by Anton Chekhov,
trans. by Jean-Claude van Itallie
ASTROV, a local doctor, relates his feelings about where he lives in rural Russia—about what is happening to the environment and the natural beauty that he loves.
Scene
A room in the main house on the estate of Professor Serabryakov, in rural Russia.
Time
Evening, early in the twentieth century.
ASTROV
I have a work table in this house, in Ivan Petrovich’s room. When I’m completely worn out and numb—I drop everything to run here and draw. It’s my play time for an hour or two. Vanya and Sonya do their accounts while I doodle near them, quietly. It’s warm and peaceful—a cricket chirps in a corner. Not that I allow myself that pleasure often—once a month maybe.
[Showing the map.]
Now look, please. This is our district fifty years ago. The dark and light greens are forests, covering half the map. Where the green is striped with red there are elk and deer. Here, in the lakes there are swan, geese, and ducks. The old people say there were vast numbers of every kind of bird, clouds of them. Here are the retreats of the Old Believers, here the water mills. The cattle and horses—that’s the blue. See, this corner is mostly blue—there were herds of horses, at least three to a peasant.
[Pause.]
Now here’s the district twenty-five years ago. The forest covers only a third of the land. The deer are gone, there are still elk. The blue and green are paler. The third map—down here—is the district today. There’s still some green, but only in spots. No more elk, swan or geese. There are no monasteries or mills left. This is a picture of destruction, which in ten or fifteen years will be complete. You could say the old must give way to the new. And I’d agree with you if the forests were replaced by roads, railways, factories and schools. Then maybe people would be richer and more educated. But in this district things don’t change. We have swamps, mosquitos, typhoid, diphtheria and misery. People lose the fight for survival here. Degraded by inertia and ignorance, starving, sick and freezing—in order to save their lives and their children, people clutch at whatever feeds or warms them. They destroy without a thought for the future. They destroy everything.Nothing is replaced. I have the impression this doesn’t interest you.