The Cattle-Dealers
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| "The Cattle-Dealers" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by Anton Chekhov | |
 1938 illustration by P. Stroyev | |
| Original title | Холодная кровь |
| Translator | Constance Garnett (original) |
| Country | Russia |
| Language | Russian |
| Publication | |
| Published in | Novoye Vremya |
| Publisher | Adolf Marks, 1899-1901 |
| Publication date | 31 October, 3 November 1887 (old style) |
"The Cattle-Dealers" (originally, "The Cold Blood", Russian: Холодная кровь, romanized: Kholodnaya krov) is an 1887 short story by Anton Chekhov.
The story was based upon Chekhov's journey to the Russian South in the spring of 1887. On 7 April of that year he wrote: "Woke up in Slavyansk... Here another campaign rages on... The Railways are being sued. The state controller claims that the Lozovo-Sevastopol Railway had stolen 300 wagons from the Azov Railway and painted them into its own colours." This detail was mentioned in the story.[1]
According to Mikhail Chekhov, "...[The Cattle-Dealers] is another story belonging to the Taganrog cycle. Our uncle Mitrofan Yegorovich's wife Ludmila Pavlovna's brother, Andrey Pavlovich [Yevtushevsky], a very likeable man, after having failed as a Taganrog mayor's assistant, decided to retire and join the commerce. For all the money that he had, he bought the cattle, put it into the freight train and started out to Moscow to sell it for meat. On his way, inexperienced and unpractical, he was virtually robbed by the railway men, arrived at Moscow almost penniless and failed to hit the peak price time. Overcome with disappointment, he found Anton Pavlovich, related to him the tale of his misfortunes and corroborated his story with the documents... Anton Pavlovich used them for his story ‘Cold Blood’..."[2]
Later this version of the story's background was corroborated by P. Surozhsky (the pseudonym of P.N. Shatilov)[3] as well as Vladimir Bogoraz, in his essay "At the Chekhov Places".[4]
"The Cold Blood" was first published on 31 October and 3 November 1887 by Novoye Vremya (issues Nos. 4193, 4196). It was included into the Chekhov collection Khmurye lyudi (Хмурые люди, Gloomy People), published in 1890 in Saint Petersburg, and was reproduced unchanged in the latter's ten re-issues. Chekhov included it into volume two of his Collected Works published by Adolf Marks in 1899-1901. During its author's lifetime, the story was translated into Bulgarian and Swedish language.[5]
Plot summary
The old man Malakhin, accompanied by his rather useless son Yasha, makes a journey to Saint Petersburg in a freight train with the view of selling his cattle. Everybody around is bent on extorting the money from him. The train driver simply refuses to move the train without being paid, and the uber-conductor has to have his reward too. Malakhin is so distressed as to file a written complaint to the police, still he throws his money around, even on the occasions when this does not seem necessary. Four days later, after having bribed his way to the capital, he sells his starved-out animals, loses a great deal of money but is greatly relieved to see his totally meaningless mission completed.
