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Reflections
Chekhov’s biography, plays and short stories
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chekhov2.tripod.com 201 stories by Anton Chekhov
DISTRIBUTED WITH THE DAILY TELEGRAPH TUESDAY_DECEMBER 22_2009 translated into English
Found in translation
ANTON CHEKHOV:
Rejecting the ‘isms’
of ideology
HOLDING OUT FOR
WHEN THE UNITED RUSSIA DECLARED “RUSSIAN CON-
SERVATISM” AS THE PARTY’S IDEOLOGY, I HAD MIXED
FEELINGS. A POLITICAL PARTY SHOULD HAVE AN IDEOL-
OGY (UNTIL RECENTLY, UNITED RUSSIA DIDN’T EVEN
TRY TO CHOOSE ONE), BUT WE RUSSIANS SEEM TO
A MODERN HERO
HAVE AN ABIDING DISLIKE OF “ISMS”.
PAVEL PALAZHCHENKO
The year 2010 is the year of Anton Chekhov, at
RUSSIAN TRANSLATION COMPANY
least in the theatrical world. Most theatres will
celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of
It may be the legacy of too much ideology in Soviet this writer whose plays – such as Uncle Vanya,
times, when Marxism-Leninism was mandatory The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard – continue
and universal. Now, when people hate something to be staged around the world, more than a cen-
or someone, they just add “ism” to the name. tury after they premiered. “In the galaxy of great
Many of the “-isms” that can be perfectly accept- European playwrights who were Ibsen’s con-
able in English have a strongly negative connota- temporaries, Chekhov shines as a star of the first
tion in Russian. Take individualism. The word has magnitude, even beside Tolstoy and Turgenev,”
several meanings, including individual character wrote George Bernard Shaw.
and the leading of one’s life in one’s own way with- Chekhov was born in Taganrog on January 29,
out conforming to prevailing patterns. And what 1860. The son of a grocer (and grandson of a
can be better than “rugged individualism” – a belief serf), he enrolled at Moscow Medical School,
in the importance of the individual and the virtue eventually becoming a doctor. While practising
of self-reliance and personal independence. True, medicine in 1886, he contributed to St Peters-
dictionaries also note a more negative meaning: burg daily Novoe Vremya, developing a dispas-
the doctrine that self-interest is the proper goal of sionate, non-judgmental writing style.
all human action – even egoism – but that is rather Chekhov wrote extremely quickly, often produc-
marginal compared to the positive meanings. ing a short story in an hour or less. In 1892, he
And yet, in Russian it is this derogatory meaning of bought an estate in the village of Melikhove. It
the word that is practically the only one. And I sus- was during this period that he started writing
pect that it’s not just a matter of our presumed cul- full-time and published some of his most memo-
tural preference for all things common and collec- rable stories. In 1897, he fell ill with tuberculosis
tive, but that the “ism” in the word has something and moved to Yalta on the Black Sea. Chekhov
to do with it, too. As soon as it is taken out, the core died of pulmonary tuberculosis on July 15, 1904,
concept seems to become more acceptable. For ex- in Germany.
ample, the adjective individualny is at least neutral, This reflection on the writer’s enduring popularity
and can sometimes be a word of praise, while indi- reveals his eye for simplicity. ITAR-TASS
vidualnost (individuality) is much prized.
While in English, opportunism and the derivatives
opportunist and opportunistic can describe both
The simplicity of a
dented revolts. Enter Chekhov, who promises ex- Thomas Wolfe.) But Hemingway with his mini-
the admirable ability to seize every opportunity
sophisticated man
actly nothing; whose subject is the rather cheer- malist means glorifi ed the courage and staunch-
and the less commendable tendency to act without less (but not horrifyingly so) days of not overly ness that are required only in extreme situations,
regard for principle or consequences, in Russian, happy (but not horribly unhappy) people; people whereas Chekhov poeticised ordinariness. With
similar words are always strongly negative. who rise enough above their milieu to realise that a sad compassion he portrayed the everyday life
A word that refl ects this “ism” fatigue in at least
ALEXANDER MELIKHOV
they are lonely – but not so lonely as to become of the nice, not overly decisive person, and that
two ways is pofi gism. It can mean a “I-couldn’t- RUSSIA NOW heroes or leaders. person repaid him with love and gratitude. Chek-
care-less” attitude, and some believe that this is the Chekhov was too normal, said the aesthetes and hov loves us without demanding anything. He
philosophy of many Russians, concerned, after the Chekhov’s plays have graced the Russian stage decadents who wanted to build a new life accord- realises that man is a weak and lonely being who
hardships of the Nineties, mostly with their private for more than 100 years and world stages for ing the laws of art; Chekhov wasn’t ideological endures his own existence; that, evidently, is the
life. Of course, no political party could propose this slightly less than a century. What is the secret of enough, he wasn’t calling for a just social order, world view most typical of the cultivated person
as an ideology. But for many people “conservatism” their charm? said politicised members of the intelligentsia. His today.
– as in “we don’t want too much change” – may be Tolstoy, who loved Chekhov, said once, as they heroes were spineless and apolitical. In his diary, The aestheticisation of one’s weaknesses is the
just what the doctor ordered. embraced on parting: “I still don’t like your plays. Tolstoy remarked that Chekhov understands no last consolation of those who have given up hope
Shakespeare’s plays are bad enough, but yours more than do his heroes. of triumphing. Russians have long since stopped
are even worse.” Tolstoy found Shakespeare dreaming of turning their life into a social para-
guilty of exaggeration, philosophical maxims dise or fascinating adventure.
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his plays contained no exceptional events, no
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brought so many disappointments with its empty
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sible workers he was calling for revolution. Hemingway himself considered the “intelligent
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Everything was bubbling and glittering, there doctor” one of his teachers. (Chekhov also taught Alexander Melikhov is a writer from St Peters-
OF INFORMATION FOR THE BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF RUSSIA was promise of unheard of changes, unprece- Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, Fitzgerald and burg
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