Reading Chekhov's works is a kind of travel, and traveling to places related to Chekhov is also a kind of reading. I have read many of Chekhov's works, and I have traveled to many "Chekhov's places", and I have been reading and traveling to trace Chekhov's footsteps.
One
One summer day in the early 1990s, I was returning to Moscow by train from Kiev in Ukraine, and the train stopped at a station at dawn, and I went down to the platform prepared in advance, and saw that the station sign did indeed say "Taganrog" - this is Chekhov's hometown. The train stops for ten minutes, the station is located on a high hillside, and the hours and terrain provide me with good conditions to observe the city. There was no one on the platform, and the hazy morning fog shrouded the surroundings, but through the mist you could see the low and messy urban buildings under the hillside, and the Sea of Azov in the distance, whether it was the sea and the houses, or the hillside and the station, it seemed to be all a hue, that is, gray, and there was a faint smell of fish wafting over, which was somewhat dim and even solemn, and the atmosphere was almost suddenly a few strands of "Chekhov-like melancholy".
Taganrog City History - Museum of Local History
On January 29, 1860, the future writer Anton Chekhov was born in a bungalow at 69 Police Street in the city. His father was a food shop owner, and the family had six children, Anton Chekhov was the third oldest, with two older brothers, two younger brothers, and a younger sister. In addition to going to school, the children also had two tasks: one was to help their father guard the shop, it is said that the four or five-year-old Anton began to stand on a stool to serve customers, of course, the various people who patronized the small shop will undoubtedly become the reading object of young Anton; the other is to sing in the church choir, every morning and evening, the Brothers of the Chekhov family will sing in the church forced by their father, thunder, Chekhov later called this "hard labor", and sighed: "I did not have a childhood in my childhood." ”
In 1876, Anton's father was unable to repay the debts he owed for the purchase and construction of the house, and led the family to flee from Taganrog to Moscow, leaving Anton alone in Taganrog, in the name of continuing his studies, which was actually left to the creditor as a "disguised hostage". Sixteen-year-old Anton was sent to the fence, endured humiliation and burden, and made a living by working as a governess. Later, Chekhov, who had become a famous writer, wrote in a letter to his friend Suvorin: "The aristocratic writers were born to get free of charge, but the commoner intellectuals had to buy at the expense of their youth." Write a short story about a young man, the descendant of a serf, who was a clerk and choir singer, who went to secondary school and university, who was taught to respect the chief, to kiss the hands of priests, to worship the thoughts of others, to thank him for every piece of bread, who was often beaten, who did not even have a pair of shoes when he went out to tutor... Write, write about how this young man squeezed away servility from himself bit by bit, how he woke up on a wonderful morning and felt that what was flowing in his veins was no longer the blood of a slave, but the blood of a real man. The "youth" that Chekhov suggested suvorin describe was, to some extent, Chekhov himself; the subject that Chekhov suggested Suvorin write later became a red thread that ran through his own creation.
Statue of Chekhov in the "Chekhov Garden" in the garden of Taganrog Street
Chekhov lived in Taganrog for nearly two decades, about half of his life. Taganrog's childhood and adolescent life has left a deep trace in the novels after Chekhov: the Chekhov family once rented in the Yevtushenkovsky home, and Chekhov later wrote about the homeowner in novels such as "Cold Blood" and "The Citizen"; the experience and feeling of standing at the counter are undoubtedly reflected in novels such as "Wanka", "Thirsty Sleep", "Three Years"; his experiences and observations as a student are written in "The Man in the Trap", in "The Marriage For Money", "The Crow", "Jonech". In other novels, it is not difficult to distinguish the street scenes and customs of Taganrog. More importantly, as early as Taganrog, Chekhov had begun to make real literary creations. Chekhov, who was alone in Taganrog, enjoyed more freedom, he was a regular visitor to the local theater, and in addition to hearing about it, he also wrote his own plays, and in addition to a few short light comedies, he also created a real "big play". From 1878 to 1879, Chekhov, who was in the seventh and eighth grades, wrote the play "The Man Without a Father", which featured Pratonov, a rural teacher of about thirty years old, who showed his rich inner world and philosophy of life in the entanglement with a group of women who loved him, and in the conflict with his father who was a general, and many of the qualities of Chekhov's theatrical characters seemed to have their origins in him. The script was not discovered until the 1920s, and many Chekhovologists concluded after careful study that the work was indeed written by Chekhov, a middle school student. In the 1950s, the play began to appear on the theatrical stages around the world, but it was renamed Platonov. Audiences who have seen this play, and even the directors and actors who rehearsed it, often wonder: How can such a play with such a complex relationship between the characters and such a full of dramatic elements, such a play full of modernity, or even existential consciousness, come from the hands of an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old middle school student? This suspicion precisely proves That Chekhov's overly precocious theatrical talent, and is also an affirmation of Chekhov's extraordinary literary talent.
Chekhov House Museum in Taganrog, where Chekhov was born
Today, Taganrog has become a true "Chekhov City", where traces of Chekhov are everywhere: the bungalow where Chekhov was born was turned into the "Chekhov House Museum"; the street where Chekhov's former home is located is named "Chekhov Street"; the shop opened by chekhov's family has also been restored as it was, becoming the "Chekhov House Shop Museum" (100 Alexander Street), and the huge sign at the front of the shop is written with the words "Tea Brown Sugar Coffee and Other Colonial Products"; Andong The school where Chekhov studied is now the "Chekhov Literary Museum" (9 October Avenue); the theater where he used to go to the theater is now the "Chekhov Theater" (90 Petrov Street); the library in Taganrog is called the "Chekhov Library", which was created because of the donation of books donated by Chekhov at the time of chekhov's death; the museum in Taganrog is called the "Chekhov Museum" because it was also the one that Chekhov proposed and initiated; in 1934, a street garden in the city was named " Chekhov Garden"; in 1960, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Chekhov's birth, Chekhov's monument was erected in the center of Taganrog.
In 1879, Anton Chekhov, who spent three years alone in Taganrog, was admitted to the medical faculty of Moscow University, and on August 6 of that year, Chekhov, a nineteen-year-old middle school student who was full of ambition, left his hometown of Taganrog by train and from here to Moscow and the world. The bell rings on the platform, and the train I am riding on is about to leave, heading north along the railway that Chekhov had walked.
Chekhov House Shop Museum
The sign reads "Tea Brown Sugar Coffee & Other Colonial Products"
Two
According to Chekhov researchers, in the 1880s, the family rented nearly ten places in Moscow, of which the longest residence and the most associated with Chekhov's creation was a small two-story building at 6 Kudrin Street on Garden Road.
From 1886 to 1890, the Chekhov family rented the site, and this small building is now owned as the Chekhov House Museum, which is one of the branches of the National Museum of Literature. The museum said its interior furnishings were identical to Chekhov's lifetime, because Chekhov's brothers and sisters had pictures and written materials, and there were many precious objects in the exhibits in the house, which were gifts from Chekhov's family.
On August 17, 2017, on the occasion of attending the Russian Literature Congress in Russia, I walked into the Chekhov House Museum in Moscow. A marble plaque hangs from the small upstairs painted scarlet that reads: "The great Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov lived here from 1886 to 1890." This masonry building was built in 1874 by Korneev, a famous doctor in Moscow, and the owner's family lived in the adjacent main building, which is a small two-story building called "side room", or "annex", with a total of five or six rooms. Friends who came to Chekhov's house jokingly called the building a "quasi-castle," while Chekhov himself called it a "chest of drawers" and the red color of the façade "the colors of liberalism."
Chekhov House Museum in Moscow
The marble plaque reads: The great Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov lived here from 1886 to 1890
The first exhibition room after entering the door was originally the kitchen and dining room of the Chekhov family, where the exhibition is themed "Chekhov and Moscow", and some old photographs show Moscow architecture and streetscapes from the 1880s. There is the "school uniform" worn by chekhov, a college student, and two portraits of his brother Nikolai: one from his 1880 school entrance examination, and one from his graduation in 1884. Naturally, there are also many of Chekhov's manuscripts, several magazines that first published Chekhov's works, and chekhov's earliest collections of short stories.
After coming to Moscow in 1880, Chekhov studied at the medical department of Moscow University, the family did not have a stable income, life was quite poor, Chekhov's second brother Nikolai was good at painting, often for Moscow and Petersburg humor magazines to draw some illustrations to earn some fees, Chekhov was influenced by him, also tried to contribute to humor magazines. On March 9, 1880, the 10th issue of the humor magazine Dragonfly in Petersburg published two of Chekhov's short stories, "Letter to a Learned Neighbor" and "What are the most common in works such as novellas and novellas?" This is Chekhov's debut novel. Since then, Chekhov's humorous sketch writing has been out of control, more than a hundred articles have been published every year, and a number of humor magazines have invited him to write, in addition to "Dragonfly", there are also "Alarm Clock", "Audience", "Entertainment", "Crickets", "Tidbits", etc. Looking at these various magazines and copies of Chekhov's works, I really don't know how Chekhov, a medical college student at that time, could have such a strong literary creative energy. In 1884, Chekhov's first collection of short stories, The Story of Melpomeni, was published; in 1886, a second collection, Tales of All Kinds, was published. Both short stories are placed in the showcase, but juxtaposed with them, there is also a collection of novels that Chekhov himself has compiled, entitled "The Collection of Humors", which has not been published for various reasons.
Chekhov of this period used dozens of pseudonyms when publishing novels, but the most commonly used was "Anton Chikhont", a nickname given to him by a teacher when he was in middle school, and when pronounced in Russian, the accent is at the last syllable, which can produce a certain comedic effect. Chekhov's work in this period is therefore also known as the "Chikhonte period". It is generally believed that Chekhov's creations in this period were funny and written for the fee, but it was during this period that the succinct, humorous, cold and other iconic characteristics of Chekhov's creations have also emerged, and the "Death of a Civilian Official", "Fat Man and Thin Man", "Hunter", "Chameleon", "Masquerade", "Distress", etc. written in this period have later become treasures in Russian literature.
Interior of the Chekhov House Museum in Moscow
Another room on the first floor is Chekhov's study, and on the street side are two smaller rooms, the bedroom of the writer and his brother Mikhail. The most striking feature in the study was Chekhov's desk, which was covered with green woolen cloth, two candlesticks and an ink bottle, and pictures of Two of Chekhov's best friends, the composer Tchaikovsky and the painter Levitan. There were also photographs hanging on the wall next to the desk, and I recognized one of them as Chekhov's "mentor" Grigorovich.
In March 1886, after reading Chekhov's works published in newspapers, Dmitry Grigorovich was a major figure in the Russian literary scene at the time, and while praising the latter's literary talent, he also advised the latter not to waste his literary talent: "Please abandon the kind of rush writing." When Chekhov read the letter, he was both excited and frightened, and turned to taking his writing more seriously. After this, he gradually distanced himself from humorous magazines and began to cooperate with mainstream literary newspapers such as The New Times. From 1886 onwards, that is, from the time he moved into the house, the number of Chekhov short stories published gradually decreased, from more than 100 articles per year to more than ten articles per year, but almost every one of them was a superior work, such as "Wanka", "Lights", "Prairie", "Uninteresting Story", "Naming Day" and so on. In 1888, Chekhov won the Pushkin Prize for his short story collection In the Twilight, which established his firm position in Russian literature.
It is worth mentioning that Chekhov, as a playwright, was also formed in this house, where he wrote plays such as "Bear", "Marriage Proposal", "Swan Song", "Ivanov", "Forest Demon" and so on. It was in this study, at this desk, that Chekhov completed his creative transition, growing from a humorous sketch writer to a master of Russian literature.
Chekhov's desk
The photo shows chekhov's two close friends: the composer Tchaikovsky and the painter Leviathan.
There was a fireplace in Chekhov's study, and there were two chairs next to the fireplace, and the elderly female docent pointed to the chair and whispered to me, this is where Chekhov received patients. Every morning, Dr. Chekhov treated people here, until one day, a dying child was sent by his family, and Chekhov finally failed to save his life, which hit Chekhov so hard that he gave up practicing medicine. I don't know where this "wild history" of the docent came from, Chekhov may indeed no longer be a "professional doctor" at that time, but Chekhov, who studied medicine, has not stopped seeing people, in Merriehovo, in Yalta, he has been obliged to see the people around him. It was possible that Chekhov's "clinic" would have closed in the mid-1880s, when literary writing had been able to bring Chekhov more income and influence than practicing medicine.
On the second floor of the Chekhov House Museum is the bedroom of Chekhov's mother and sister, and there is a living room. The second floor was enlarged to include a small theater, where Chekhov's plays were often staged or Chekhov-related seminars were held.
Stepping out of the Chekhov House Museum, I came to a small garden at the exit, which was simple and natural, but a few hydrangeas were in full bloom. Sitting on a bench in the garden, I suddenly remembered a photo of Chekhov with his family, which may have been taken next to the small garden, because the shadow of the grapevine was faintly visible in the photo. The photograph is often accompanied by captions that read: "Chekhov took a picture with his family before his journey to Sakhalin Island." In April 1890, Chekhov set out from this small building and embarked on his arduous journey to Sakhalin.
Chekhov took a group photo with his family before his trip to Sakhalin Island
Three
Sakhalin Island is located at the mouth of the Heilongjiang River, which has been Chinese territory since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and was called Sakhalin Island during the Qing Dynasty. Between 1858 and 1860, Russia forced the Qing government to cede Sakhalin Island through the Treaty of Yaohun and the Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing, and renamed the island "Sakhalin", a name that is also derived from manchu and means "black", the first syllable of the Manchu word "Heilongjiang". Soon after the Russian occupation of Sakhalin Island, the island was turned into a penal colony for prisoners, and by 1890, when Chekhov decided to visit Sakhalin, there were more than 10,000 exiles on the island.
Chekhov's route to Sakhalin Island
Why did Chekhov set out to travel to Sakhalin, thousands of miles away? Chekhov himself never made it clear, jokingly saying in a letter to a friend that he just wanted to "erase a year or a year and a half" from his own biography. In fact, the reasons that contributed to Chekhov's journey to Sakhalin may be manifold: First, the death of his brother Nikolai in 1889 dealt a heavy blow to Chekhov, upsetting and depressed, and he wanted to seek a way out of this state of mind, in his own words: "I traveled to live in a different way for half a year. Secondly, he was at this time in another turning point in his creation, and how to go to a higher level was the problem that he as a serious writer needed to face, to travel to a distant place of unfamiliar territory, naturally to broaden his horizons, accumulate creative materials, and travel thousands of miles while breaking through ten thousand books; third, Chekhov chose Sakhalin as the destination of travel, no doubt mainly for the special "inhabitants" there, and in Russia at that time, the justice, fairness, and fairness, which were closely related to the treatment and fate of the slaves and exiles. As a critical realist writer, Chekhov naturally regarded the true revelation of the life of Sakhalin prisoners as his social responsibility; finally, Chekhov said in a letter to his friends: "We should go on a pilgrimage to a place like Sakhalin, just as the Turks went to Mecca." This sentence speaks to one of Chekhov's intentions, that is, he went to Sakhalin to make a pilgrimage to suffering, but also to examine himself, to examine his ability to bear suffering, to examine his will and conscience.
On April 21, 1890, Chekhov left Moscow, he first trained and then steamed, from Tyumen to take a carriage through Siberia, after a lot of hardships, and then in June he took a steamship, along the Heilongjiang River north, and finally arrived in Sakhalin on July 9, a long journey that lasted nearly three months. Chekhov spent another three months on the island, visiting local households door-to-door, visiting prisoners and leaving behind nearly 10,000 fieldwork cards. In a letter to a friend, he wrote: "I have traveled to all the settlements, visited all the households, got up at five o'clock every day, and thought all day long, there are still many things to do. On October 13, Chekhov embarked on his return journey, bypassing the east coast of Asia by sea, reaching Odessa via the Suez Canal, and then returning to Moscow by train on December 8.
Chekhov on Sakhalin Island in 1890
The most important result of Chekhov's journey to Sakhalin was the two books he left behind, "From Siberia" and "Travels on Sakhalin Island". "From Siberia" is a series of travel essays written by Him in response to Suvorin's appointment to the New Times, in which Chekhov recounts the customs and customs of Siberia, the anecdotes of his travels, complaining both that "the Siberian Boulevard is the longest and most terrible road in the world" and lamenting that "it is incomprehensible in a Christian country to be so indifferent to those who are imprisoned in exile and tortured here". Of course, the main literary harvest of Chekhov's trip was "Travels on Sakhalin Island", and after the trip, Chekhov spent nearly five years to finally complete the book.
The book is divided into twenty-three chapters, the first thirteen of which describe the author's whereabouts and observations on the island in chronological order; the last ten chapters are reflections and discussions on specialized issues, such as other ethnic groups on the island, the life of forced immigrants, women's problems, the labor and life of exiles, the moral outlook and escape of prisoners, the medical problems on the island, and so on. The writing and publication of this book shows that Chekhov was not only a brilliant writer, but also a brilliant sociologist and folklorist, a passionate social activist. The publication of "Travels on Sakhalin Island" caused great social repercussions, and people from all walks of life began to discuss it, which eventually led directly or indirectly to a number of judicial reforms in Russia, such as the prohibition of corporal punishment of women in 1893, the revision of laws related to marriage to exiled prisoners, the abolition of lifelong exile and lifelong hard labor in 1899, and the prohibition of corporal punishment and the shaving of the heads of prisoners in 1903. Recently, the nearly 10,000 cards left by Chekhov at that time have also been collected and published, which makes people have more insight and admiration for the meticulousness and depth of Chekhov's work in that year. Chekhov's journey to Sakhalin and the two books he left behind are great humanitarian feats.
Chekhov's Travels on Sakhalin Island, 1895 edition
Chekhov Sakhalin's footprints are permanently preserved on Russia's largest island, and today there are many Chekhov attractions on the island, such as the Chekhov House Museum, the Chekhov Monument, the Chekhov Theater, chekhov Street, the Chekhov and Sakhalin Historical and Literary Museum, and the Chekhov Museum of Sakhalin Island. The Chekhov 'Travels on Sakhalin Island' Museum was built in 1995 to exhibit the contents related to Chekhov's book, the writing of such a book, the photographs, pictures and other objects of the people and places written in the book, the translation and dissemination of the book around the world, etc. The museum also regularly hosts international "Chekhov Seminars". A museum was built specifically for a book, which is quite rare in the world.
What interested us most about Chekhov's sakhalin trip was his connection to China during this trip. In Chekhov's letter from Irkutsk, there is this: "I see Chinese. These people are kind and intelligent. In Blagoveshchensk (Hylanday), he wrote to Suvorin that Chinese "the kindest people." During his two-day stay in Blagoveshchensk, Chekhov crossed the Heilongjiang River to visit the city of Yaohun. While sailing north along the Heilongjiang River, Chekhov shared a first-class cabin with a Chinese, who described in detail the Chinese's mannerisms in a letter to his family and asked the Chinese to write a line of Chinese characters in his letter to his family. It is worth mentioning that Chekhov's sakhalin trip was shortly after Tsarist Russia's frenzied occupation of Chinese land and the brutal persecution of Chinese, but chekhov's writings do not see his condescending and domineering Chinese, on the contrary, he also felt the kindness of Chinese. Chekhov had planned to visit Shanghai and Hankou on his way home by sea from Sakhalin, but for some reason changed his plans and only made a short stay in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, Chekhov's footprints were twice imprinted on Chinese soil, a feat unique among the great Russian writers of the 19th century.
I once took a river ferry on the Black River to the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk on the opposite side, and when I reached the center of the river, I suddenly thought that the scenery on both sides of the river was the scenery that Chekhov had seen, and he wrote in a letter: "I have sailed more than a thousand kilometers on the Amur River (that is, the Heilongjiang River), and I have enjoyed so much beauty and so much enjoyment that even if I die now, I have no fear." Today in Blagoveshchensk there is a commemorative relief of Chekhov with a line written on it: "On June 27, 1890, Ampachiekhov stayed here." "And in the ancient city of Yaohun on this side of the Heilongjiang River, there is also a statue of Chekhov.
Commemorative relief of Chekhov of Blagoveshchensk
It reads: On June 27, 1890, Ampachev stayed here