Anton Chekhov(1860-1904)
- Writer
- Actor
- Script and Continuity Department
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in 1860, the third of six children to
a family of a grocer, in Taganrog, Russia, a southern seaport and
resort on the Azov Sea. His father, a 3rd-rank Member of the Merchant's
Guild, was a religious fanatic and a tyrant who used his children as
slaves. Young Chekhov was a part-time assistant in his father's
business and also a singer in a church choir. At age 15, he was
abandoned by his bankrupt father and lived alone for 3 years while
finishing the Classical Gymnazium in Taganrog. Chekhov obtained a
scholarship at the Moscow University Medical School in 1879, from which
he graduated in 1884 as a Medical Doctor. He practiced general medicine
for about ten years.
While a student, Chekhov published numerous short stories and humorous
sketches under a pseudonym. He reserved his real name for serious
medical publications, saying "medicine is my wife; literature - a
mistress." While a doctor, he kept writing and had success with his
first books, and his first play "Ivanov." He gradually decreased his
medical practice in favor of writing. Chekhov created his own style
based on objectivity, brevity, originality, and compassion. It was
different from the mainstream Russian literature's scrupulous
analytical depiction of "heroes." Chekhov used a delicate fabric of
hints, subtle nuances in dialogs, and precise details. He described his
original style as an "objective manner of writing." He avoided
stereotyping and instructive political messages in favor of cool comic
irony. Praised by writers Lev Tolstoy and Nikolai Leskov, he was awarded the
Pushkin Prize from the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1888.
In 1890, Chekhov made a lengthy journey to Siberia and to the remote
prison-island of Sakhalin. There, he surveyed thousands of convicts and
conducted research for a dissertation about the life of prisoners. His
research grew bigger than a dissertation, and in 1894, he published a
detailed social-analytical essay on the Russian penitentiary system in
Siberia and the Far East, titled "Island of Sakhalin." Chekhov's
valuable research was later used and quoted by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his "Gulag
Archipelago." In 1897-1899, Chekhov returned to his medical practice in
order to stop the epidemic of cholera.
Chekhov developed special relationship with Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko at
the Moscow Art Theater. He emerged as a mature playwright who
influenced the modern theater. In the plays "Uncle Vanya," "Three
Sisters," "Seagull," and "Cherry Orchard," he mastered the use of
understatement, anticlimax, and implied emotion. The leading actress of
the Moscow Art Theater, Olga Knipper-Chekhova, became his wife. In 1898, Chekhov
moved to his Mediterranean-style home at the Black Sea resort of Yalta
in the Crimea. There he was visited by writers Lev Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky,
Ivan Bunin, and artists Konstantin Korovin and Isaac Levitan.
a family of a grocer, in Taganrog, Russia, a southern seaport and
resort on the Azov Sea. His father, a 3rd-rank Member of the Merchant's
Guild, was a religious fanatic and a tyrant who used his children as
slaves. Young Chekhov was a part-time assistant in his father's
business and also a singer in a church choir. At age 15, he was
abandoned by his bankrupt father and lived alone for 3 years while
finishing the Classical Gymnazium in Taganrog. Chekhov obtained a
scholarship at the Moscow University Medical School in 1879, from which
he graduated in 1884 as a Medical Doctor. He practiced general medicine
for about ten years.
While a student, Chekhov published numerous short stories and humorous
sketches under a pseudonym. He reserved his real name for serious
medical publications, saying "medicine is my wife; literature - a
mistress." While a doctor, he kept writing and had success with his
first books, and his first play "Ivanov." He gradually decreased his
medical practice in favor of writing. Chekhov created his own style
based on objectivity, brevity, originality, and compassion. It was
different from the mainstream Russian literature's scrupulous
analytical depiction of "heroes." Chekhov used a delicate fabric of
hints, subtle nuances in dialogs, and precise details. He described his
original style as an "objective manner of writing." He avoided
stereotyping and instructive political messages in favor of cool comic
irony. Praised by writers Lev Tolstoy and Nikolai Leskov, he was awarded the
Pushkin Prize from the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1888.
In 1890, Chekhov made a lengthy journey to Siberia and to the remote
prison-island of Sakhalin. There, he surveyed thousands of convicts and
conducted research for a dissertation about the life of prisoners. His
research grew bigger than a dissertation, and in 1894, he published a
detailed social-analytical essay on the Russian penitentiary system in
Siberia and the Far East, titled "Island of Sakhalin." Chekhov's
valuable research was later used and quoted by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his "Gulag
Archipelago." In 1897-1899, Chekhov returned to his medical practice in
order to stop the epidemic of cholera.
Chekhov developed special relationship with Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko at
the Moscow Art Theater. He emerged as a mature playwright who
influenced the modern theater. In the plays "Uncle Vanya," "Three
Sisters," "Seagull," and "Cherry Orchard," he mastered the use of
understatement, anticlimax, and implied emotion. The leading actress of
the Moscow Art Theater, Olga Knipper-Chekhova, became his wife. In 1898, Chekhov
moved to his Mediterranean-style home at the Black Sea resort of Yalta
in the Crimea. There he was visited by writers Lev Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky,
Ivan Bunin, and artists Konstantin Korovin and Isaac Levitan.