Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich 1860-1904
Russian dramatist and short-story writer

Chekhov was born in Taganrog, the son of an unsuccessful shopkeeper and the grandson of a serf. He studied medicine at Moscow University, qualifying as a doctor in 1884. In 1892 he settled on a farm estate at Melikhovo, near Moscow; five years later, suffering from tuberculosis, he moved to the Crimea. He then moved to Yalta in 1900 and spent the rest of his life there. He was elected Fellow of the Moscow Academy of Science in the same year, but resigned when his fellow-member Maxim Gorky was dismissed by the order of the tsar. In 1901 he married Olga Knipper an actress of the Moscow Art Theatre, who for many years after his death performed the female roles in his plays.

As a student, he had written humorous stories, sketches and articles for various magazines, and his first book, P�strye Rasskazy (1886, 'Motley Stories'), was successful enough for him to think of writing as a profession. However, he continued to regard himself as a doctor rather than a writer, although he practised very little except during the cholera epidemic of 1892-93.

He developed an interest in the popular stage of vaudeville and French farce and, after the failure of his first full-length play, Ivanov (1887, Eng trans 1912), he wrote several one-act plays, such as Medved (1889, Eng trans The Bear, 1909) and Predlozheniye (1889, Eng trans A Marriage Proposal, 1914).

His next full-length plays, Leshy (1889, Eng trans The Wood Demon, 1926) and Chayka (1896, Eng trans The Seagull, 1912), were also failures and he had decided to concentrate on his stories (which had introduced him to Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky) when Nemirovich-Danchenko persuaded him to let the Moscow Art Theatre revive Chayka in 1898. The play was produced by Stanislavsky, who revealed its quality and originality, and its reception encouraged Chekhov to write his masterpieces for the same company: Dyadya Vanya (1896, Eng trans Uncle Vanya, 1912), Tri Sestry (1901, Eng trans The Three Sisters, 1916) and Vishnyovy Sad (1904, Eng trans The Cherry Orchard, 1908).

Meanwhile he continued to write short stories, the following being good examples of his skill in this genre: Step ('The Steppe'); Khoristka ('The Chorus Girl'); Duel ('The Duel'); Palata No. 6 ('Ward No 6'); Dushetska ('The Darling'); Dama s sobachkoi ('The Lady with the Dog'); and V ovrag'e ('In the Ravine'). The bulk of his stories were translated in 13 volumes (The Tales of Tchevov, 1916-22) by Constance Garnett. He also wrote a research thesis, Ostrov Sakhalin (1891, 'The Island of Sakhalin'), after spending three months in 1890 on the remote island Sakhalin, observing the lives of the prisoners and workers on this notorious Russian penal colony. It had a considerable effect on subsequent criminal legislation.

Chekhov is perhaps the most popular Russian author outside his own country. His stories have influenced many writers (eg Raymond Carver), and his plays are firmly established in the classical repertoires of Europe. His technique is impressionistic - almost pointilliste. In all his work he equates worldly success with loss of soul. It is the sensitive, hopeful, struggling people, at the mercy of forces almost always too strong for them, who are his heroes. This is why his work, although also presenting a convincing picture of Russian middle-class life at the end of the 19th century, has a timeless quality; it reflects the universal predicament of the 'little man'.

Bibliography: V S Pritchett, Chekhov: A Spirit Set Free (1988); R Hingley, A New Life of Anton Chekhov (1976, reprinted 1989); E J Simmons, Chekhov: A Biography (1962).