Chekhov-era Moscow: The great writer’s seven local addresses
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“I am a Muscovite forever,” Chekhov wrote in his autobiography, although he first arrived in the city when he was 17 years old. In 1879, he relocated there from Taganrog. Chekhov spent his student years in Moscow, his literary career was launched there, and he also spent the last months of his life in the city. So, let’s try to compile a map of Moscow, as seen by Chekhov.
The Chekhov House-Museum
6, Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya Street, Bldg. 2
Although the Museum is now closed for renovation, this is a good starting point for a tour of Chekhov’s Moscow. So, here is a description of it.
This is the first local museum dedicated to the writer. According to Chekhov, he lived in this locker-shaped house with a liberal red colour from 1886 to 1890. In 1912, the Chekhov Memorial Room opened at the Rumyantsev Museum Library. In 1954, the Chekhov House-Museum on Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya Street became a subsidiary of the State Literary Museum.
“Come to the locker on Sunday evening, and we’ll have fun together,” Chekhov wrote to his friends.
He received at the house not only guests, but patients as well, every day, between 12 noon and 3pm. While living there, Chekhov also wrote various stories, including Kashtanka, Boys, I Want to Sleep and many others.
The renovated museum is to receive its first visitors in late 2021. Today, the State Literature Museum is holding a large exhibition called Chekhov’s Moscow, showcasing many items from the Chekhov House-Museum’s collection, at 15/29 Zubovsky Boulevard, Bldg.1.
Novo-Yekaterininskaya (New Catherine) Hospital
15/29 Strastnoi Boulevard, Bldg.1
The Classicism-style building, presumably designed by Matvei Kazakov, was commissioned by the Gagarin Princes. Located on the corner of Petrovka Street and Strastnoi Boulevard, the mansion was completed in 1776. In 1802-1812, it accommodated the English Club, the oldest club in Moscow. During the Patriotic War of 1812, it housed the headquarters of Napoleon Bonaparte’s Quartermaster-General. After the French Army withdrew from Moscow, the mansion was badly damaged by a fire and rebuilt in the 1820s under the guidance of Joseph Bove.
In 1833, the state bought the building from the Gagarin family and opened the Novo-Yekaterininskaya Hospital there. Its enfilade was converted into patients’ wards, the oval hall on the second floor became the St Catherine in-house church, and two symmetrical stairways linked three floors with the building’s courtyard entrances. In 1883-1884, Anton Chekhov, then a medical student, completed his advanced training at the Novo-Yekaterininskaya Hospital’s clinics. For example, he worked at the nervous diseases department and took his tests and exams here.
The Korsh Theatre
3 Petrovsky Pereulok, Bldg.1
It was Fyodor Korsh, an assistant lawyer in Moscow, who discovered Anton Chekhov for theatre-goers. In 1882, Korsh came to head the Russian Drama Theatre, and five years later, he suggested that Chekhov write a play for the theatre.
Publicist Pyotr Sergeyenko later wrote about this lucrative offer and quoted Chekhov as saying: “One day, I visited the Korsh Theatre and watched a new play that seemed both sophisticated and disgusting. Nothing seemed right about it. So, I started lambasting the play, and Korsh said maliciously: ‘Instead of criticising, why don’t you write your own play?’ “All right, I’ll do it,” I replied. That was how my Ivanov appeared.” The theatre later staged Chekhov’s first play. The former Korsh Theatre now houses the main stage of the Theatre of Nations. Mikhail Chichagov designed the recognisable pseudo-Russian building. Elements of ancient Russian architecture, including tile panels, decorate the façade, and the numerous towers/gables decorating the roof make the building look like a fabulous fairy tale castle.
The Chekhov Outbuilding Exhibition Hall
29 Malaya Dmitrovka Street
Chekhov stayed for a while in an outbuilding at the merchant Firgang’s house, that is, after he returned from Sakhalin Island in 1890 and before he left for Melikhovo in 1892. Nevertheless, he was quite prolific here, completing a large part of the documentary novel Sakhalin Island and such stories as Ward No. 6, The Duel and The Grasshopper.
Some legendary members of Chekhov’s inner circle, including Vladimir Gilyarovsky, Isaak Levitan, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, Dmitry Merezhkovsky and many others, visited him here.
The Chekhov Outbuilding has now become a subsidiary of the Manezh Exhibition Association. One of its walls features a memorial plaque with a bas-relief of Chekhov. The outbuilding functions as an exhibition hall.
The Razumovsky-Sheremetev Estate
2 Romanov Pereulok
In the early 19th century (1800), Nikolai Sheremetev bought the estate called the old Romanov Dvor (Courtyard) and renamed it Sheremetev Dvor. In 1863, the Moscow City Duma (Legislature) started holding its events at the estate’s main building, and the Hunters’ Club, where Chekhov had one of his most important meetings, opened there 30 years later.
Each week, the club hosted performances by the Art and Literature Society. From 1898, the Moscow Art Theatre’s company started rehearsing here. While attending one such rehearsal, Chekhov got acquainted with Olga Knipper, his future wife.
“That was a history-making day that I will never forget. I will never forget a feeling of trembling excitement that overtook me the day before when I read Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko’s note saying that Anton Chekhov would attend a rehearsal of The Seagull the next day, on 9 September. Nor will I forget my unusual state when I walked towards the Hunters’ Club on Vozdvizhenka Street … A thin and intricate knot of my life began to tighten slowly following that meeting,” she recalled. Chekhov married Olga Knipper in June 1901 and stayed with her until the end of his life.
The Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre
3 Kamergersky Pereulok
Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko established the Art Theatre in 1898. The creation of this theatre is closely linked with Chekhov’s work as a playwright. The famous Seagull became one of the most successful productions during the first season. Two years earlier, the play received a cool reception at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. One year on, Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko staged the play Uncle Vanya at the Moscow Art Theatre, followed by The Three Sisters in 1901 and The Cherry Orchard in 1904. Chekhov wrote the latter two for the Moscow Art Theatre’s company. Stanislavsky’s reform of the performing arts was implemented thanks to Chekhov’s works that perfectly matched the concept of authenticity, the first principle of theatrical realism. In 1989, 100 years after the debut of The Seagull, the theatre was named after Chekhov.
Chekhov made a creative and material contribution to the history of the Moscow Art Theatre: He became one of the theatre’s shareholders when they started overhauling its building in Kamergersky Pereulok, due to house its main stage. The unique structure that opened in 1902 deserves special mention. Fyodor Shekhtel worked on the renovation project. His drawings made it possible to decorate the entire building and all its rooms. In 1903, sculptor Anna Golubkina completed her famous high relief called The Swimmer on the building’s façade.
R. P. Sablin’s rental building
24 Leontyevsky Pereulok
In the early 20th century, this rental building belonged to merchant Abram Katyk. This is where Chekhov spent his last days in Moscow. In May 1904, he stayed there for several weeks before leaving for Germany on 2 June, where he passed away a month later.
Writer Nikolai Teleshov, a friend of Chekhov, had this to say about this sad period: “An extremely thin and seemingly small man with narrow shoulders and a narrow bloodless face was sitting on the sofa. He was either wearing a coat or a dressing gown, with a blanket covering his legs. Anton Chekhov was extremely thin, haggard and absolutely unrecognisable.”