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Chekhov (Чехов) Anton Pavlovich
(1860—1904)

Chekhov is better known in modern-day Russia for his several hundred short stories, many of which are considered masterpieces of the form. Yet his plays are also major influences on twentieth-century drama. From Chekhov, many contemporary playwrights have learned how to use mood, apparent trivialities and inaction to highlight the internal psychology of characters. Chekhov's four major plays—The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard—are frequently revived in modern productions.

It can be safely said that Chekhov revolutionized the genre of short story; his subject matter and technique influenced many future short-story writers. It is often said that little action occurs in Chekhov's stories and plays, but he compensates for lack of outward excitement by his original techniques for developing internal drama. The point of a typical Chekhov story is most often what happens within a given character, and that is conveyed indirectly, by suggestion or by significant detail. Chekhov echews the traditional build-up of chronological detail, instead emphasizing moments of epiphanies and illumination over a significantly shorter period of time. As such, his best stories have a psychological realism and concision seldom matched by other writers. Tolstoy likened Chekhov's technique to that of the French Impressionists, who daubed canvases with paint apparently without reason, but achieved an overall effect of vivid, unchallengeable artistry.

Gravestone in Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow.One critic says of Chekhov that he is no moralist — he simply says "you live badly, ladies and gentlemen," but his smile has the indulgence of a very wise man.

As samples of the Russian epistolary art, Chekhov's letters have been rated second only to Aleksandr Pushkin's by the literary historian D.S. Mirsky. Although Chekhov is still chiefly known for his plays, critical opinion shows signs of establishing the stories, particularly those that were written after 1888, as an even more significant and creative literary achievement.

Equally innovative in his dramatic works, Chekhov sought to convey the texture of everyday life and move away from traditional ideas of plot and conventions of dramatic speech. Dialogue in his plays is not smooth or continuous: characters interrupt each other, several different conversations take place at the same time, and lengthy pauses occur when no one speaks at all. A recurring theme is the pointlessness of radical, human or mechanical change, versus the powerful inertia of slow organic cycles.

Czechoslovakia, 1954, Anton Chekhov

Gambia, 2001, Anton Chekhov

Monaco, 2009, Anton Chekhov and scenes from his plays

Rumania, 1960, Anton Chekhov

Russia, 1998, Theatre and Characters

Russia, 2000, Meierkhold and Stanislavsky

Russia, 2010, Anton Chekhov and scenes from his plays

Russia, 2010, Anton Chekhov

Russia, 2013, Konstantin Stanivslavsky, Seagull

San-Marino, 2004, Anton Chekhov

USSR, 1940, Anton Chekhov