Chekhov Anton Pavlovich

Main article: Culture of Russia

Biography

Anton Chekhov in the courtyard of his house on Sadovo-Kudrinskaya street, 1890

1892: Purchase of an estate in Melikhovo

Anton Chekhov learned about the estate in the village of Melikhovo, Serpukhov district, Moscow province, in the winter of 1892 from a newspaper ad. His sister and younger brother, Maria and Mikhail Chekhov, went to see the condition of the buildings. They liked the manor. Melikhov's convenient location also played a role - from Moscow to the station closest to the house, you could get there in a couple of hours. As a result, Anton Chekhov acquired the estate without even looking at it personally. Together with his parents and younger brother, he moved there in early spring of that year.

"My estate is just on the Kashirsky tract, and every passing intellectual considers it proper and necessary to come to me and warm up, and sometimes even stay overnight. Some doctors a whole legion! " From a letter from Anton Chekhov to Alexei Suvorin dated December 8, 1892.

Anton Chekhov did not miss the opportunity to play visitors. Once he painted wide smiles with whitewash on the faces of his dachshunds - an unexpected contrast of their sleepy appearance with a wide grin made everyone laugh to tears.

Pavel Fokin in his book "Chekhov without gloss" wrote about the case of a frequent guest of the estate - writer Tatyana Shchepkina-Kupernik:

"In Melikhov they wandered" on the naive, "as Chekhov called him, the yard - coffee-colored pigeons with white, the so-called Egyptian, and a cat of the same color. A.P. assured me that these pigeons came from the scratching of this cat with an ordinary gray pigeon. "

At that time, natural history was not taught in all schools, so the writer believed him. In Moscow, she told her acquaintances about these unusual birds, which amused everyone a lot.

Anton Chekhov loved flowers: on a flower bed near the house, he bred all kinds of roses. He watered them, cut them off and carefully freed them from the tracks. In a conversation with his sister, the writer was surprised:... "whatever variety he planted, only white ones succeed. Why would it? "

To ladies who lived nearby or stayed on the estate, he gave flower bouquets, but cut the buds according to all the rules of gardening, already mature, and they crumbled quite quickly.

The writer himself planted 80 apple trees and 60 seedlings of Vladimir cherry with large and sweet fruits of dark red color. He also grew conifers from seeds - spruce and pines. Tatyana Shchepkina-Kupernik wrote: "The flowering of fruit trees caused some joyful associations in him - maybe the gardens of his childhood in the southern town..."

Residents of the surrounding area quickly learned that the new owner of the estate received a medical education. From early morning, they came to the house and waited for Anton Chekhov to listen to them and examine them. This took a lot of time and effort from him, but he did not refuse anyone. Sometimes relatives helped the doctor: the sister assisted, and Mikhail Chekhov helped prepare ointments and tinctures.

In urgent cases, the patient could be brought at night, and sometimes Chekhov himself went to patients. Then an outbuilding was built on the manor plot - a small two-room house. The owner of the estate moved there and healed peasant neighbors there. And in this extension, he wrote his famous "Seagull."

When a cholera epidemic broke out in Central Russia in 1892, Anton Chekhov voluntarily became a sanitary district doctor. He helped organize treatment centers and collected money that local landowners allocated to help the sick. Melikhovsky village epidemic bypassed.

The Chekhovs lived in the village of Melikhovo for almost seven years.

1895: First meeting with Leo Tolstoy

The first meeting between Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy took place in August 1895. Chekhov came to Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana. 

The next meeting took place six months later with a little. 

Anton Chekhov was a very independent person in behavior, but, going to Leo Tolstoy, he began to get noticeably nervous.

Ivan Bunin, who was more than once present at the training camp, later said: "Once I almost decided for an hour in what pants to go to Tolstoy. Bce left the bedroom in some or others: "No, these are indecently narrow! Will think: nutcracker! " And others went to put on, and again came out: "And these are the width with the Black Sea! Think: cheeky... ""

Anton Pavlovich explained his behavior as follows: "Just think, because it was he who wrote:" Anna felt that her eyes were shining in the dark "!"

1897: Tuberculosis

... "Anton's affection for dachshunds was surprising:" Every evening Hina approached Anton Pavlovich, put her front legs on his knees and looked him in the eyes with pity and devotion. He changed his expression and, in a broken, senile voice, said: "Hina Markovna!.. Suffering!.. You would go to the hospital!.. You would feel better for ba-b there." He spent an entire half hour with this dog in conversations from which everyone at home died with laughter. Then it was Brom's turn. He also put the front legs of Anton Pavlovich on his knee, and fun began again.

​​Anton Pavlovich Chekhov with a dachshund Khina on the threshold of a house in Melikhovo, 1897.

On March 22, 1897, having dinner with Suvorin in the Hermitage, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, not having time to touch the food, will press a napkin to his mouth and point to a bucket of ice, blood flows from his throat. The clinic of Professor Ostroumov will find that the tops of his lungs, especially the left, are affected by tuberculosis. Doctors will recommend that he leave the Moscow climate.

On March 28, Leo Tolstoy visited Chekhov in the clinic. This was the third meeting of writers.

1898: Purchase of land for the construction of a house in Yalta. Premiere of "The Seagull"

In the fall of 1898, Chekhov will buy land in Yalta for the construction of a new house, on December 17 the premiere of "The Seagull" will take place at the Moscow Art Theater.

1899: Sale of the estate in Melikhovo

In 1899, the Melikhovo estate will be put up for sale. The new owner of the Melikhovsky estate of the Chekhovs, the timber merchant Konshin, will first of all cut down the cherry orchard planted by Anton Chekhov. Dachshunds Brom and Hina will remain to live in Melikhovo, they will either not be taken to Yalta, or they will not have time to take them. In the early summer of 1899, Brom Isaevich will die, he will clothe, get rabies, and he will be forced to shoot. In August, Hina Markovna dies in torment, a yard dog will tear out her eyes in a fight.

In 1902, Olga Knipper will start a dachshund, calling it Schnap "(Donald Rayfield" The Life of Anton Chekhov ").

1901

In 1901, Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy met in the Crimea. Chekhov visited Tolstoy in Gaspra. 

Anton Chekhov visiting Leo Tolstoy, Gaspra, 1901.

The last meeting took place in the winter, when Tolstoy fell seriously ill. 

Even friendly correspondence did not ensue between the writers, since personal acquaintance was late, and meetings were brief and few.