Where Chekhov was born AP Where was born and lived Chekhov

Where was Chekhov born? The great Russian playwright and master of small prose is known all over the world, but not everyone knows the important information from his biography. About where Chekhov was born, how his childhood and youth flowed, is told briefly in this article.

Merchant city

About what the personality of the writer is, say first of all his works. In the work of the Russian classic children's impressions played a significant role.

In the second half of the XIX century in the city where Chekhov was born, economic power was in the hands of traders and merchants. As one of the most famous authors of dramatic works in world culture confessed, money in the lives of people, among whom he spent his childhood and youth, played "an ugly big role". And yet, what kind of settlement is it? Where was Chekhov born? The native city, whose inhabitants were so unflatteringly responded by the author of the "Cherry Orchard" and "Three Sisters", is the southern picturesque Taganrog.

However, the critical view of the way of life that was characteristic of the main population did not at all extend to the attitude of the writer to the city itself. He loved Taganrog, although he once said that his small motherland took second place in his heart after Moscow.

Children's impressions

The satire of the Russian classics was directed, first of all, to a "small penny-faced bastard". Similar elements prevailed where Chekhov was born. The city of childhood for a long time was associated with the writer with grievous trials and humiliating need. The misfortunes that caused the ruin of his father, the lies, vulgarity and pharisaism of the powerful are everything that left an indelible mark on the writer's soul, but gave birth to a number of brilliant stories.

Moscow and Taganrog

An unhappy situation reigned in the family where Chekhov was born. In what city was the moral and spiritual formation of the hero of our narrative, difficult to say. After all, at the age of nineteen he left his home and went to Moscow. But it can be said with certainty that a true writer is born not only in works and continuous searches, but primarily in suffering. At least, this is evidenced by the biographies of the great Russian authors. Chekhov's world view began to form as a child. And due to the uneasy family situation, he was already accustomed to work and discipline from adolescence. And so Zemsky doctor once left medicine and began to write. He had something to say to the townsfolk.

Already in the gymnasium years Chekhov saw the difference between humility and awareness of his insignificance. He was a descendant of serfs, but he was striving for spiritual emancipation. The city where AP Chekhov was born taught him to hate slavish worship and humiliation of human dignity. But Taganrog also taught him and love.

Image of the Motherland

For the writer, native places became sacred and expensive in a high national-patriotic sense. The native city for him was the image of the Motherland. Here he first read the books of Belinsky, Dobrolyubov and Herzen. And it is a small provincial town where Chekhov was born and lived during the most important period in his moral and spiritual development, was associated with the first creative steps.

In Moscow, Chekhov arrived with the existing aesthetic and ethical views. They constantly deepened, but at the core remained unchanged throughout life. And this is the important significance that Taganrog acquired in the writer's work.

Two Taganrogs

The city where Anton Chekhov was born is part of the southern Russian province. But it was thanks to the creator of the great works of prose and drama that he became legendary. Writer selflessly loved Taganrog. The main dream of Chekhov was to see his native city cultured and reasonably arranged. He did his best to help his countrymen, but at the same time openly despised those who deprived ordinary Taganrogs of elementary living comforts and cultural goods.

The backwardness of some sections of the population was perceived by Chekhov with great bitterness, which was the reason for forming an unfair opinion, as if the writer despised his hometown. This position was taken by many critics, without making any further details about which Taganrog is being discussed.

In one there were clubs and theaters, gymnasiums and luxurious concert halls, periodical literary editions and equipped residential quarters, in the other - prisons and monasteries, taverns and noisy taverns, there was "everything is unenviable and bad".

The first Taganrog was the birthplace of a great writer. The second is a city of innkeepers, shopkeepers, hypocrites and hypocrites. To one city Chekhov had sincere sons' feelings, to another he treated with deep disgust.

Taganrog in general, as something abstract, was never noble or merchant. It was a port city with developed trade, subordinated for the most part to the interests of representatives of the merchant class, who had significant power here, but did not represent the main population at all. He was also a provincial town with a small industry, and indigenous people - cab drivers, fishermen, porters, clerks, raznochintsy and intellectuals - represented his true face.

Favorite city

While still studying in the gymnasium, Chekhov, as his comrades testified, took an active part in public life, protested against the violence of the gymnasium superiors. And one day, along with his classmates, he refused to take pictures with officials representing the local education system. Many years later, becoming a famous writer and visiting his hometown, he avoided any sort of meetings with high-ranking Taganrog people.

Soviet critics liked to write about the fact that, when they came to Taganrog, Chekhov invariably strolled along the working fringes, examined the plants, poor embankments, and poor fishing settlements. He liked to visit blacksmiths, talk long with cabmen and longtime friends of his father. And then with cordial warmth spoke about these people, emphasizing their diligence, hospitality, gentleness and giftedness. Perhaps, it was so. But it should be said that at the end of life every person who has lived for many years in another city begins to yearn for a small homeland. And Chekhov's admiration for the representatives of the working people, rather, was caused by nostalgia, and not by love for the working class.

The house where Anton Chekhov was born, became in 1921 a branch of the museum dedicated to the life and work of the writer. In Taganrog, there are more than twenty memorable places associated with the name of the Russian classic, which is extremely surprising for such a small provincial town.