russia: melikhovo and chekhov

According to Wikipedia, Anton Chekhov is a Russian playwright and short story author who is among the best in history. I haven't read anything he wrote, so I don't have an opinion of my own. That being said, Chekhov is a well known Russian writer, and not hated by the government, which means it is possible to visit his estate, called Melikhovo.

We decided to visit Melikhovo mostly because it is listed in my Lonely Planet guidebook, not because any of us has any interest in his writing.

Chekhov (1860-1904) was born in a port city on the Sea of Azov called Taganrog. 

He was part of a big family, he had six surviving siblings. (It doesn't say how many siblings passed away, or didn't make it through birth.) Apparently schooling wasn't completely his thing, as he was held back when he was 15, because of a failed test in his Ancient Greek class. (I'm pretty sure that nowadays you wouldn't be held back a full year simply for failing a single test in one class, at least I hope not.)

At some point while he was in high school his family went broke. To avoid debtors' prison the dad went to Moscow, and brought mom and other kids with him. They left Chekhov behind to sell off family possessions and finish his education.

(Which he had to pay for himself.)

During the next three years Chekhov read, wrote, tutored, and had several affairs, one with the wife of a teacher. Hmmm. What I get from this is that he was a good writer, but perhaps not a completely good person.

At 19 years old, Chekhov moved to Moscow to be with the rest of his family. Over the next 4-5 years Chekhov went to med school in addition to writing short satires about Russian street life to support the family. In 1884 he graduated from med school, becoming a proper doctor.

Wikipedia tells me he always considered himself a doctor rather than a writer, even though the writing brought in far more money.

Despite his medical training, Chekhov was unable to prevent himself from catching tuberculosis. Even though he knew what was wrong, he didn't officially admit his illness for quite a long time. Instead of treating other sick folks, he used the time to write.

In 1890 he traveled all the way to the eastern side of the country, to interview and count the prisoners on the convicts. He did this for three months, coming away with horrific stories and experiences about life in the penal colonies. 

He wrote a non fiction book about what he saw and heard.

In 1892, he bought Melikhovo, living there with his family for 7 years, until 1899. Even though he was officially living there, he continued to travel. His tuberculosis caused a hemorrhage of his lungs in 1897, after which doctors strongly suggested a change in his lifestyle. The next year he bought property near Yalta, in Crimea, and built a villa. He moved to the villa with his family in 1899. (I wonder if that villa is open for visitors now?)

He got married in 1901, though his wife lived in Moscow, pursuing a career as an actress. In 1904 he became terminal due to tuberculosis, but he still traveled to the German spa town of Badenweiller with his wife. He ended up dying there, and his body was transported to Moscow in a refridgerator normally meant for oysters. Chekhov was buried in Novodevichy cemetery, which is the final home of quite a few well known Russians.

The point of our trip was to see Melikhovo, so I'll describe his life there a bit more. There was a main house in which he lived with his family, as well as a completely separate building for the kitchen. 

Apparently he didn't want the smell of food to get into the main house. There was also a doctor's office, where he treated the employees of the estate as well as other peasants in the area. Those who were poor he treated for free. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a good idea to treat people when he was a tuberculosis patient himself, buuut.....

Chekhov also helped to build schools, and a fire station in the surrounding areas.

There was also a small cabin where he did a lot of his writing, I think this is supposed to be the highlight of the estate, but we didn't visit it, because it was quite small, and had an extra entry fee. 

Plus we'd already seen various personal estates of well known Russians, and figured it wouldn't be that different.

Getting to the estate wasn't very hard, we took a train to the city of Chekhov (known as Lopasnya until 1954,) then caught a marshrutka to the estate of Melikhovo. We wanted the basic entry ticket, which allowed us into the house, kitchen, gardens, and doctor's offic. The lady selling tickets really wanted us to pay the extra fee for the writing cabin, it took a while to figure out what she was trying to say. I got frustrated, as I thought I was pretty clear, but she went on and on. Oh well, eventually we got the tickets we wanted.

We visited each of the buildings I listed above, I liked the doctor's office the most. The main house was crowded with tour groups, it was not fun to walk through there. It was nice to see the house, not so nice to try to get around all the people. When visiting the kitchen we were only able to stand in the middle and look into each of the two rooms.

The writing cabin was quite cute, and very photogenic; especially when you add in the nice landscaping of the area. Even so, we didn't feel as if we were missing anything.

The lands of the estate are still well kept, so we liked walking the paths as much as visiting the buildings. One of the paths was lined with purple flowered trees, which were blooming beautifully.

After visiting everything, we had to wait a while for the next marshrutka back to the city of Chekhov. The bus schedule I found online was quite different from the one listed on the paper posted in the bus stop. I'm just glad we always have plenty to talk about.

When we got back to the city I figured we should explore a bit, since we were there. We ended up finding a couple city signs, including one that said I love Chekhov. (In Russian.) 

Much to our amusement, we stumbled upon the grand opening of a grocery store, which including music booming on the street, and ladies dancing just outside the entry.

Since Chekhov is a normal Russian city, we also found WW2 monuments and a statue of Lenin. It's not an exciting city, and I'm pretty sure the only reason tourists come here is as an add-on to visiting Melikhovo.

We found a museum in the city dedicated to Chekov, something about a post office and his writing. I was able to buy a few postcards, which were stamped with his signature. Unique souvenir, to say the least.

We ended up having an early dinner at a pizza restaurant, then caught the next train back to Moscow. An easy day trip, I'd recommend it to visitors.