Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is a great writer, a genius, recognized in Russia and abroad. It was this famous prose writer and playwright who largely determined the development of world literature and theater of the 20th century. Chekhov was not a hereditary nobleman. He did not have the capital that would allow him to calmly engage in literary work. To which estate did Chekhov belong? Who were his parents? What did the writer do before becoming a famous playwright?
Estates in Russia
Before presenting interesting facts from the biography of the writer Chekhov, it is worth briefly telling about the social strata in pre-revolutionary Russia. The inhabitants of the country were divided into four groups: the nobility, clergy, urban and rural inhabitants. The latter category included honorary citizens, merchants, bourgeois, artisans and workers.
To which estate did Chekhov belong? Anyone who is familiar with the work of the last Russian classic knows that he spoke without particular enthusiasm about the clergy. However, his negative attitude towards the church was exaggerated by Soviet critics. The writer Chekhov did not like the merchants, who formed the basis of the population of his hometown. All this was caused by unpleasant childhood memories.
Origin
The years of Chekhov's life - 1860 - 1904. Among the relatives of the prose writer and playwright there were no people of art. Chekhov's parents were ordinary inhabitants. Father, as they would put it now, was engaged in small business. Mother raised children. About which class belonged to Chekhov Sr., clearly stated in the biography of the author of "The Cherry Orchard." He was a merchant of the third guild.
The years of Chekhov's life came at a time when significant changes in cultural life took place in Russia. A special social layer has formed - the intelligentsia. Chekhov also belonged to him. To which estate his father belonged, it is said above (to the merchants). But the future writer from an early age did not show love for entrepreneurship. He became not a merchant, but a doctor. And later left medicine, devoting himself to literary activity.
The son of a shopkeeper and the grandson of a serf
The future writer was born on January 29, 1860. His hometown was Taganrog. Chekhov's childhood passed on Police Street, later named in his honor. His father was a merchant of the third guild, that is, a small shopkeeper.
Chekhovs never lived in abundance. The merchant's family had six children. He himself was the son of a serf. In 1842, Yegor Chekhov received a free, and later was assigned to the Rostov bourgeoisie.
Hopeless childhood
The early years of the writer can hardly be called happy. On weekdays, the sons of Pavel Yegorovich Chekhov guarded his shop, every day they began with church hymns. Chekhov spoke of the early period of his biography as follows: “I did not have childhood in childhood.”
The future writer received primary education in a Greek school. In 1868 he entered the class of the Taganrog gymnasium, which was the oldest educational institution in the south of the country. Here the creative path of Anton Pavlovich began. Already at the gymnasium, he wrote his first works and it was here that he received the pseudonym Chekhonte.
He loved books, music and, of course, theater. He was greatly impressed by the operetta “Beautiful Elena”, which he first got at the age of 13.
At the end of the 19th century, the writer’s hometown, Taganrog, was a remote provincial town of the Russian Empire. The image of this settlement is often found in his works. Moreover, it is not portrayed in rainbow colors. The inhabitants of Taganrog led a dull, uninteresting, boring life, not suspecting that it could be bright, creative and rich. From childhood, Anton Pavlovich helped his father, spent a lot of time in the shop, vigilantly watching how the trade is conducted. For the slightest offense, the father flogged his sons with rods.
As for the church, which Chekhov did not like so much, Soviet writers were partly right. The father, whom the writer could not forgive his cruelty all his life, organized a choir. The chants in the temples sometimes continued until midnight. Chekhov’s church was associated with the image of his father, and that - with cruelty. At the same time, Pavel Chekhov was an enlightened man. He dreamed of educating his children, and he succeeded.
Ruin father
Anton Pavlovich was 17 years old when his father closed the shop. For debts, he had to sell all his property, including the house. Chekhov Sr. went to Moscow, and his son began to earn a living in private lessons. In 1879, the future playwright graduated from high school and left for Moscow, where he entered the medical faculty.
Fellow Writer
The beginning of the 20th century gave Russian literature not so many talented writers, as, for example, the second half of the 19th century. By the time Chekhov’s career began, Goncharov, Turgenev, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Ostrovsky, Dostoevsky, Nekrasov had already died. Leo Tolstoy was still alive, but the great humanist was also perceived as a prose writer who was a thing of the past.
Chekhov differed from the classics of the previous time not only by the features of his work. He was a fellow writer.
Who was called the commoners? In the Russian state, so-called people who did not belong to a particular estate. Their addictions, lifestyle, cultural habits left a mark in Russian art and literature. Among the raznochintsy there were many immigrants from the merchants, philistines, and clergy.
The question of which estate Chekhov belonged to cannot be answered unequivocally. His grandfather was a serf, then a tradesman. Father is a merchant. Anton Chekhov himself did not continue the family business, not only because of his father's financial problems. He was primarily interested in literature and art. And they are incompatible with trade.