3 ]} .

The surviving draft of the story indicates that at first it was called "The Great Man." The manuscript was submitted to the North at the end of November. However, two weeks later, Chekhov sent a letter to the editor, in which he proposed to name his “little sensitive novel for family reading” ^{[3] as} “Skipjack”. Researchers associate such a decisive shift in emphasis with a sudden change in relations between the writer and Sofia Petrovna Kuvshinnikova, who served as the prototype of the main character ^[4] .

Having become the wife of Dr. Osip Stepanych Dymov, 22-year-old Olga Ivanovna told friends that they met in the hospital where her father worked. After his death, Dymov sometimes visited a young woman, then made an offer, and she agreed.

Dymov little resembled the people who were in the inner circle of Olga Ivanovna. She talked mainly with those who were, if not famous, then at least well-known: an artist of a drama theater, a landscape painter, a talented cellist, a promising writer.

Osip Stepanych in this company looked like a stranger. In the morning he left for the hospital and worked until late. Olga Ivanovna, waking up at eleven o'clock, usually played the piano, painted, then went to the dressmaker, to the workshop of some artist or to a familiar actress who was ready to share the latest theater news. On Wednesdays, Dymov’s house hosted parties with guest celebrities; in the summer Olga Ivanovna was resting in the country.

In July, the artists went on sketches. Traveling on the Volga ship brought Olga Ivanovna closer to the artist Ryabovsky; he covered her with a cloak, confessed his love - the young woman could not resist this ardor. In winter, Dymov began to guess that his wife was deceiving him; Seeing Olga Ivanovna rushing about with jealousy and humiliation, he gently reassured her.

One evening, Osip Stepanych called his wife and, not allowing him to enter the office, asked to invite his colleague, Dr. Korostelev. Having examined Dymov, he said that the patient has a severe form of diphtheria : he became infected from the patient. For Olga Ivanovna, the news was that her “unremarkable” husband was considered one of the luminaries of medicine. The thought that she “missed” the great man who lived next to her made the woman run into Dymov’s office: she wanted to explain that everything could be changed and corrected. But Osip Stepanych’s forehead and hands were already cold.

Olga Ivanovna outwardly resembles Sofya Petrovna Kuvshinnikova (Safonova) , who, like the heroine of the story, was engaged in music and painting; her vocabulary, recorded in letters and diaries, was akin to Dymova’s speech. They are united by a commonality of views and moods, a manner of behavior, an ardent desire to surround themselves with “interesting people” ^[1] :

The Kuvshinnikovs house was considered open; The regulars of the evenings hosted by Sofia Petrovna were painters Alexei Stepanov , Nikolai Dosekin , Fyodor Rerberg , artists of the Bolshoi and Maly theaters, writers, poets. The mistress of the house, like the heroine "Jumpers", traveled with the artists on the ship along the Volga and took drawing lessons from I. I. Levitan ^[1] .

According to contemporaries who knew Kuvshinnikova, Sofya Petrovna was “much deeper than her heroine” ^[4] . Her studies in music and especially painting were not as superficial as those of Olga Ivanovna; Sofya Petrovna participated in exhibitions, one of her works was acquired by Pavel Tretyakov . However, Chekhov, who visited the Kuvshinnikovs, believed that the interior of the apartment, the presence of a “museum stuffed animal with a halberd, shields and fans on the walls” did not characterize the landlady ^[4] .

In some episodes, the image of Olga Ivanovna comes close to the character of another owner of a secular salon - Zinaida Gippius , who, like Dymova, considered all the ladies, “except for actresses and dressmakers, boring and vulgar” ^[6] .

Ryabovsky in the original version of the story had a very noticeable resemblance to Levitan. However, in the process of editing Chekhov made changes to the image of the hero, trying to take Ryabovsky and his probable prototype as far away as possible. So, if in the manuscript the artist was a landscape painter , then in the final version - an animalist and genre painter . The appearance and age of the character also became different: in the story, there is a 25-year-old blue-eyed man, little resembling the 32-year-old brunette Levitan ^[3] .

Nevertheless, some features inherent in the artist could not be camouflaged - above all, this concerns “languor”, which Chekhov designated as a stroke to the portrait of Ryabovsky in the story and observed in Levitan's life. In addition, the author emphasized abrupt and quick mood swings, depressions and melancholy, which were characteristic of both the hero and his prototype ^{[1] [7]} .

Osip Dymov was a little like Dmitry Pavlovich Kuvshinnikov, an ordinary doctor without brilliant prospects in science. Creating the image of the husband of Olga Ivanovna, Chekhov most likely thought of another doctor - Illarion Ivanovich Dubrovo; this is indicated by general scientific achievements (Dubrovo, like Dymov, defended his thesis), and details of medical practice (Illarion Ivanovich, like Osip Stepanych, performed a medical feat, sucking diphtheria films from a patient), and even the similarity of the names of his closest friends (in Dymov was a colleague Korostelev, Dubrovo - Kostyrev) ^{[8] [1]} .

Having involuntarily turned out to be included in the “romantic triangle”, Kuvshinnikov behaved in the same way as Dymov in “The Springbok”; guessing about the relationship between his wife and Levitan, he “silently endured his sufferings” or, as Sofya Petrovna claimed, “selflessly, having renounced my self , I knew how to love” ^{[9] [1]} .

The characters that are surrounded by Olga Ivanovna show the features of people whom Chekhov saw in the Kuvshinnikov’s house: Lavrenty Donskoy (“singer from the opera”), director Alexander Lensky (“artist from the drama theater”), fiction writer Yevgeny Goslavsky (“young , but already a well-known writer ”), Count Fedor Lvovich Sollogub (“ amateur illustrator and vignetist ”) ^[1] .

Despite Chekhov’s attempts to change the appearance and biographical details of the heroes, contemporaries recognized all the actors in the “Leader”. Sometimes this “recognition” took on a comic connotation. In a letter to memoirist Lydia Avilova, Chekhov reported that one of his acquaintances, being almost twice as old as Olga Dymova, “recognized herself in a twenty-year-old heroine” ^[10] :

The words of Chekhov’s interlocutor that “all of Moscow accuses him of libel ” ^[10] , were rather mild in comparison with the reaction of other people who “guessed” themselves in “The Springbok”. Levitan did not talk with the writer for three years, but initially even intended to challenge Chekhov to a duel ^[11] . Director Lensky, who saw a caricature of himself in the story, interrupted his communication with the author for eight years ^[12] . Contacts with Sofia Petrovna Kuvshinnikova ceased and did not resume again ^[13] .

The feedback of those who read the story without trying to "try on" the clothes of a character, turned out to be quite friendly. Tolstoy’s family doctor Dusan Makovetsky noted in his diary that Lev Nikolaevich described the story as excellent ^[10] :

The critic Sergey Andreevsky posted a review in the newspaper Novoye Vremya , in which he called "The Springbok" "a pearl between our short stories" ^[15] . Literature historian Alexander Lipovsky , who ranked Dr. Dymov among the representatives of the cohort of “talented losers,” noted that this hero also added to the list of “ extra people ” in Russian literature ^[16] .

In the “Literary Collection” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn , notes were preserved that analyzed the “Jumpers”. The story, according to Solzhenitsyn, was written in an exaggerated-satirical manner not characteristic of Chekhov; this is due to the nature of the bohemian company, which "this is, not so much exaggeration." In heroine, the writer saw "disaster for all"; he was especially hurt by the episode when, having learned about her husband’s illness, Olga Ivanovna “goes to see herself in the mirror”. Solzhenitsyn expected an act from Dymov ^[17] :

• 1955 - The Springbok , director Samson Samsonov Debut of the director in the movie. The film was nominated for the “ Golden Lion ” and the prize “Silver Lion of St. Mark” of the first degree of the 1955 Venice Film Festival . He received the Silver Lion Prize and the Italian Critics' Pazinetti Cup Award.
• Jussi Award (Finland) in the category "Best Actress" to Lyudmila Tselikovskaya
• 1957 BAFTA Award nomination for Best Film
• 1964 - The Leader / Der Seitensprung (Germany), directed by
• 1964 - Summer - Autumn (TV) (Germany), directed by
• 1967 - Grasshopper / La cigale (TV) (France), directed by

• Osip Dymov