Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich

CHEKHOV, Anton Pavlovich (1860–1904), famous Russian writer, physician by education. Born in Taganrog into the family of a small merchant who soon went bankrupt. In 1879, he entered the medical faculty of Moscow University, where he attended lectures by such prominent professors as Babukhin, Zakharin, Ostroumov, Kozhevnikov, Sklifosovsky, and Erisman. Although medical practice occupies little space in Chekhov's later biography, Chekhov himself noted the importance of studying medicine for him. "I have no doubt that the study of medical sciences had a serious influence on my literary activity; they significantly expanded the scope of my observations and enriched me with knowledge, the true value of which for me, as a writer, can only be understood by one who is a physician himself..." (from a letter by Chekhov to Professor G. I. Rossolimo). In 1884, he graduated from the medical faculty and began working as a physician at the Chikin Zemstvo hospital, in Voskresensk, and in Zvenigorod. However, his medical practice continued

not for long. Literary work constantly distracted him and forced him to divide himself. Chekhov wrote in 1888: "Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other. This is, although disorderly, not so boring. And besides, neither loses anything from my infidelity. If I did not have medicine, I would hardly devote my leisure time and my personal thoughts to literature." In a letter to Grigorovich, Chekhov wrote about himself as a man "up to his ears in medicine." Despite his increasing immersion in literature, Chekhov dreamed of an academic degree, and at his request, G. I. Rossolimo had a conversation with the then-dean of the medical faculty, Professor Klein, about conferring the degree of Doctor of Medicine upon Chekhov, with Chekhov's "Sakhalin" to serve as his dissertation; however, given the academic customs of the time, this met with sharp objections, and the matter was immediately buried. In 1892, Chekhov took part in public relief for the starving and was in charge of a cholera district in Melikhovo (Serpukhov Uyezd). Throughout all the years he lived on his estate in Melikhovo, he treated the surrounding peasants free of charge. This marks the end of Chekhov's medical practice. Chekhov highly valued medicine and sharply opposed the "ignorant" attacks by L. N. Tolstoy against physicians: "Tolstoy calls doctors scoundrels," Chekhov wrote to friends, "and acts ignorantly regarding great questions, knowing that nothing will happen to him for this; you cannot take him to the police station or scold him in the newspapers." As a thoughtful observer of contemporary Russian reality, Chekhov clearly realized that the difficult social living conditions of the impoverished peasantry of that time caused the development of epidemics among the rural population. In his letters from Melikhovo, where he provided medical assistance to the surrounding population, he points this out more than once. Notes of social hygiene often shine through in Chekhov's medical reasonings; in particular, Chekhov undoubtedly put his own thoughts into the mouth of the artist (in the story "The House with the Mezzanine"), who exposed the difficult social-hygienic living conditions of the working population of Tsarist Russia. In 1904, he died of pulmonary tuberculosis in Badenweiler. In his literary work, he often returns to medical themes, and in his stories, he provides unforgettable images: "Surgery," "Rural Aesculapiuses," "Ward No. 6," and others.