Anton Chekhov: a short biography, interesting facts

😉 Greetings to regular readers and blog guests! The article “Anton Chekhov: a short biography, interesting facts” contains the main stages in the life of a Russian writer, prose writer, playwright and generally recognized classic of world literature.

Gentlemen, I live in Taganrog – the city where the writer Anton Chekhov was born and lived. I love to joke! Every year, on January 29, I tell my friends and acquaintances:

– Palych has a birthday. Are we going to dump?

– What Palych ?!

– Yes in Chekhov…

– Oh, yes, yes, yes !!!

Talking about celebrities in the Stories of Successful People section, it would be unfair not to remember Anton Pavlovich. His difficult life was filled with many dramatic events. In the article “Anton Chekhov – a Brief Biography” about the main stages of the writer’s life: childhood, adolescence, recognition, recent years.

Anton Chekhov: biography

Anton was born on January 29, 1860 in a small house on Police Street (now Chekhov Street), in the city of Taganrog.

His father, Pavel Yegorovich, was a small merchant, and his grandfather came from serfs who had paid off free. The writer’s mother, Evgenia Yakovlevna, nee Morozova, daughter of a merchant. In addition to Anton, the family had five more children:

1. Alexander (1855-1913) – brother, prose writer, publicist, memoirist.
2. Nikolay (1858-1889) – brother, artist.
3. Ivan (1861-1922) – brother, teacher.
4. Maria (1863-1957) – sister, teacher, artist, creator of the Chekhov House-Museum in Yalta.
5. Mikhail (1865-1936) – brother, writer, biographer of Anton Pavlovich.

My father was not lucky, especially in commercial matters. Contrary to the insistence of his wife, he sent his sons to the parish Tsarekonstantinovskaya school, from where the children soon had to be taken, since they had not acquired any knowledge.

He began his studies at the gymnasium, but the gymnasium student did not shine with knowledge, he had to complete an eight-year course in ten years. But it was not a matter of negligence, he had no time to learn! The boy was busy in the church choir and at work in his father’s shop. Later, he will describe the painful impressions of childhood in his stories.

Youth

Due to debts, his father fled to Moscow, where the whole family soon moved, but Anton remained in Taganrog, as he was forced to fulfill his father’s promissory notes, selling the remaining things and at the same time earning his living. He sent money to the family every month.

The house that the father built was the first and only own house of the family, but Pavel Yegorovich did not calculate his financial capabilities and went bankrupt. This was the reason for the departure of the Chekhov family to Moscow. Anton was left alone – he had to graduate from high school.

In 1876 the house was sold and Anton lived in his former house as a tenant and earned a living by tutoring the children of the new owner of their former house.

A fact that is not customary to talk about: when the whole family left for Moscow, Anton was left on his own. Sometimes he and his fellow high school students “went all over the place”: he went to hot places, played cards, drank.

Opposite the house where Chekhov lived was Daria Ivanovna’s brothel, where old school students used to go. Perhaps it was here that he lost his innocence at the age of 13.

The young man decided to devote his future to medicine. He moved to Moscow and entered the university there.

Beginning of creativity

The student Chekhov did not have enough money to live, and he finds a way out – cooperation in magazines. He begins to write small stories under a pseudonym and send them to various publications. His writing debut took place in 1880 in the magazine “Dragonfly”. Chekhov is 20 years old!

His literary earnings become the only source of money in the family. Having received a doctor’s degree, he gets a job in the Moscow region and even tries to write a thesis “Medicine in Russia”.

In 1892, he acquired the Melikhovo estate, located not far from Moscow, here Chekhov the doctor received patients every day. Medical practice expanded the life experience of the writer: people came to him not only with different diseases, but also with different fates. 42 works were written in Melikhovo.

The writer sometimes spoke of two favorite things in his life: “My wife is medicine. But when she bothers me I go to spend the night with my mistress – literature ”.

Over the years and experience, he became more demanding of himself, ideas for larger works appeared, he began to write novels.

Confession

In 1889, his younger brother, Nikolai, died suddenly. The death of his brother deeply shocked the writer, there was a pessimistic mood towards everything. He decides to go to Sakhalin for new impressions, but what he saw on a long journey only aggravated his mental anguish.

He described all his impressions of the trip in the books “From Siberia”, “Sakhalin Island”.

After Sakhalin, he travels to Europe, Hong Kong and Singapore. The contrast of travel impressions helps him to feel even more the problems of Sakhalin and Russia as a whole.

Chekhov is already a recognized writer, one after another his books are published. In 1888 he became a laureate of the Pushkin Prize, in 1900 – an honorary academician.

Then there is a new round in his work – he writes plays. The first plays were not successful in Russia, but they were recognized in the world. In the mid-1890s, he took place as a playwright. Today his plays, especially The Seagull, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard, are staged on all stages of the world. All works have been translated into over 100 languages.

The last years of Chekhov’s life

In 1898, his father died. Chekhov spent the last years of his life in the Crimea. In 1899, together with his sister and mother, he moved to Yalta. Here were born “Three Sisters”, “Cherry Orchard” and “Lady with a Dog” and others.

In 1898 Chekhov met Olga Knipper, an actress of the Moscow Art Theater. They wrote each other more than four hundred letters each, got married in 1901. However, he was not destined to enjoy family happiness: due to the exacerbation of tuberculosis, his health deteriorated.

In July 1904, the writer died. He was 44 years old. Height 1,82 m, zodiac sign – Aquarius. Olga Leonardovna survived her husband for 55 years, died at 90, was buried next to her husband.

Place of death of Chekhov: Germany, Badenweiler. He was buried next to his father’s grave, in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery (section 2).

Anton Chekhov: short biography (video)

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