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Happy Birthday Anton!
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on January 29, 1860, in Taganrog, Russia. His father, Pavel, was a grocer with frequent money troubles; his mother, Yevgeniya, shared her love of storytelling with Chekhov and his five siblings. https://www.biography.com/writer/anton-chekhov -
Abolition of Serfdom in Russia
The Chekhov family, along with a third of Russia’s people were finally granted personal freedom, property rights, and civic rights. The abolition of serfdom in Russia in 1861 was a crucial point in the country’s history and marked the first stage in its democratic transformation.The abolition of serfdom would be seen as perhaps the most significant date in Russia’s history. https://carnegiemoscow.org/2011/02/18/ending-feudalism-150th-anniversary-of-emancipation-of-serfs-pub-42679 -
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Early Schooling
Chekhov entered the town high school, where he remained for 10 years. There he received the best standard education then available. During his last three years at school Chekhov lived alone. His father Pavel had gone bankrupt and moved the rest of the family to Moscow to find work. Anton supported himself by coaching younger boys. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anton-Chekhov -
Platonov
Platonov was the first large-scale drama by Chekhov, written specifically for Maria Yermolova, rising star of Maly Theatre. Yermolova rejected the play and it was not published until 1923. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonov_(play) -
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First Moscow State Medical Universtiy
In the autumn of 1879 Chekhov joined his family in Moscow. He at once enrolled in the university’s medical faculty, graduating in 1884 as a doctor. He would later say in a letter to a friend "Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get [fed up with] one, I spend the night with the other." -
On Tuberculosis
Robert Koch proved conclusively that the cause of Tuberculosis was infection by a specific micro-organism, the tubercle bacillus which he had isolated. https://tbfacts.org/history-tb/ -
Motley Stories
Midsummer 1886 saw the appearance of Chekhov's first substantial book, Motley Stories; on the title page his real name stood beside his old pseudonym. The book did well, and Chekhov was recognized as a new literary talent. He practiced medicine less and wrote more. https://biography.yourdictionary.com/anton-pavlovich-chekhov -
On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco
In this monologue, Ivan Ivanovich Nyukhin, has been told by his wife to give a lecture about "the harmful effects of tobacco," although he is a smoker. He emphasizes that this will be a dry and boring lecture. In the end, Nyukhin has said hardly anything on topic, but asks the audience not to betray him: "If she asks you, please, I beg you, tell her that her scarecrow husband, I mean, the lecturer, me, behaved with dignity." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Harmful_Effects_of_Tobacco -
Literary Fund
Anton Chekhov is elected to the Literary Fund, an honor accorded only prominent authors. -
Ivanov
Ivanov was first performed in 1887, at the Korsh Theatre in Moscow. Chekhov wrote Ivanov in ten days. After an initial poor reception, Chekhov made alterations to the play, whereupon, it was accepted to be performed in St. Petersburg in 1889. Chekhov's revised version was a success and offered a foretaste of the style and themes of his subsequent masterpieces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanov_(play) -
Pushkin Prize
In 1888, the short story collection "At Dusk" won Chekhov the coveted Pushkin Prize "for the best literary production distinguished by high artistic worth." -
The Bear: A Joke in One Act
The play had its premiere in Korsh Theatre in Moscow on October 28, 1888. The Bear was a success from the start. In Chekhov's lifetime it brought in regular royalties, and it has constantly been revived on both professional and amateur stages worldwide since. Chekhov remarked on The Bear, "I've managed to write a stupid vaudeville which, owing to the fact that it is stupid, is enjoying surprising success."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bear_(play) -
The Wood Demon
Eight years after this play failed, Chekhov returned to the work. He reduced the cast list by half, changed the climactic suicide into an anti-climax of a failed homicide, and published the reworked play, much more successfully, under the title Uncle Vanya. -
A Marriage Proposal
A Marriage Proposal is a one-act farce written in 1888–1889 and first performed in 1890. It is a fast-paced play of dialogue-based action and situational humour. The Proposal was successful in its first runs in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and quickly became popular in small towns across Russia. Chekhov called The Proposal a "wretched, boring, vulgar little skit" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Marriage_Proposal -
The Island of Sakhaline
Chekhov undertakes a one-man sociological expedition to a remote island, Sakhalin, an imperial Russian penal settlement. His journey there was a long and hazardous ordeal by carriage and riverboat. After arriving unscathed, studying local conditions, and conducting a census of the islanders, he returned to publish his findings as a research thesis, which attained an honored place in the annals of Russian penology: The Island of Sakhalin -
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Medical Career Highlights
Medicine was not a lucrative career for Chekhov. He treated many patients free of charge and often worked in a volunteer capacity. During the famine in 1891-92 Chekhov worked on disaster relief and throughout the 1890's provided treatment to local peasants. https://www.rxlist.com/chekhov_anton/definition.htm -
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Russian Famine
Roughly 13 million out of 35 million Russian citizens suffered from crop failure. In addition to the negative economic effects from the suspension of grain exports, Russian peasants felt the effects of the famine in lower wages, a decrease in living standards and a marked rise in debt. https://sciencing.com/russian-famine-1891-11151.html -
Diagnosis
In March 1897 he suffered a major lung hemorrhage while at a restaurant and was formally diagnosed with tuberculosis. Doctors ordered him to change his lifestyle and reduce his medical work. He sat down to write, completing two of his most famous plays, The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/the-death-of-anton-chekhov-told-in-proteins#:~:text=Even%20as%20his%20fame%20and,was%20formally%20diagnosed%20with%20tuberculosis. -
The Seagull premiers at the Moscow Art Theatre
The Moscow Art Theatre production of The Seagull in 1898 was a crucial milestone for the fledgling theatre company that has been described as "one of the greatest events in the history of Russian theatre and one of the greatest new developments in the history of world drama." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Art_Theatre_production_of_The_Seagull -
Uncle Vanya
Uncle Vanya was first produced in 1899 by the Moscow Art Theatre under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski
Reception was mixed. Chekhov felt that Stanislavski's "exuberant" direction had masked the subtleties of the work and that only Knipper had shown her character developing in the manner the playwright had intended. Nonetheless the piece proved popular and soon it became established in the company's repertoire. -
Three Sisters
Three Sisters is a play by the Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov. It was written in 1900 and first performed in 1901 at the Moscow Art Theatre. Reception was mixed. Chekhov felt that Stanislavski's "exuberant" direction had masked the subtleties of the work. Nonetheless the piece proved popular and soon it became established in the company's repertoire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sisters_(play) -
A Secret Marriage
In 1901, Chekhov married Olga Knipper, an actress from the Moscow Art Theatre. https://www.biography.com/writer/anton-chekhov -
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard was the last play Anton Chekhov wrote. It opened at the Moscow Art Theatre on 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Konstantin Stanislavski. Chekhov described the play as a comedy, with some elements of farce. It is often identified as one of the three or four outstanding plays by Chekhov, along with The Seagull, Three Sisters, and Uncle Vanya
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cherry_Orchard -
Died in Badenweiler, Germany
At age 44 during a stay at a health resort in Germany, Anton Chekhov dies of Tuberculosis related complications https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anton-Chekhov