In 1892, Alexander Ivanovich Ertel opened a school in the village of Makarye, Voronezh Governorate. He intended this school to become an educational center not only for children but for adults as well.

At the school, the writer wanted to organize a library where evening conversations and readings with a magic lantern would be held. Ertel asked the writers he knew to send their works to the library.

Anton Chekhov and Ertel met in March 1893 at a dinner organized by Vukol Mikhailovich Lavrov, the publisher of the Russkaya Mysl (Russian Mind) magazine. At some point, the two writers began corresponding. Knowing about Chekhov’s friendship with the largest Russian publisher Aleksey Sergeyevich Suvorin, Ertel decided to ask him for assistance in acquiring books for the Makaryev library. Thus, Chekhov would play a significant role in providing books for the library.

On October 15, 1894, Chekhov wrote to Suvorin,

As Aleksey Sergeyevich Suvorin was indeed a native of the village of Korshevo in the Bobrovsky Uyezd of the Voronezh Governorate and a graduate of the Mikhailovsky Voronezh Cadet Corps, he yielded to this request. At the end of 1894, a parcel containing 273 books was delivered to the Makarye village. Suvorin was well aware of the conditions peasants in his native governorate lived in, and in February 1892, together with Chekhov, he visited Voronezh and the surrounding villages to appraise the situation with the starving peasants and would then take measures against hunger.

Ertel continued to use Suvorin’s bookstore in the future, as evidenced by this bill dated February 8, 1907.