Women (story)

The story was first published on June 25 ( July 7 ), 1891, in No. 5502 of the New Time newspaper. After minor alterations, the story was included in the collection of Chamber No. 6 (St. Petersburg, 1893) and in 2–7 editions of the collection (1893–1899), in 1894 the story was published as a separate edition.

In July 1891, Ivan Gorbunov-Posadov approached Chekhov with a request: to publish as a separate publication "... this brilliant story about the local Tartuffes , the vile, depraved, God-fearing holy men." After some stylistic refinements, Chekhov included it in the sixth volume of the collected works published by Adolf Marx in 1889-1901 ^[1] .

After the release of the story, it was banned for study in schools and public libraries. Dmitry Averkiev , a member of the scientific committee at the Ministry of Education, issued the following verdict to the story of Baba: “the story is well written, but its moral principles are too shaky to be considered suitable for public libraries.”

Leo Tolstoy included the story "Baba" in his personal list of the best Chekhov's stories. During the life of Chekhov, the story was translated into Hungarian, German and Serbo-Croatian.

The story takes place in the village of Raibuže in a two-story house with an iron roof. The owner lives in the house with his family, Filipp Ivanov Kashin, nicknamed Dude.

Matvey Savvich, a tradesman, stops at night in Kashin’s house. People from the conversation learned that Matvey Savvich lives in the city, the landlord, that he is going with Kuzka to watch the gardens that he rents from the German colonists.

Dude asks Matvey Savvich to tell where Kuzka came from. Matvey Savvich tells him the strange and shocking story of his adoptive son, who looks and behaves like a frightened servant.

It was more a story about Mashenka, Kuzkin’s mother, whom Matvey Savvich seduced, while her husband Vasya served in the army. When Vasya returned, Mashenka refused to return to the man whom she hated. Subsequently, Vasya dies presumably from cholera. Then there was talk in the village that Vasya did not die by his death, which Mashenka had plagued him. Reached the authorities. They dug up Vasya, gutted him and found arsenic in his stomach. The police took Mashenka and Kuzka. Masha was put in jail. The court ruled to send her to hard labor in Siberia for 13 years. But she did not reach Siberia ... she became ill with fever and died in prison, and Kuzka was returned home.

The next day, Matvey Savvich got into a wagon with Kuzka and drove away from the yard.

Based on the stories of A.P. Chekhov “ Baba ”, “ In Moscow on Trubnaya Square ”, “Siren”, “ In Court ” in 1969, the feature film “ The Main Witness” was shot at Mosfilm. Director: Aida Manasarova .

• Chekhov A.P. Baba // Chekhov A.P. Complete Works and Letters: In 30 vols. Works: In 18 vol. / USSR Academy of Sciences. Institute of World Lite. them. A. M. Gorky. - M .: Nauka, 1974-1982.
• Voir Dictionnaire Tchekhov, Page 224, Françoise Darnal-Lesné, Édition L'Harmattan, 2010, ISBN 978,2296,1343.5 .
• Les Garces, traduit par Edouard Parayre, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Édition Gallimard, 1970, ISBN 2-07-010550-4 .

• Women , original Russian text
• Women , two early (1908 and 1918) translations into English