CHEKHOV’S MELIKHOVO

Melikhovo is an old village located near Moscow which is inextricably connected with the name of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, a prominent Russian writer. The Melikhovo period was the most fruitful time of his life and creative activity.

Melikhovo was surrounded with fields and birchwoods; one could see small shallow rivers along the way. There was a wooden church and forty peasant households in the village. There were gentry’s estates in the neighbourhood, each with its own steady way of life. One would think this place was quite unremarkable. But the destiny had its own way. In the beginning of 1892, a young writer and physician A.P. Chekhov saw an advertisement in Courier newspaper about the sale of an estate in Melikhovo village. It was sold by artist N.P. Sorokhtin (at that time he was the owner of the estate).

And so on February 22, 1892 Anton Pavlovich wrote to writer V.V. Bilibin: “By a twist of fate I’m buying a place of my own not in Little Russia but in the cold Serpukhov district, 70 miles from Moscow. And I’m buying not 10-20 dessiatinas as I wanted and dreamt of, but 213. I’d like to be a duke”. Chekhov told all the acquaintances about his purchase. “Here are the details – the woman's life was easy until she made it busy - she bought herself a pig! So we bought a pig, too – a big, bulky estate... A garden. A park. Big trees, long linden alleys” – this is an extract from Anton Pavlovich’s letter to A.S. Kiselev, the owner of Babkino estate, located not far from Zvenigorod, which fascinated young Chekhov with its beauty and cosiness. It was there that he experienced the charm of living in an estate for the first time.

Chekhov lived in Melikhovo for seven years – from 1892 to 1899. It would seem to be quite a short period of time, but Chekhov was destined to live for 44 years only. And when you recall everything that Chekhov created in these seven years, you cannot but wonder how much energy he had and how much he loved life. Life in Melikhovo is thousands of patients who received free medical assistance and medicines from physician Chekhov.

Three model schools built by him; difficult cholera years, sessions of the Serpukhov district council at which many important issues were solved. Besides, Chekhov had to handle his estate: renovate the household buildings, welcome numerous guests and do work in the fruit and vegetable garden.

A table with tea accessories. In the foreground there is a gilded white tea set owned by A.P. Chekhov. End of the 19th last years. Behind it there is a little red sugar bowl given to the museum by Maria Pavlovna Chekhova. She said that she remembered this sugar bowl from her childhood in Taganrog. Middle of the 29th century. As told by Olga Leonardovna, Chekhov used this cup in his century.

There is a linen portfolio with an inscription: Census of 1897 on it on the fireplace. Anton Pavlovich realized the great importance of this initiative. He gave instructions to 15 enumerators and himself enumerates peasants in two villages – Melikhovo and Bershovo. “We are having a census. They have served out to the enumerators detestable inkpots, detestable clumsy badges like the labels of a brewery, and portfolios into which the census forms will not fit—giving the effect of a sword that won't go into its sheath. It is a disgrace. From early morning I go from hut to hut, and knock my head in the low doorways which I can't get used to, and as ill-luck will have it my head aches hellishly; I have migraine and influenza”. But he has to forget about all of his complaints as the need to “commit to the common good” becomes the keynote of life in Melikhovo.

Before sending a letter, Anton Pavlovich weighted the envelope and attached as many stamps as needed so that the addressee would not make any additional payments for the letter or the parcel.

A C. Bechstein piano from Vaskino, the estate of the Semenkovich family. Anton Pavlovich often visited his neighbors and listened to Evgenia Mikhailovna, the lady of the house, play the piano. Chekhov took his guests to Vaskino to listen to Beethoven’s works. Notes of pieces of music that were played during the Melikhovo period: romances by P.I. Tchaikovsky and Wallachian Legend of G. Braga. “Beautiful Lika” was good at singing this romance to her own accompaniment, and I.N. Potapenko, Chekhov’s close acquaintance, a writer who was popular at that time, played the second violin part.

Anton Pavlovich found this song somewhat mystical and full of beautiful romanticism,” Mikhail Pavlovich remembered. Some time will pass and this melody will sound in Chekhov’s mysterious story entitled The Black Monk. And wonderful tulips and apple trees in bloom described in this story will remind of the blossom of the Chekhov’s garden.

In the evening the sounds of violin and church songs could be heard from Pavel Egorovich’s room. Once somebody taught this serf boy to play a violin and to paint – and these efforts were not vain. Chekhov often told that talent is given to children by their father, and soul – by their mother.

Pavel Egorovich Chekhov died in October 1898. At that time Anton Pavlovich was in Yalta. He was broken by his father’s death and concerned about his helpless mother and for Masha who suffered from such overwhelming grief. In those days Anton Pavlovich had to think about the future of the estate that seemed to lose its integral part: “It seems to me that after father’s death life in Melikhovo won’t ever be the same, like with the last page of his diary the life in Melikhovo ceased to flow.” After a while a decision was taken to sell Melikhovo and move to Yalta.

A chest suitcase. Anton Pavlovich took it with him to Sakhalin in the spring of 1890. The suitcase only reached Tomsk, as it was bulky and very inconvenient. A.P. Chekhov sent it back to Moscow. Many years later a famous actress of Moscow Art Theatre, A.P. Chekhov’s wife, O.L. Knipper-Chekhova used this suitcase with pleasure while on tour, as all of her theatre dresses and other things fit into it.

A shirt, starched collars and a bow tie owned by A.P. Chekhov. 1890s-1900s.