In this blog post, we’ll take a brief look at the life and literary world of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov.
Life
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on January 17, 1860, in Taganrog, a former port city on the Black Sea coast. He was the third son among the six children of Pavel Egorovich, a grocer. Unlike many Russian writers of the time, who came from noble families, Chekhov had a relatively different background as the grandson of Egor, who had been a serf. While his father was extremely violent and domineering, his mother, Yevgenia Yakovlevna, was gentle, thoughtful, and kind, and Chekhov was largely influenced by her.
When Chekhov was in middle school, his father’s grocery store went bankrupt, forcing the family to move to Moscow. Chekhov barely managed to continue his studies by working as a private tutor and in other jobs; in fact, his cheerful disposition led him to actually welcome the freedom from his father’s oppression. After finishing secondary school, he received a provincial scholarship and enrolled in the Medical Faculty at Moscow University. That winter (1879), he contributed a short piece to a humorous weekly magazine—which was popular at the time—to buy a birthday cake for his mother; this marked the beginning of his career as a writer. He subsequently published countless humorous short stories, revealing his talent as a writer.
After graduating from university, he opened a clinic in a small town and worked as a doctor while continuing to write. He regarded treating patients as a humanitarian duty, and since the hospital’s finances depended on his income from writing, he tried to balance both lives, believing that “medicine is my wife, and literature is my mistress.” However, literature eventually took center stage in his life, and his experiences at the hospital during that time had a profound influence on his later works.
In 1886, he moved to St. Petersburg, where he was warmly welcomed by the literary community. Around that time, he received advice from a senior writer of the era: “Promising young writer, do not write only such light-hearted pieces; turn your attention to more serious matters.” This became a major turning point for Chekhov. Subsequently, he began contributing to ‘Novoye Vremya’ (“New Times”), the most authoritative daily newspaper of the time, and in 1888, he was awarded the prestigious Pushkin Prize.
In the spring of 1890, Chekhov set out on a journey to Siberia, reaching Sakhalin Island to investigate the conditions of the exiles. Since the Trans-Siberian Railway had not yet been built at that time, he endured great hardships; his true purpose, however, was to awaken public interest in the exiles, driven by a sense of responsibility toward his fellow countrymen. Although it did not immediately garner a significant public response, this experience led to works such as the reportage “Sakhalin Island” and the short story “Room No. 6,” which became important sources of material.
Chekhov took a keen interest in the plight of the common people and actively participated in social activities such as famine relief, cholera prevention efforts, and the establishment of rural schools. In 1892, he purchased a spacious estate with ample land in Merikhov, near Moscow, and settled there; however, his health began to deteriorate around this time, and a few years later, he began coughing up blood and had to undergo a convalescent stay at a sanatorium. He enjoyed traveling and socialized with important writers of his time, such as Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky.
Meanwhile, he also ventured into playwriting, publishing his first play, ‘The Seagull’, in 1896 and staging its premiere in St. Petersburg; however, the performance was a dismal failure, leading him to abandon playwriting for a time. Subsequently, a series of plays, including ‘Three Sisters’ and ‘The Cherry Orchard’, achieved success and, along with his short stories, became the two main pillars of his literary career. He also fell in love with Olga Knipper, the actress who played the lead role of Irina in ‘The Seagull’, and they married in May 1901; however, his health had already deteriorated to such an extent that he was forced to undergo continuous medical treatment.
Eventually, his tuberculosis worsened, and he died on July 2, 1904, at his sanatorium in Baden-Baden, southern Germany.
Body of Work and Literary Characteristics
Chekhov is known as a world-renowned master of the short story, having written as many as 700 to 800 works. Many of these works are very short, yet they sparkle with concise, meaningful glimpses of life.
“Why is your song so short?” asks a bird. “Is it because your breath is short?” “I know quite a lot of songs. But I want to sing them all.” This passage, written in Chekhov’s notebook, is an expression that well illustrates his prolific output.
Just as he said, “The most sacred things to me are the human body, health, intellect, talent, inspiration, love, and complete freedom from all violence and falsehood,” the subjects of Chekhov’s works are extremely diverse and rich. He incorporated every aspect of life in his era into his works, practicing thorough realism.
His works feature a wide array of characters—men and women, the rich and the poor, farmers, landowners, clergymen, police officers, teachers, doctors, merchants, and officials—who take on roles that are at times comical, at times tragic, and at times satirical. Chekhov sought to pierce through reality to reveal the truths of life, and as a result, he left behind works brimming with warm humanism.
From his early satirical and humorous short stories such as “The Chameleon,” “Melancholy,” and “The Fat and the Thin,” to his mid-career works tinged with melancholy like “Anyuta” and “Vanika,” and on to his later works—including “Room No. 6,” “The Pretty Woman,” and “The Fiancée”—which introduced new imagery—his entire body of work is filled with a warm perspective on humanity and deep insight. That is why his works remain timeless masterpieces that continue to move many readers to this day.
