Anton Chekhov Biography

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March 10, 1917. Bolshevik revolutionaries boldly stormed the palace of Nicholous I in Moscow ending his reign and an era in Russian civilization with it. A pattern of destruction and upheaval of the old establishment followed with the systematic elimination of all properties, belongings, records and archives connected with the upper classes and aristocracy. Amid this time of revolutionary purification, a vast number of great Russian writers and artists were dragged from the ranks of nobility. But one, Anton Chekhov, was the exception. Though he lived to be a figure of prestige and wealth, well among the few, fortunate and hated Russian beorgousie, Chekov possessed a background of humble origins. It was for this reason that the legacy of Chekov was fully annexed into the new age of Russian culture as it did so flourish in the age before.

Anton Chekov was born in 1860 , the third among six children to a lower middle-class family. But his lineage was connected to origins of even greater obscurity and near insignificance. Only forty years earlier had his grandfather, Yegor a serf under the ownership of a man by the name of Count Chertkov, managed by means of hard work and careful scrutiny, to accumulate a sufficient amount of funds to purchase his own freedom.

The young Anton, himself, grew up in the city of Taganrog where his father, Pavel Chekov, was a grocery shopkeeper. Pavel was strict and regimented. He sought relentlessly to ensure his sons both an academic and pious education, thus subjecting them to a persistent routine of school, service at the shop, and long terms at the Orthodox church that went well into the night.

By 1876, Pavel's business has completely failed and that same year, faced with extensive debts and with no where else to turn, he took what little he had and moved his family to Moscow. But Anton stayed in Taganrog another three years to finish grammar school, before eventually joining his family, supporting himself primarily by working as a teachers assistant.

Upon relocating, Anton immediately enrolled into the University of Moscow to pursue a medical degree, but, when compelled to support both himself and his family, he began to find opportunities to write humorous and satirical jokes as well as anecdotal articles and sketches for number of the magazines and news periodicals that existed in Moscow. Taking whatever task ...

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... later to be Anna Sergeyevna, who has with her a pet dog. The two eventually, and almost reluctantly, become infatuated with each other. The final scene closes with the two meeting together at a secret rendezvous and realizing that the circumstances existing in both their lives will never allow them to be live freely as lovers. Chekov deliberately develops a genuine love theme between Anna and Dmitry, but abandons the traditional idealist romanticism, creating something else altogether. Instead of shaping the characters to fit the confines of a story, story is shaped by the development of the characters themselves.

Chekov's literary style expressed a view that good and evil were not as easily apparent it should seem. In his own words he stated that, "...to judge between good and bad, between successful and unsuccessful would take the eye of a god." Chekov wrote about life and the individuals that filled it surpassing the themes, ideologies, and cultural confines of the time and place in which he lived . And so as long as there is a place for human life to continue, in all it's beauty, complexity, a diversity, and drama, there will always be a place for Chekov among us as well.

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