Birth of Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov was born on 29 January 1860 in Taganrog. A Russian writer, Chekhov trained and worked as a doctor while writing humorous sketches and short stories to support his family. He became one of the masters of the short story, with works such as The Lady with the Dog, and he also wrote plays, including The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard, which were staged by the Moscow Art Theatre under Konstantin Stanislavski. His restrained, realistic style reveals the inner lives of ordinary characters and has shaped modern drama and fiction. He travelled to the penal colony on Sakhalin to study conditions there. He died of tuberculosis in Germany at the age of forty-four.

Open on the timeline