[1] It was first published in the Peterburgskaya Gazeta (28 September 1887), in the section "Fleeting Notes" (Летучие заметки), and was signed A. Chekhonte (А. Чехонте).

During its author's lifetime, the story was translated into Danish, Serbo-Croatian, German, French and Czech languages.

[2] In 1893 Y. Tveroyanskaya, writing from Paris, informed Chekhov that her translations of "Gusev" and "The Runaway" had been published in the Revue des deux Mondes to public and critical acclaim.

Pashka (full name Pavel Galaktionov), a peasant boy of seven who has seen little of the world, has a sore elbow and is taken to a hospital by his mother.

"Father greatly enjoyed a little story by Chekhov in the Stoglav almanac and he read it aloud more than once," Tatyana Tolstaya informed her brother Sergey in the 6 February 1889 letter.