Anton Pavlovich Chekhov: How did a great writer get along with a great man?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Reading the works of famous writers, everyone at least once in his life wondered what these people were like in life? What if the great thinker really had a bad character, and the famous moralist did not miss a single skirt? This is often the case. But there are wonderful examples when creativity, aimed at serving the lofty ideals of humanism, is a reflection of all life.

Doctor or writer?

The medical practice of Anton Pavlovich is a well-known fact. His profession was reflected in creativity, he also treated human souls precisely as a doctor, in his profession he drew inspiration and themes for literature. But few people know that he continued to practice active medical practice literally until the last years of his life. - he wrote in May 1888. And for the most part, the great writer did it for free:.

Even tired of medicine and realizing that the first profession was stealing time from a literary vocation, Chekhov still paid tribute to her:

In 1892-1893, a cholera epidemic broke out in central Russia. Anton Pavlovich not only organized a medical center in Melikhovo and equipped it entirely at his own expense, but alone, without assistants, performed his medical duty:

So, almost until the end of his life, the great writer and real doctor was torn between his two vocations:

Feat and medal

In 1890, Chekhov made an almost year-long trip to Sakhalin. In those days it was a global journey: only the road there took the writer 82 days. After living on the peninsula for several months, Anton Pavlovich got acquainted with the living conditions and fates of many people. Alone, he conducted a complete census of the population of Sakhalin, filling out several thousand cards with his own hand! It must be said that Chekhov had already voluntarily taken part in statistical work before and even received a medal "For his work on the first General Census of 1897".

The result of the trip was the later written book "Sakhalin Island". In it, Chekhov not only described the most difficult living conditions of the exiles, but also proved it with figures and facts. The voice of a world-famous writer did not go unnoticed, and after the publication of the book, the Ministry of Justice and the Main Prison Administration sent their representatives to Sakhalin.

Patron and just a caring person

It seems that the above would already be enough for three human lives, but the list of public affairs of the great classic must be continued:

- In Taganrog, Chekhov created a public library entirely at his own expense. For this, the writer gave more than two thousand of his own books, many of which, by the way, were precious copies with the author's signatures, and then for 14 years in a row he constantly purchased and sent many new editions there.

- During his life in the Melikhovo estate near Moscow, Chekhov built three schools for peasant children, a bell tower and a fire shed in nearby villages, participated in laying the road, and was one of the organizers of the creation of a post and telegraph office in Lopasna.

- The writer decorated his native Taganrog with a monument to Peter the Great. To do this, he persuaded the famous sculptor Antokolsky to donate the statue to the city, and then organized an ebb tide and free delivery of the statue.

- During the famine of 1892, Anton Pavlovich personally went to the Nizhny Novgorod province, organized a fundraiser, arranged free canteens for the hungry and took care of buying up horses for subsequent distribution to horseless peasants in the spring.

- In a very Chekhovian way, the writer left behind many gardens in Melikhovo and the Crimea: more than a thousand cherry trees were planted, bare areas of the forest were sown again with seedlings.

- Among other things, Chekhov all his life simply helped people who turned to him. Evidence of this is the many letters of thanks that the writer received from all over Russia.

It seemed that in forty-four past years it would be enough just to become a classic of world fiction and create twenty volumes of immortal works, but the great Russian writer managed much more - to leave a memory of himself as a wonderful person who devoted his whole life to serving other people.

The fate of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov gave him not only the joy of creativity, but also strong feelings. At the end of his life, there was a loving woman and a real friend next to him: Olga Knipper - the last love of Anton Chekhov.