Checkhov's "Ionych" as Commentary on Tuurgenev's Prose

In Chekhov's Notebooks (Zapisnve knizhki) there is an appa enigmatic entry for August 1897 which (although it is conclusively established) may indeed point to the incep "Iónych" (written May 5-June 12, 1898): "Ser'ëznvi mesh doktor vliubilsia v devushku. kotoraia ochen' khorosho tan chtobv ponravitsia ei. stal uchitsia mazurkę." (Zapisnve knizhki. 1:72). In English: "A serious, somewhat sacklike doctor fell in love with a young woman who danced very well, and, so that he might please her, began to learn [to dance] the mazurka."1 The descriptive adjective meshkovatvi. "sacklike," calls to mind the first chapter of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev's Rudin (1855-56), where Mikhail Mikhailovich (Lezhnëv), 2 appears before Aleksandra Pav- lovna (Lipina), 3 and after a brief conversation, departs. His name and patronymic suggest to the Russian reader a bear-like person, for in Russian folklore the bear is often given the name Mikhail (which is here reduplicated, as if to reinforce its effect) or its affectionate form, Mishko; the bear is thought to be powerful, but clumsy. And Lezhnëv is not only socially inadequate, a quality which lends him credibility, he is the novel's main speaker of its author's ideas, hence a deceptively awkward, but ultimately powerful personage in terms of Turgenev's intent. As Mikhail Mihailych (colloquial abbreviation) leaves her, she observes: Kakoi meshok! ("What a sack!"), a sentiment echoed by the narrator, who comments: "...he really did look like a big sack of flour." 4